New and recent releases
Week of Oct. 3 - 9
THE
FORGOTTEN - After 14 months, Telly (Julianne Moore) is nowhere near
accepting the death in a plane disaster of her cherished son Sam, though her
therapist (the never exactly consoling Gary Sinise) urges her to make
closure, suggesting that she is delusional as everyone else seems to be
forgetting the boy. Husband Jim (lean, dithery Anthony Edwards) seems unsure
what to believe. The boy is gone, but perhaps is not dead. There seems to be
a foul scheme, even "an experiment." Director Joseph Ruben sustains Lower
Manhattan chills as the mystery curves into sci-fi surprises and shocks, not
factual but engrossing. It is not easy for a parent to watch, or anyone who
has cared about a child, but not making it easy is what lifts Ruben in good
form above the go-for-it thrill grinders. A Revolution Studio release.
Director: Joseph Ruben. Writer: Gerald Di Pego. Cast: Julianne Moore,
Dominic West, Gary Sinise, Alfre Woodard and Anthony Edwards. Running time:
1 hr., 47 min. Rated PG-13. 3 stars.HEAD IN THE CLOUDS - Charlize Theron is star mannequin, the oomph to a waxworks of '30s posturing both stuffy and gummy with romantic "history." Stuart Townsend is her entranced patsy, Penelope Cruz a soul kitten who incarnates Embattled Spain. Winky sex, swell costumes. A Sony Pictures Classics release. Director, writer: John Duigan. Cast: Charlize Theron, Stuart Townsend, Penelope Cruz, Steven Berkhoff and Thomas Kretschmann. Running time: 2 hr., 12 min. Rated R. 2 stars.
FIRST DAUGHTER - Katie Holmes is the presidential lassie who goes to college and, of course, sparks a Secret Service ruckus. Forest Whitaker, the actor, directed the comedy that also has Michael Keaton. There is a surprise a bit more than halfway through the film, which stands out as dramatic only because nothing eventful has happened before, and not much after. The whole thing seems preshrunk to television. 20th Century Fox, once a proud studio, prefaces the film with an ad for the Fox fall TV schedule.
A 20th Century Fox release. Director: Forest Whitaker. Writers: Jessica Bendinger, Jerry O'Connell. Cast: Katie Holmes, Michael Keaton, Lela Rochon, Marc Blucas, and Amerie Rogers. Running time: 1 hr., 29 min. Rated PG. 2 stars.
RECENT RELEASES
SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW - Ten years of dreaming and filming led to Kerry Conran's amazing debut, with Jude Law as the 1939 flyboy whooshing into the '40s, a pastiche wonderland of noir and Deco, serials and comics and old films. Matching Law's speed are Gwyneth Paltrow (like a Bacall vision) and Angelina Jolie, the actors folded into the whirling plot and superb "bluescreen" effects. The trance of movies is retro yet ageless.
A Paramount Pictures release. Director, writer: Kerry Conran. Cast: Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Giovanni Ribisi, Angelina Jolie and Michael Gambon. Running time: 1 hr., 47 min. Rated PG. 4 stars.
BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS - The swank party people in pre-WWII London, reduced to fairly charming entertainment by Stephen Fry from Evelyn Waugh's "Vile Bodies." The title and acid bite are gone, but the cast hums and snips along in a patented way: Emily Mortimer, David Tennant, Stockard Channing, Richard E. Grant and a brief turn by Peter O'Toole. At the center are would-be novelist Adam (Campbell Moore) and his chosen Eve, Nina (Mortimer). The movie's charms are squandered like confetti. The dialogue is so arch, brittle and pinned to a point of pith that you can either laugh or squirm.
A ThinkFilms release. Director: Stephen Fry. Writer: Stephen Fry, from Evelyn Waugh. Cast: Emily Mortimer, Stephen Campbell Moore, James McAvoy, Fenella Woolgar, Dan Aykroyd, David Tennant, Jim Broadbent and Peter O'Toole. Running time: 1 hr., 45 min. Rated R. 2 stars.
