AltWeeklies Wire
Bloody but Unbowed: Clint Eastwood's 'Invictus'new
The two things Invictus has going for it are the use of Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) as its central character and its underdog sports story. Americans like against-all-odds athletic tales. Even so, I think it may be something of a hard sell. Hoosiers this isn’t.
'Seraphine' Seems to Gesture Toward Both Inspiration and Moralismnew
Martin Provost's Seraphine relates an ostensibly true story of remarkable artistic achievement in the face of extraordinary difficulties.
Tags: Martin Provost, Seraphine
Many Will Find 'The Reader''s Treatment of Bernard Schlink's Novel Distastefulnew
Director Steven Daldry and writer David Hare's extensive depiction of the physical nature of the affair is, in itself, redolent of the old erotic convention of the older woman and the youth craving initiation. There's a soft porn lubricity which may have been intended to convey what it is that Michael feels he has lost.
'A Girl Cut in Two' is Hardly Incisive or Tension-Inducingnew
Chabrol has often been compared to Hitchcock, but this has always been a dubious association. Girl has been worked out with some care, but Chabrol's visual compositions and chromatic palette are more involving than his narrative.
Tags: Claude Chabrol, A Girl Cut in Two
'The Secret Life of Bees' is Stinglessnew
The story and social context of Bees probably have substantial potential, but the movie's treatment of them is both superficial and muddled.
'Blindness' Has Limited Visionnew
Blindness certainly has an uncommonly distinguished origin; it's adapted by Don McKellar from the novel of Portuguese Nobel Prize-winning novelist José Saramago. But what might well have been provocative and insightful on the page has been rendered portentously inflated.
'Unsettled' Turns to Gazanew
Unsettled has an involving, sometimes engrossing and almost tragic human interest appeal but the movie is, perhaps unavoidably, skewed. No Palestinian appears. And looming just over the historical horizon is the monster problem no Israeli government has had the will or desire to address: the quarter-million Jewish settlers in the contested West Bank.
The Art of Lyingnew
Much of the critical response to the film adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel, Atonement, has focused on the film's epic scope and the intensely but tragically romantic story it tells. There has even been some comparison with James Cameron's Titanic.
Tags: Atonement, Joe Wright
'Charlie Wilson's War': Mr. Wilson's World Ordernew
Well, finally the American film industry has done it. At last, there's a movie about American foreign policies and programs in the Middle East and West Asia, in Iraq and Afghanistan, that Americans can feel good about.
Tags: Mike Nichols, Charlie Wilson's War
'Lions for Lambs': From a Lofty Liberal Lecternnew
Dramatic is a quality that Lions never comes close to achieving. It's a ponderous creation of sentimental high-mindedness and stilted evasiveness.
Tags: Lions for Lambs, Robert Redford
'The Darjeeling Limited': The Disorienting Expressnew
This is probably the most striking, and perhaps the most memorable, of Wes Anderson's five films. This doesn't mean that it's the best, or even that it's good.
Tony Gilroy's Power of Attorneynew
Gilroy is a veteran screenwriter (the Bourne movies) making his directorial debut, and there may be an interesting irony in the results: He seems to have been more successful in his new role than in his scripting job.
Tags: Michael Clayton, Tony Gilroy
Paul Haggis Over-reaches with 'In the Valley of Elah'new
While he hasn’t resorted to the thumping didacticism and patronizing ironies he employed in his Oscar-winning Crash, but In the Valley of Elah isn’t free of too easy point-making.
Tags: Paul Haggis, In the Valley of Elah
'Resurrecting the Champ': Fathers, Sons, & Palookasnew
The film slathers a thick, shiny varnish coat of sententiousness and sentiment over its narrative.
Tags: Resurrecting the Champ, Rod Lurie
'The Invasion': Spore Warsnew
Whether or not any new interpretation of this old story could capture anxieties and unconscious fears in our era the way at least two of the previous versions did, this movie isn't up to that challenge.
Tags: The Invasion, Oliver Hirschbieger
