Best Cast

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Best Cast is an award the staff hands out not only for the list of names on the credits but also for how well these talented individuals mesh together. As an example, if we were meriting a production simply for who they had signed on the dotted line, Gangs of New York would almost certainly have made our top ten. Unfortunately for them, we happened to see the movie and any hope of recognition sailed out the window. Keep that in mind as we discuss our selections.

Our winner for Best Cast is The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. This is an upset win from the perspective that TTT had neither the most number one votes nor the most ballot mentions. Since the voting was so closely divided between the top five movies, it became a compromise candidate of sorts due to its eight top three votes. Not everyone considered it to be the perfect cast but it was universally hailed as one of the best. In a year with so many heavyweight line-ups, that was enough to put it over the top.

Adaptation just missed winning the category, so it wound up in second. It had more number one votes than The Two Towers but only five votes in the top three, causing it to fall just short of victory. As one of the few people who wasn't dazzled by the movie, I (not so) secretly (now) lay the blame on the decision to cast Nicolas Cage twice but since he got voted Best Actor, there might be a logic flaw in that theory.

Despite getting the most nominations of any entry in the field, About a Boy could only attain third place in this category. When push comes to shove, the A-list depth of TTT and Adaptation is simply too much for a modest piece such as this to overcome. Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, Nicholas Hoult and Rachel Weisz are an amazing quartet who interact as winningly as any small cast ever seen, though, so we certainly found them worthy of high praise. In point of fact, there are few twosomes in the acting world we could slap together who could better perform the Killing Me Softly finale. The film (or is it Jon Bon Jovi?) maintains that no man is an island, but if this group of people were, they would rival Hawaii as a premiere destination spot.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is our feast or famine selection for fourth place. It wound up on less than half the ballots submitted for this category, but was chosen number one on a third of those entries. The only real impediment preventing the film from winning the category was its unfortunate release pattern. We time the Calvins at a point where as many of our 35 site members as possible can see the wide range of entries. Confessions failed to reach a point of major expansion until right before the deadline, so its delayed release pattern unfortunately worked against it in the voting. Those who were able to catch it relished in the marvelous selection of A-list stars willing to take significantly smaller parts than normal in order to make George Clooney's directing debut that much more successful.

Tying Confessions for fourth place is Chicago. Any cast which starts with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere, Taye Diggs and John C. Reilly is ahead of the game when production begins. The difference between this and something like the aforementioned Gangs of New York is execution. Not only were people impressed by the melodic stylings of Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly, Richard Gere and Catherine Zeta-Jones, all of whom had some musical experience in their backgrounds, but there were even smatterings of applause given to Renee Zellweger for her vocal work in addition to her powerful acting performance.

With such clear separation between the top five and the rest of the selections, there is certainly a perceived difference between the quality of the casts at the top of the list versus the ones lower down. Most surprisingly, that includes The Hours at number six. For whatever reason, we weren't as moved by the sum of this cast as we were the parts, and this is reflected in the voting. We liked the group but certainly nowhere near as much as the productions listed above it. Catch Me If You Can and Road to Perdition, our number eight and nine entries, also fit this description.

It's the other two entries in the top ten which are most surprising. Signs, our number ten selection, features one superstar, one rising talent and a cast of adorable children along with a few stray townspeople. As a whole, they might not be impressive but in combination, they vastly exceed expectations and we noticed. Similarly, The Cat's Meow, our number seven entry, only has one name which jumps out at our readers in Kirsten Dunst, yet it's Eddie Izzard, Joanna Lumley, Jennifery Tilly, Cary Elwes, and (particularly) the always magnificent Edward Herrmann who carry the weight of the film. They might not have the star power of The Hours yet we like both casts almost the same due to the natural blend the thespians possess as a unit. (David Mumpower/BOP)

Top Ten
Position	Film	Total Points
1	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	101
2	Adaptation	98
3	About a Boy	89
4	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind	77
5	Chicago	77
6	The Hours	43
7	The Cat's Meow	38
8	Catch Me If You Can	36
9	Road to Perdition	36
10	Signs	32