WIMBLEDON - Head-swivel piffle about an aging but still game British tennis star (Paul Bettany) "inspired" to win the Big W by a cute American player (Kirsten Dunst). They're fun together, softly sexy, but the story is just lobbing winks, the tennis filmed as nothing but climaxes and warm-ups, with John McEnroe and Chris Evert offering dull quips. Dunst is less about tennis than about looking terrific in whites. She puts as much energy into the role as she would a quick photo spread for Vanity Fair or Teen People.
A Universal Pictures release. Director: Richard Loncraine. Writers: Adam Brooks, Jennifer Flackett. Cast: Paul Bettany, Kirsten Dunst, Bernard Hill, Eleanor Bron and Austin Nichols. Running time: 1 hr., 32 min. Rated PG-13. 2 stars.
GHOST IN THE SHELL 2 - Mamoru Oshii's sci-fi horror wowzer shows you why Japanese animation holds an audience with head-spin plots and explosively rich visuals, stacked pretentiously but impressively. 1 hr., 40 min. Rated PG-13. 3 1/2 stars.
SHE HATE ME - If you reject Spike Lee's "She Hate Me" as patchy and scattered - and the charge has minor merit - then you will reject a bold, messy, sprawling, funny comedy with teeth in its mouth and ideas in its bursting head. A brisk, often savvy satire of black machismo, lesbian chic, fertility mania, PC gender politics and even AIDS anxiety. All over the map, but Lee has found his groove again as a man who takes a bite out of our times. The thrust of satire is anti-Big Biz. John "Jack" Armstrong (Anthony Mackie) is the fall guy when the big pharmaceutical firm he works for is led to Enron-like ruin by oozy suit Leland Powell (Woody Harrelson) and associate Margo (Ellen Barkin). Jack tries to blow the whistle on Powell's corruption and becomes a marked patsy. Money gone and accounts frozen, he nervously accepts the proposal of his ex-fiancee, sizzling Fatima (Kerry Washington), who wants him to impregnate both her and her lover (Dania Ramirez) for money.
A Sony Pictures Classics release. Director: Spike Lee. Writers: Michael Genet, Spike Lee. Cast: Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Monica Bellucci, Jim Brown, Ossie Davis, Ellen Barkin, Brian Dennehy, Lonette McKee, Woody Harrelson and John Turturro. Running time: 2 hr., 12 min. Rated R. 3 1/2 stars.
MEAN CREEK - Boys and an innocent girl lead a hated fat kid down river to torment. Predictable but tense, and well-acted (notably Josh Peck as the victim, Scott Mechlowicz as main tormentor), but sort of like a high school lesson carefully siphoned from "Deliverance" and "Lord of the Flies." This is a-b-c movie psychology, and "Mean Creek" goes down the river just as it must. But director Estes, using videotape inserts effectively, knows how to layer the tensions, and the young cast is infallibly connected. A Paramount Classics release. Director, writer: Jacob Aaron Estes. Cast: Rory Culkin, Scott Mechlowicz, Trevor Morgan, Josh Peck and Carly Schroeder. Running time: 1 hr., 27 min. Rated R. 2 1/2 stars.
CELLULAR - In "Cellular," from the writer of "Phone Booth," Kim Basinger is the tormented mother Jessica, a science teacher. That provides a generic sort of explanation of how she can re-wire a smashed phone in the dark attic where she's been stuck by abductors of her son. The motive, which only comes clear in slurred doses, is that Jessica's husband inadvertently videotaped crooked cops killing people. Rather than just go for him (and why has he left the tape in the camera?), the creeps lay terror on Jessica and the child, the thuggery led by hard, shave-headed specialist in coldness Jason Statham. The director hangs onto the whopper moments for dear life, even if cheap laughs outweigh a mother's pain. Nothing here hasn't been done before, and better, but it passes the time. A New Line Cinema release. Director: David R. Ellis. Writers: Larry Cohen, Chris Morgan. Cast: Kim Basinger, Chris Evans, William H. Macy and Jason Statham. Running time: 1 hr., 35 min. Rated PG-13. 1 1/2 stars.
