Some years, it's easy to see big overarching themes in the Oscars' Best Films. In 2008, faced with There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, Michael Clayton, and the un-nominated but top-grossing The Dark Knight, Jon Stewart pointed out the dark themes of these end-of-the-Bush-era films and asked, "Does this town need a hug?" In 2011, the year of The Social Network, I suggested that the ten Best Film nominees had in common the theme of human connection. This year there are individual films with huge spiritual themes. There's the monumental hymn to grace and forgiveness that is Les Misérables. There's the vital post-9/11 question, "What do you have to become to bring a fugitive to justice?" in Zero Dark Thirty.

But what...