I say "inevitably" because I've long been prejudiced against the franchise blockbuster à la Mr. Jackson's opus. Back in the 40's, I took to heart a seemingly casual comment by the British film critic, C.L. Lejeune. She observed that the greatest gift of the film medium may turn out to be not so much its scope as its intimacy. And when I think of my most cherished moviegoing memories, it is a voice, a face, a pair of eyes that haunt my dreams-not vast hordes of extras assembled for battle. This is not to say that thrilling charges don't rock my boat, especially the ill-fated battles in Henry V , Four Feathers and Alexander Nevsky , a foolish but stirringly heroic tradition currently preserved in The Last Samurai and Lord of the Rings .

My esteemed colleagues have compared Rings with the epic periods of David Lean and the silent-era Fritz Lang of Die Niebelungen . Putting Lang aside, I much prefer the earlier Lean of Brief Encounter , The Passionate Friends and Great Expectations to the later Lean of The Bridge on the River Kwai , Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago .

Though the final segment of Mr. Jackson's massive enterprise is well-crafted, surprisingly well-paced and not without its own subtleties, I still feel that its most popular feature is teenage narcissism, elevated to the level of cosmic megalomania: The fate of a kingdom, its massed armies and the earth itself-mythologically "Middle" as it may be-hangs on an accursed magic ring on a hobbit's finger. So it won't be a surprise that I prefer Mr. Jackson's earlier, earthbound work in Heavenly Creatures (1994) to his efforts in Middle Earth.

Having said that, Mr. Jackson's prodigious energy in transforming New Zealand into a worldwide tourist attraction cannot be dismissed, and in this spirit I hereby institute the annual Star Wars Prize and present it to Mr. Jackson for fashioning a franchise blockbuster that has made it even harder for grown-up films in the pipeline to be made. Ah-hemmm.

Without further ado, here are my other choices, both positive and negative, for a year in which there were more talented players than there were creative projects. But it was also a year in which the watchability factor was stronger than ever in 2003 (see box).

Notable Female Performances:

Cate Blanchett, Veronica Guerin ; Sarah Polley, My Life Without Me ; Hope Davis, American Splendor , The Secret Lives of Dentists ; Emily Grace and Judith Ivey, What Alice Found ; Maria Bello, The Cooler ; Lauren Graham, Bad Santa ; Laura Linney, Love Actually , Mystic River ; Scarlett Johansson, Lost in Translation , Girl with a Pearl Earring ; Naomi Watts, Leslie Caron, Kate Hudson, Stockard Channing, Glenn Close, Le Divorce ; Oksana Akinshina, Lilya 4-Ever ; Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington, Mili Avital, Jacinda Barrett, Anna Deavere Smith, The Human Stain ; Romola Garai, Tara Fitzgerald, Sinéad Cusack, Rose Byrne, I Capture the Castle ; Charlize Theron, The Italian Job , Monster ; Christina Ricci, Monster , Anything Else ; Marie-Josée Croze, Barbarian Invasions ; Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham-Carter, Alison Lohman, Big Fish ; Agnes Bruckner, Frances Fisher, Blue Car ; Julie Walters, Helen Mirren, Calendar Girls .

Also, Jeanne Moreau, Cet Amour-Là ; Eileen Atkins, Kathy Baker, Natalie Portman, Renée Zellweger, Nicole Kidman, Cold Mountain ; Drew Barrymore, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Julia Roberts, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind ; Miranda Otto, Lord of the Rings ; Olivia Williams, Helena Bonham Carter, The Heart of Me ; Emilie Dequenne, Brigitte Catillon, The Housekeeper ; Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Kill Bill Vol. 1 ; Hiroyuki Sanada, The Last Samurai ; Frances McDormand, Laurel Canyon , Something's Gotta Give ; Neve Campbell, The Company ; Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Swimming Pool ; Audrey Tautou, Dirty Pretty Things ; Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohman, Freaky Friday ; Alison Lohan, Matchstick Men ; Maggie Gyllenhaal, Julia Stiles, Kirsten Dunst, Juliet Stevenson, Marcia Gay Harden, Julia Roberts, Mona Lisa Smile ; Diane Keaton, Frances McDormand, Amanda Peet, Something's Gotta Give ; Samantha Morton, Emma and Sarah Bolgier, In America ; Renée Zellweger, Sarah Paulson, Down with Love ; Chloë Sevigny, Shattered Glass ; Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, X-2 ; Emma Thompson, Love Actually ; Gwyneth Paltrow, Blythe Danner, Sylvia ; Suzanne Flon, Nathalie Baye, The Flower of Evil .