VANITY FAIR - In 1935, William Makepeace Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" was turned into the first full Technicolor movie, "Becky Sharp." That old innovator fades and discolors next to the extravagance of Mira Nair's "Vanity Fair." The whole grand effort rests on the small shoulders and pert, Pekinese head of Reese Witherspoon. As grown Becky (Witherspoon) prows into a snob-crusted society with her eager face, sweetly seductive smile and oddly lovable wiles. She's a climber and a truth-teller who almost wins a dull, rich chub who pines for her, settles quickly for a suave gambler and soldier (James Purefoy) who loses his inheritance by wedding her. Scenes arrive as pages turning in a vital breeze, and all is finely shot for show by Declan Quinn in this banquet of visual display. A Focus Features release. Director: Mira Nair. Writer: Matthew Faulk, Julia Fellowes and Mark Skeet from the novel by Thackeray. Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Eileen Atkins, Rhys Ifans, James Purefoy, Bob Hoskins, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Romola Garai. Running time: 2 hr., 14 min. Rated PG-13. 3 1/2 stars.
WICKER PARK - Scottish director Paul McGuigan has three leads who are lovely camera objects, but inexpressive. Josh Hartnett, a broodingly zoned fan-fave, writhes in the main role of Matthew. New to Chicago, he's drawn away from his elegant fiancee, Rebecca (Jessica PareŠ), by a passing blond who fixates him, Lisa (Diane Kruger). Hartnett is obsessed with her, despite awkward meetings and hexed engagements. Then come the deceitful interventions of Alex (Rose Byrne). Matt has an affair with her while still yearning for the frequently absent Lisa and forgetting poor Rebecca. "Wicker Park" is like a stream of vapor trails trying to be a cloud, a floating "thriller" of posed moods and inane jolts that make viewers laugh.
An MGM release. Director: Paul McGuigan. Writer: Brandon Boyce. Cast: Josh Hartnett, Diane Kruger, Rose Byrne, Matthew Lillard and Jessica PareŠ. Running time: 1 hr., 55 min. Rated PG-13. 1 1/2 stars.
DANNY DECKCHAIR - The film stars Rhys Ifans as Danny Morgan. He's a construction worker and mess-up in Sydney, the sort of dreamer who keeps falling into the cement mix. His love Trudy (Justine Clarke) has a wandering eye for a man of ambition. One day, in one of his goosey inspirations, Danny's off, up and away on a deck chair, airborne by yellow balloons. He lands in the sweet town of Clarence. He becomes famously missing, but is reborn in Clarence as a confident, can-do "professor" who makes people smile, saves a politician's campaign and wins the heart of a sunbeam-made female named Glenda (Miranda Otto). Nicely shot and quaintly romantic. A Lions Gate Films release. Director, writer: Jeff Balsmeyer. Cast: Rhys Ifans, Miranda Otto, Justine Clarke and Rhys Muldoon. Running time: 1 hr., 31 min. Rated PG-13. 2 stars.
HERO - Chen Daoming plays the King of Qin, who will unite the six warring realms through epic slaughter to unify China, then build the Great Wall. Jet Li is a "nameless master" who seeks to kill the king after finishing off assassins who failed or did not try. Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu Wai are sublime killers and also lovers, their romance a kind of soap opera suicide pact in which Zhang Ziyi, as lovely Moon, is another sword with a trembling heart. Director Zhang Yimou reduces actors to mythic mannequins, with rare squalls of rage or grief. When people move as "heroic" puppets and compare killing to music, chess and calligraphy, and the only real mystery is why everyone is acting mysteriously, your eyes may widen even as you yawn. The core idea is that everyone dies beautifully. So does the movie. A Miramax Films Films release. Director: Zhang Yimou. Writers: Zhang Yimou, Li Feng, Wang Bin. Cast: Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Chen Daoming. Running time: 1 hr., 36 min. Rated PG-13. 2 stars.
RATINGS
4 STARS - Excellent.
3 STARS - Worthy.
2 STARS - Mixed.
1 STAR - Poor.
0 - Forget It.
NR - Not Rated.
Capsules compiled from movie reviews written by David Elliott, film critic for The San Diego Union-Tribune, and other staff writers.
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