New Releases
THE FAMILY STONE Yuletide comedy-drama The Family Stone begs the question: Why steer the guests toward warm milk when everyone really wants spiked eggnog? Initially more reminiscent of the brittle Thanksgiving yarns Home For the Holidays and Pieces of April than the warm-and-fuzzy titles usually foisted upon us at Christmas, this ensemble piece centers on the Stone family, a liberal New England clan whose members prove to be remarkably close-minded when it comes to accepting a conservative prude into their abode. Oldest son Everett (Dermot Mulroney) brings girlfriend Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) home to meet his parents (Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson) and siblings, but except for his laidback brother Ben (Luke Wilson), all the family members -- especially bitchy sister Amy (Rachel McAdams) -- treat their guest poorly, finding it impossible to warm up to her sheltered viewpoints and physical eccentricities. The arrival of Meredith's younger sister Julie (Claire Danes) only makes matters worse, as she's everything (warm, witty, understanding) that her sister is not. Writer-director Thomas Bezucha tips his PC hand early by making one family member (Ty Giordano) deaf, gay and attached to a black lover (Brian White), but he nevertheless manages to make the various strained character interactions believable, doing a nice job of capturing the way that folks who seemingly come from different planets must try to coexist peacefully whenever the calendar says it's time for another familial gathering. But refusing to follow through on the messy reality of his story (or, let's face it, of life), he slams down on the brakes heading into the final half-hour. Instead, he shamelessly decides to change direction by giving every character (except the one designated as sacrificial lamb, of course) a happily-ever-after fadeout by making sure no one is left out in the cold -- either physically, mentally or emotionally. ** 1/2
Current Releases
AEON FLUX While director Karyn Kusama may deserve a lavish Hollywood mansion and three-picture deal as much as the next filmmaker, she's one person whose career might have benefited more had she stayed hungry. Her low-budget debut feature, 2000's Girlfight, was an indie knockout, signaling her arrival as a moviemaker with grit, determination and something to say. Five years later, Kusama's back with her sophomore effort, and it's dispiriting to see that it's a big-budget production deemed so awful by its own studio that it wasn't even screened in advance for critics. Based on an animated MTV series, this futuristic romp stars Charlize Theron as the title warrior, one member of a revolutionary outfit seeking to overthrow a corrupt government. An impersonal slab of sci-fi sameness, Aeon Flux wears its lethargy like a badge of honor, with Kusama's draggy direction and Theron's monotonous performance up front and center in virtually every scene. * 1/2
CHICKEN LITTLE With its hand-drawn animation division boarded up and its partnership with Pixar in flames, Walt Disney Pictures has taken the next step by creating its own fully computer-animated movie. Yet if Chicken Little represents the future of Disney animation, then the sky is indeed falling: This is as far removed from such old-school classics as Pinocchio and Beauty and the Beast as roast duck is from chicken gizzards. The story is serviceable, centering on a diminutive bird (voiced by Zach Braff) whose warnings about an alien invasion are ignored by the other anthropomorphic animals. And to be fair, the film has its moments, most of them courtesy of a character known as Fish Out of Water (basically an animated Harpo Marx). But the central thrust -- a standard "underdog wins the day" slog that on a dime turns into War of the Worlds -- is the same sort of hollow experience that has all but drained the traditional toon tale of its potency over the past decade-plus. **
DERAILED The inaugural feature from The Weinstein Company recalls the formation of TriStar Pictures back in the 80s, when the quality of its initial slate was so dreadful that one critic suggested the company should change its name to OneStar. Certainly, Derailed is deserving of whatever critical scorn is tossed its way, whether it's in the form of a solitary star, a down-turned thumb or even an extended middle finger. The film stars Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston as unhappily married business drones whose attempt at an affair gets interrupted by a French thug (Vincent Cassel) with blackmail on his mind. Armed with only a plot synopsis, I (like many others) figured out the major plot twist even before stepping into the theater, yet this movie is so fundamentally brain-dead on so many levels that predictability turns out to be the least of its problems. *
GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN' Rapper 50 Cent may have set the music world on fire, but as a movie star, he's as relevant as a dead mic. His starring vehicle, about a drug dealer trying to make it as a rap star, is yet one more uninspired crime pic that liberally borrows from all the violent "dis dis bang bang" titles that preceded it. Yet the movie it most resembles -- coincidentally, given the proximity of the release dates -- is this past summer's Hustle & Flow (in which a pimp tried to make it as a rapper). It's fascinating to place both films side by side and see how one succeeds while the other doesn't. With its rich characterizations and pungent atmosphere, Hustle flows. Get Rich Or Die Tryin', with its frayed theatrics and stiff performance by 50 Cent, isn't worth a plugged nickel. * 1/2