Notable Male Performances:

Bill Murray, Lost in Translation ; Billy Bob Thornton, Bad Santa ; Paul Giamatti, American Splendor ; Mark Ruffalo, My Life Without Me , In the Cut ; Peter Sarsgaard, Hank Azaria, Hayden Christensen, Shattered Glass ; Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman, Bruce Almighty ; Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Hugo Weaving, John Noble, Lord of the Rings ; Kurt Russell, Brendan Gleeson, Dark Blue ; Campbell Scott, Dennis Leary, The Secret Lives of Dentists ; Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Jack Davenport, Jonathan Pryce, Pirates of the Caribbean ; Chris Cooper, Jeff Bridges, Tobey Macguire, Seabiscuit ; Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sergi López, Benedict Wong, Dirty Pretty Things ; Jean-Pierre Bacri, The Housekeeper ; Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Matchstick Men ; Jason Biggs, Danny DeVito, Anything Else ; Thierry Lhermitte, Sam Waterston, Matthew Modine, Le Divorce ; Anthony Hopkins, Gary Sinise, Harry Lennix, Ed Harris, Wentworth Miller, The Human Stain .

Also, Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Danny DeVito, Big Fish ; Djimon Hounsou, Paddy Considine, In America ; Albert Brooks, Michael Suchet, Michael Douglas, The In-Laws ; Sam Rockwell, George Clooney, Rutger Hauer, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind ; William Macy, Alec Baldwin, Paul Sorvino, The Cooler ; Jean Rochefort, Johnny Hallyday, The Man on the Train ; Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly, The Last Samurai ; Paul Bettany, The Heart of Me , Master and Commander ; Nick Nolte, The Good Thief ; Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, X-2 ; Kevin Bacon, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Mystic River ; Jack Black, The School of Rock ; Tommy Lee Jones, Aaron Eckhart, The Missing ; Jack Nicholson, Keanu Reeves, Something's Gotta Give ; Colin Firth, Tom Wilkinson, Girl with a Pearl Earring ; Colin Firth, Bill Nighy, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Love Actually ; Tony Cox, Bernie Mac, John Ritter, Bad Santa ; Ewan McGregor, David Hyde Pierce, Down with Love ; William H. Macy, Gary Stevens, Seabiscuit .

Best English-Language Films:

1. Lost in Translation

2. Bad Santa

3. American Splendor

4. Sweet Sixteen

5. The Human Stain

6. Kill Bill, Vol. 1

7. Sylvia

8. The Secret Lives of Dentists

9. Shattered Glass

10. Mystic River

Runners-Up:

My Life Without Me , What Alice Found , Big Fish , Monster , Blue Car , Freaky Friday , The Heart of Me , Veronica Guerin , Seabiscuit , School of Rock , Cold Mountain , Dirty Pretty Things , The Swimming Pool , Laurel Canyon , Matchstick Men , In America , Bruce Almighty , The Magdalene Sisters , Dark Blue , The Cooler , Raising Victor Vargas , The Italian Job , Something's Gotta Give , The Last Samurai .

Best Foreign-Language Films:

1. Barbarian Invasions

2. Lilya 4-Ever

3. Man on the Train

4. The Son

5. Autumn Spring

6. The Flower of Evil

7. Together

8. Nowhere in Africa

9. Cet Amour-La

10. The Housekeeper

Runners-Up:

TheEmbalmer,Seaside, Chihwasean

Movies Other People Liked and I Didn't:

1. 21 Grams

2. Master and Commander

3. House of Sand and Fog

4. Capturing the Friedmans

5. Girl With a Pearl Earring

6. The Missing

7. Thirteen

8. A Mighty Wind

9. Demonlover

10. And Now … Ladies and Gentlemen

Movies Other People Despised and I Didn't Think Were So Bad:

1. Le Divorce

2. The Company

3. The Hulk

4. The Good Thief

5. Love, Actually

6. I Capture the Castle

7. Down with Love

8. Hollywood Homicide

9. The In-Laws

10. Anything Else

Best Nonfiction Films:

1. Stone Reader

2. My Architect

3. To Be and to Have

4. Sex in a Cold Climate

5. Winged Migration

6. Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers in World War II

7. Spellbound

8. Stevie

9. Fellini: I'm a Born Liar

10. Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary

Yet What Alice Found is hardly a cult B-picture from the bygone days of double features-the acting and writing are much too good for that, and the grown-up sex on display is explicit without being degrading or exploitational. Still, as the title suggests, there's a fairy-tale quality to this rite-of-passage adventure of menaced innocence that evokes a darker Alice in Wonderland , a tale of malignant mysteries on the open highway traversed by cars, trucks and R.V.'s (recreational vehicles), the latter carrying the restless spirit of the narrative.

