Heaviness For The Holidays; David Ansen weighs in on some of the best of the year as Hollywood starts unveiling its Oscar hopefuls.(Munich)(Movie Review)

Byline: David Ansen

Are we in a bad mood, or what? This may be remembered as the Year of the Depressive Movie. When I toted up my top-10 list, I wasn't surprised at how few big studio movies there were: it was a dog year for Hollywood. What stood out was how heavy my favorites were--tales filled with paranoia, terrorism, broken hearts and busted families. In these indelible movies, anguish is transformed into art. Even our hit summer movies this year sprang from nightmares--the traumatized "Batman Begins," the tragic "Revenge of the Sith," the apocalyptic "War of the Worlds." When our romantic comedies ("Mr. and Mrs. Smith") are about assassins and our kiddie fare ("Charlie and the Chocolate Factory") is misanthropic, where do we turn for comfort? To penguins, and Jane Austen. What dark treats do the holidays hold? Plenty.

Catch And Kill Them If You Can

'MUNICH'

The terrorist act that kicks off Steven Spielberg's "Munich" was seen as it unfolded on television around the world. The Palestinian group Black September invaded the Olympic Village in West Germany in 1972, killed two Israelis and took nine hostages, demanding the release of 234 Palestinian prisoners. All nine were subsequently slaughtered in a shoot-out at the Munich airport. This story was effectively told in the Oscar-winning documentary "One Day in September."

The fascinating story Spielberg tells is what happened after Munich: Israel's secret campaign of retaliation. In this fictionalized account, a team of five men is assembled, led by a young Israeli intelligence agent named Avner (Eric Bana). They're given a list of 11 Palestinians living in Europe, each said to be involved in planning the Munich killings. Their orders are simple: find them, and kill them.

What follows is, as one might expect from Spielberg, a superbly taut and well-made thriller that jumps from Geneva to Rome, from Paris to Beirut, from Athens to Brooklyn, each lethal assignment staged with a mastery Hitchcock might envy. What's unexpected is the tone, the point of view, the morally complex weight Spielberg brings to bear on this story, which is miles removed from the adventure movies that made his name. There's a lot of killing in "Munich," and none of it is pretty; none of it panders to the audience's bloodlust for revenge. The boy who made "Raiders of the Lost Ark" has left the room.