We all love movies, but what is it that do you love most about those films? What about them draws you to the movie theater time after time? The actors? The filmmakers? The stories? The photography?
For me, it is all about the characters—fictional, non-fictional, human, animal or object. The ones that stay with you long after the movie is over. The ones that make you think, feel, cry, and laugh. And especially the ones that you wish you actually knew.
2008 was a great year at the movies so I bring you my “Top Ten Most Fascinating and Memorable Film Characters of 2008.” (And their intents!) There were some great films and some phenomenal characters that will stay with us for a long time. Who are they? What do they want? And what can we learn from them?
10. Maria Elena
Penélope Cruz in Vicky Christina Barcelona
“My intent is to work, love, and live with pure passions.”
María Elena is the fiery ex-wife of painter Juan Antonio in Woody Allen’s delightful and quirky Vicky Christina Barcelona. She is any man (or woman’s) ultimate fantasy and ultimate nightmare. Not only is she a talented painter with a keen eye for art and heartbreakingly gorgeous, she is honest and will tell you how it is. She has strange ways of showing her love, including attempting to kill you if you cross her, but underneath all that fire is pure heart. She is passionate to the brim and lives completely from her heart, which is the way to live.
9. Wall-E
Benn Burt in Wall-E
“My intent is to find companionship and love in this world.”
His full name is Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth and he is a mobile trash compactor, the last of his kind, with the daunting job of cleaning up Planet Earth after it has been absolutely wrecked by humans. He isn’t just any ordinary robot though, his lonely existence and mundane life has sparked emotion and curiosity. Wall-E collects artifacts, enjoys music, and falls in love with Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator or EVE, a robotic probe who comes to Earth in search for vegetation and its capacity for inhabitation. Wall-E joins the likes of R2D2 and E.T, as one of the most adorable robots to grace the big screen. He might not say a lot but he manages to capture your heart with his pure intentions. Oh, that and he also saves Planet Earth!
8. David Frost
Michael Sheen in Frost/Nixon
“My intent is uncover the truth, no matter how difficult it might be.”
When we first meet David Frost, he is a flamboyant and fun loving host of a variety TV show, leagues away from the recently shamed President Richard Nixon. But as history shows, the two come together in one of the most famous televised interviews, where the former President confesses his guilt to Frost. Frost/Nixon took me by surprise, it wasn’t just a film about a TV interview it was one of those great underdog stories. It starts with an unattainable dream, true dedication, almost defeat, and climaxes with glorious victory. David Frost was the perfect example of our 2008 mantra, “Yes We Can!” He had a dream, a vision, and he stopped to no end to get it. He was constantly criticized and undermined but he did not let any of that bring him down. He wanted something and got it, and that was inspiring!
7. Benjamin Button
Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
“My intent is to live my life the only way I know how.”
How can you not fall in love with a character when you spend three hours experiencing his entire life. Benjamin Button comes from the pages of one of my favorite authors, F.Scott Fitzerald. He might be born an old wrinkly man, but he is as eager and curious as any young boy. He is ambitious and falls in love just like any of us. The most charming quality about Benjamin that draws us to him is how he embraces life. Nothing in his life is forever and as he grows younger, everything else he loves grows older and withers. He is an outsider every step of the way but none of that deters him from living the best life he can. He is the most unusual man there ever was but also the most normal one.