When we first see Alice (played by the 25-year-old newcomer Emily Grace), she's already in transit, filling up her tank at a gas station. We later learn that she's driving away from her unhappy home in New Hampshire and her depressed, divorced single mother (Jane Lincoln Taylor). While on the road, Alice never calls home but does keep in contact with a girlfriend named Julie, who's already in Miami, the destination that Alice is heading for (she plans to study marine biology at the University of Miami).

On the road, Alice encounters a car full of rednecks shouting obscenities, but far from being fearful, she defiantly gives them the finger as they speed past her. Sufficiently shaken by the experience, she checks whether they're waiting for her at the next rest stop. When she returns to her car from the bathroom, she finds that one of her tires has been punctured.

It's at this point that Alice is befriended by two seeming Good Samaritans, Sandra (Judith Ivey) and Bill (Bill Raymond), a middle-aged couple traveling about in their R.V. ("everywhere it doesn't snow"). They tell Alice that they saw a rough-looking young man lurking suspiciously around her car, and at one point saw him stoop down-that could've been when he punctured her tire, Sandra and Bill suggest. Alice-who is now truly alarmed by the dangers facing her on the road-is grateful for their attention, particularly when Bill changes her tire without being asked, while the very talkative Sandra keeps trying to calm her down. Sandra suggests that she follow their R.V. on the highway, just in case she's being stalked by the man who punctured her tire. Alice agrees to follow them, but when her car completely breaks down, and the R.V. disappears up ahead, Alice is seized with panic-especially after a car stops ahead and a tall man emerges out of the dark night. She flees to the bushes on the side of the road and cowers there until she sees the R.V. returning. Bill and Sandra emerge to confront the stranger at a distance and tell him that his services aren't needed; both the stranger and Alice notice that Bill is packing a gun. The stranger departs, and Alice hesitantly accepts Sandra's offer to travel with them until she reaches her destination.

Of course, Sandra and Bill are not exactly the Samaritans they pretend to be; if they were, there would be no movie, and certainly no suspense. But who are they exactly? This is where all the nuance comes in: Alice isn't exactly what she pretends to be, either.

As Alice enters the world of R.V. families and the truck drivers who share their rest stops, she gradually realizes that Bill procures male customers for Sandra in an orderly, business-like fashion. But Bill and Sandra make no effort to recruit Alice for their "business." Rather, it is she who jumps at the chance to make more money than she's ever dreamed of in her "honest" job as a waitress.

The picture could go in so many disastrous directions from this point on, with all the characters demolished in the sleazy wreckage. A gun is flashed, a shot is fired, a great many lies are exposed, but Sandra, Bill and Alice emerge not as a newfound family exactly, nor as villains and victims, but as three ever-vulnerable human beings doing the best they can to survive.

In this extraordinary season, it seems that every other picture is blessed with what the critics herald as Oscar-worthy performances. What Alice Found may never even be seen by most of the academy's voters-alas, they'll be missing a beautifully harmonized trio of performers in Ms. Ivey, Mr. Raymond and Ms. Grace. These actors invest their beleaguered characters with the dignity, strength and resilience to live their lives of frantic desperation without surrendering to self-pity or self-hatred. And if that's not a form of heroism, I don't know what is.

Something Fishy

Tim Burton's Big Fish , from a screenplay by John August, based on the novel by Daniel Wallace, never allows its many creative cooks to spoil its tangy broth of whimsy, mythology and sweet romance. Not only is Mr. Burton at the top of his form in endowing his tallest stories and wildest magical conceits with emotional conviction, but he is aided by a superb acting ensemble that never loses its footing in the treacherous swamps of make-believe. To put a point to it, Big Fish works-for me, at least-though some viewers may decide it's gone over the top with its spectacularly Felliniesque ending (the prodigal son emotionally reunited with a father maddeningly insistent on embellishing his real-life experiences with the tallest tales he can imagine).

