The Human Stain (2003)

In The Human Stain, Anthony Hopkins (always a pleasure) is ideally cast as an embattled dean who has gamely accepted the betrayal by his colleagues and the loss of his long career and marriage, all for a trumped-up charge that was politically correct yet false. (Its irony is gradually and tensely unveiled throughout the movie.) Nicole Kidman plays against type as a conflicted and demoralized woman with a past she wishes she could forget. This is a complex and captivating movie that wasn't properly supported by its studio because its intricate structure and sensitive racial and sexual content requires thought and maturity to appreciate. Hopkins's best line -- "This isn't my first love and this isn't my great love, but it's my last love" -- shows a man with the moral fiber, forged through fire, to stand up for what he believes and what he wants, no matter what others may think (even if the naysayers mistakenly think they have morality on their side). Four stars.

Wedding Crashers (2005)

Wedding Crashers is a romp, as expected, but a romp with a resolution. Colin Wilson and Vince Vaughn are a hoot as two energetic party animals and impressive schmoozers of kids, grandparents, and parents in their pursuit of willing young women to bed; they are also disciplined adherents to the Wedding Crashers code, which propounds more than 100 maxims and strictures (many which are cited in the DVD's special features). It's a letdown when they meet the code's revered founder, who turns out to be a smarmy asshole. They also both fall in love with the daughters of the Treasury Secretary, played engagingly by Christopher Walken. This movie shows more than two single men behaving with zeal and wild abandon; it shows how they willingly reconsider their ways and choose to pursue their hearts and do the right thing. The writing and production values are excellent, if some of the humor was (to me anyway) predictable. Four stars.