2000

Best Picture nominees:

Chocolat
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Erin Brockovich
Gladiator *
Traffic

***

Chocolat - A charming, if not wide-ranging comedic movie with Johnny Depp (before he went bonkers with the whole Pirates of the Caribbean series) and Juliette Binoche as a chocolatier who changes lives with her chocolate arts.  Being allergic to chocolate, I found the picture cloying.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - A Chinese-language martial arts film with cool special effects and a good romantic story.  Went on to become the largest grossing foreign film (at the time).

Erin Brockovich - A tour-de-force for Julia Roberts in her portrayal of the real-life Erin Brockovich, who battled for people in Central California who were being poisoned by PG&E dumping of chemicals.  Another example of a David vs. Goliath film, where David is a tough-as-nails lady.

Gladiator - The story of a Roman general who is sentenced to death, captured by slavers, and works his way up by winning matches in the gladiator arena, eventually changing the system.  Lead actor Russell Crowe won Best Actor in his own tour-de-force.

Traffic - In a year of wide-ranging epics, another wide-ranging epic about drug trafficking in the US, from the fields to the dealers to the kingpins.  This is based on a British miniseries, which is substantially longer and better.

***

This year was an example of films that I was not terribly jazzed about.  None of these five movies are ones that I get really excited about seeing again.

My ranking of the Best Picture nominees:

1.  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2.  Erin Brockovich
3.  Gladiator
4.  Traffic
5.  Chocolat