Mr. Wallace, a native of Alabama, set his novel in this state of rivers. The filmmakers have followed suit by shooting close to many Alabama rivers, locations that evoke the watery myths and legends of Edward Bloom. Young Edward didn't want to be a "big fish in a little pond," and thus set out for the bigger world outside his little Alabama town. The young Edward is played by Ewan McGregor, the older Edward by Albert Finney in a felicitous combination of age-differential casting for a single character. There's a similarly smooth transition in the casting of Sandra, the great love of Edward's life-Alison Lohman plays the young Sandra and Jessica Lange the older. That this love is an enduring one is movingly confirmed by exquisite expressions of romantic passion at both stages-young and old-of the life cycle. In between are all sorts of enchanting creatures, like Helena Bonham Carter's Jenny in Edward's real life and the Witch in his feverish imagination (she has the power to predict one's death from the reflection in her glass eye); Steve Buscemi's Norther Winslow, who evolves from failed poet to inept bank robber to Wall Street tycoon; Danny DeVito's Amos Calloway, an unscrupulous circus ringmaster who doubles as a werewolf on the side; and the real-life gentle giant named Karl (Matthew McGrory), who has been authenticated in the Guinness Book of Records as having the largest feet in the world: size 28.5.

Billy Crudup as Bloom's son has the hardest role in serving as the audience's surrogate skeptic over his father's surrealist exaggerations, at least at first. Feeling that he has never known his father except through his myths, he's fled to Paris, begun writing his own stories, and plans on marrying a Frenchwoman named Josephine (Marion Cotillard) who becomes the last devoted listener to her beloved father-in-law's heroic fantasies. The rivers and their legendary jumping fish are the recurring metaphors for the fluid grace of this marvelous conjunction of talents in yet another father-and-son epiphany.

London in Love

Richard Curtis' Love Actually , from his own screenplay, is a difficult film to evaluate because it's made up of so many separate stories, most of which end up being interconnected either spatially or thematically. It's as if London were peopled by one big happy family all the way up to 10 Downing Street. The British prime minister, played by Hugh Grant, not only falls in love with a member of his household staff, but gets to tell off the President of the United States (Billy Bob Thornton) after he catches him making a pass at the P.M.'s secret love (Martine McCutcheon). Are we talking George Bush or Bill Clinton here? Either way, it's pure fantasy inasmuch as our real-life President gave not a crumb to the embattled prime minister on either steel tariffs or the nine British subjects detained at Guantánamo-and to make matters worse, Tony Blair didn't say boo, at least not in public.

So you get an idea of the level of hopeful fantasy from which Mr. Curtis is operating. Still, all is not sweetness and light, even in the sunny romanticism that mirrors Mr. Curtis' previous movie valentines: Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Notting Hill (1999) and Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), each of which he wrote or co-wrote. However, Love Actually is Mr. Curtis' first directorial assignment, and the expert timing of the various episodes reflects his long experience in television comedy with his sometime partner, Rowan Atkinson, who's given two short fuss-budget cameos for some of the laughs. Most of the giggles however, are garnered by Bill Nighy's outrageously uninhibited over-the-hill rock star.

But my favorite characters are played by Emma Thompson and Laura Linney as two uncharacteristic (for this film) losers in the game of love. Alan Rickman plays the closest thing to an unmitigated cad, one who even lacks the courage of his carnality. There is also an innocent romance between two stand-ins blocking a soft-core porn film; a big plug for the European Union in the relationship between characters played by Colin Firth (who doesn't speak a word of Portuguese) and Lúcia Moniz (who doesn't speak a word of English); and a sickly relationship between Liam Neeson's widowed stepfather and his lovesick little boy, played much too smoothly by the frighteningly mature Thomas Sangster. The film's cleverest piece of mise en scène involves Andrew Lincoln's mute courtship of his best friend's wife, played by Keira Knightly. Finally, it strikes me that Ms. Thompson here has the equally sad role played by Kristin Scott Thomas in Four Weddings and a Funeral . Funny that one remembers the sad love stories longer than the happy ones. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie until, in the end, it went somewhat bonkers with what amounted to a communal love fest on Christmas Eve. Love is actually more personal than that, don't you think?