The 10 must-see films of the 2007 Holiday Movie Season

By Ken Knox

So you survived Thanksgiving with the family, but what about Christmas? How in God’s name are you going to put up with Mom and Dad’s bickering, sister Susie’s divorce woes and black-sheep brother Tommy’s impending jail time—not to mention your significant other’s constant nagging?

OK, so maybe your life isn’t as chaotic and dysfunctional as ours, but let’s face it: Everyone needs an escape from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. And now that the Christmas shopping season has officially gotten under way, what better way to procrastinate than to sink into a cushioned chair in a darkened movie theater with a tub of popcorn and a Diet Coke, and take in some of the season’s most anticipated movies? Here, then, is our list of the 10 movies you must see before the year ends. Race you to the theater!

10. Atonement
Director: Joe Wright
Starring: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Brenda Blethyn, Vanessa Redgrave
Release Date: Dec. 7
What’s It About?: A 13-year-old girl (Saoirse Romola) alters the course of several lives when she accuses her sister’s (Knightley) beau (McAvoy) of a crime he didn’t commit, in this adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel. Emotional histrionics and incessant pining ensue.
Why We Care: Because the last time director Wright teamed with Knightley, the result was 2005’s beautiful Pride & Prejudice. We’re hoping lightning strikes twice.

9. I Am Legend
Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Will Smith, Paradox Pollack, Salli Richardson
Release Date: Dec. 14
What’s It About?: The last man alive (Smith) battles nocturnal vampire-like creatures after surviving a plague that destroyed the human population.
Why We Care: Because the ever-bankable Smith can usually be counted on to deliver the action-hero goods—and because it’s always good to make the parents squirm by luring them into the thriller they thought was a feel-good sports flick. Buwahahahaha!

8. The Golden Compass
Director: Chris Weitz
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards, Ian McKellen, Sam Elliott, Eva Green
Release Date: Dec. 7
What’s It About?: Philip Pullman’s controversial His Dark Materials books come to life in this first installment, in which a young girl (Richards) travels to the far north to save her kidnapped best friend from a mysterious organization known as the Gobblers.
Why We Care: With The Hobbit in endless turnaround, a new Narnia film not due until 2008 and the Harry Potter franchise nearing its conclusion, we’re jonesing for a good epic fantasy, and anything that gets the Christian zealots up in arms is OK with us!

7. Youth Without Youth
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz
Release Date: Dec. 14
What’s It About?: An aging professor gets a new lease on life when he is struck by lightning and gets in touch with the supernatural, in this adaptation of Mircea Eliade’s novella.
Why We Care: Since the exiled Coppola hasn’t made a film in a decade, we’re anxious to see what drew him back to the filmmaking fold. This fantastical thriller sounds like a departure for him—and a trip for us.

6. Enchanted
Director: Kevin Lima
Starring: Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, Susan Sarandon, James Marsden, Julie Andrews (voice)
Release Date: Nov. 21
What’s It About?: A fairy tale princess (Adams) finds herself in modern times with an evil queen (Sarandon) hot on her tail and a handsome “prince” (Dempsey as a lawyer) hot on her mind.
Why We Care: With the Disney fairy tale in need of a serious makeover, this promising live-action overhaul from the studio should please traditionalists and newbies alike—at least until the marketing tie-ins start popping up.

5. The Diving Bell and the
Butterfly
Director: Julian Schnabel
Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Max von Sydow, Marina Hands
Release Date: Nov. 30
What’s It About?: The true story of Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby’s struggles to pen his life story following a major stroke that paralyzed everything but his left eye.
Why We Care: Inspirational true stories are a dime a dozen these days, but this one—a My Left Foot for the new millennium—is both harrowing and uplifting. Sort of like the holidays in general.

4. I’m Not There
Director: Todd Haynes
Starring: Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore
Release Date: Nov. 21
What’s It About?: In two words: Bob Dylan.
Why We Care: Because openly gay director Todd Haynes (Poison, Far from Heaven) is one of the most fascinating talents of his generation, and this unconventional biopic—which casts several actors as the influential folk singer—promises to be one of his most confounding efforts yet.

3. Juno
Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney
Release Date: Dec. 5
What’s It About?: A knocked-up teenager (Page) decides to give her baby up for adoption to a well-to-do yuppie couple (Garner, Bateman).
Why We Care: Because nothing makes us feel better about—or (gasp) relate to—our own lives than an absurdist comedy about a wisecracking pregnant teen, her dimwitted boyfriend and her clueless parents.

2. Persepolis
Directors: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
Starring: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux
Release Date: Dec. 25
What’s It About?: A spunky girl escapes the Islamic revolution and battles oppression, propaganda and Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger,” in this animated adaptation of co-director Satrapi’s 2003 graphic novel.
Why We Care: The film—a favorite at Cannes (it took the jury prize)—promises some serious wit, wisdom and women’s lib, but it’s the surprisingly majestic black-and-white animation and the smart-alecky tale of survival that makes this one of our top picks of the season.

1. Sweeney Todd
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Sacha Baron Cohen
Release Date: Dec. 21
What’s It About?: It’s about time, that’s what! The long-gestating film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s stage musical finally hits the big screen with Depp as the “demon barber of Fleet Street,” who begins slicing up his customers after a corrupt judge takes his wife and daughter away from him. Bonham Carter is his sidekick, who begins selling pies made from the bodies of Sweeney’s victims, and Cohen plays a nasty rival barber.
Why We Care: Are you kidding? Tim Burton tackling Sondheim? Johnny Depp singing? Who could ask for a better Christmas present than this deliciously dark and macabre musical classic? As for all the reported fake blood? Sing it with us, folks: “Let it flow, let it flow, let it flow!”