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK In his second stint as director, George Clooney (who also co-wrote and co-stars) looks at an inspiring moment in US history, when legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) did the unthinkable by standing up to Joe McCarthy, the junior Senator who was destroying lives left and right in his maniacal pursuit of Communist infiltrators. Clooney has his sights set, and the targets are all big game. Like All the President's Men, the movie celebrates journalistic integrity in the face of political corruption, and like Quiz Show, it shows how this marvelous invention that has the ability to educate millions of Americans simultaneously has instead been dumbed down to placate the lowest common denominator (in the grand scheme of things, it didn't take long for Edward R. Murrow to be replaced by Trading Spouses). Comparisons to the insidious Bush Administration abound, and Clooney decries the lack of modern-day media heroes who could compare with Murrow. *** 1/2
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE The fourth installment in the J.K. Rowling screen franchise clearly isn't afraid of the dark. There's a reason that this is the first movie in the series to earn a PG-13 rating, as director Mike Newell, the first British director attached to this veddy British series, and scripter Steve Kloves, forced to whittle down Rowling's enormous tome, steadfastly refuse to coddle the youngest audience members, "family film" status be damned. The series' greatest strength -- namely, the dead-on portrayals by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry, Ron and Hermione -- never fails to deliver (these kids are wonderful together), and even an overstuffed plot doesn't slow down the proceedings as much as convey that there's much at stake in Harry's increasingly sinister world. ***
THE ICE HARVEST The Ice Harvest is being promoted as this year's Bad Santa, but it's just bad, period. It goes through the motions by displaying all the requisite black humor and hipster stylings without stopping to figure out what generally makes these ingredients work. John Cusack stars as Charlie Arglist, a Wichita lawyer who, with his partner Vic (Billy Bob Thornton), steals over two million dollars from a local mob boss (Randy Quaid) and then begins to sweat when an ice storm prevents them from skipping town. As Charlie trudges around the city waiting to make his great escape, he repeatedly bumps into two acquaintances: Renata (Connie Nielsen), a strip club owner, and Pete (hilarious Oliver Platt, the film's lone bright spot), a vulgar souse. As an exercise in neo-noir, the film is surprisingly inert, and as a dark comedy, it fails to offer any substantial laughs. * 1/2
PRIDE & PREJUDICE In adapting Jane Austen's literary staple, director Joe Wright and screenwriter Deborah Moggach have done an exemplary job of making us care all over again about the plight of the Bennet sisters, whose busybody mom (Brenda Blethyn) sets about finding them suitable husbands against the backdrop of 19th century England. The oldest daughter Jane (Rosamund Pike) immediately lands a suitor, but the independent Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) finds herself embroiled in a grudge match with the brooding Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen). Romanticists who fell hard for Colin Firth's Darcy in the 1995 BBC miniseries may or may not warm to MacFadyen (who's fine in the role), but there's no quibbling over Knightley's intuitive, note-perfect work as Elizabeth. Kudos, also, to Roman Osin's endlessly inventive camerawork, the sort not usually found in period pieces of this nature. ***
RENT For all its energy, this film version of the Broadway smash never quite busts free, a problem that may rest more with the modern film industry's inexperience with musicals than with anything director Chris Columbus brings to the party. There hasn't been a great movie musical since Milos Forman's Hair back in 1979, and outer space has long since replaced the songbook as the filmmakers' avenue of choice for fanciful flights of expression and imagination. Given the current climate in Hollywood, I'm inclined to give Columbus a break, since his movie is easy to like and even easier to hum. Updating Puccini's 1896 opera La Boheme, Rent's late creator Jonathan Larson focuses on a group of bohemians trying to get by while living in New York's East Village. If it all sounds like Melrose Place on welfare, the story's defining characteristic is that half of its leading players are HIV-positive, lending an air of poignancy to the proceedings as the players belt out catchy tunes. ***
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE Marital discord receives an innovative treatment in this feature that earned Noah Baumbach writing and directing awards at Sundance. In 1986 Brooklyn, a college professor (Jeff Daniels) and his wife (Laura Linney) reach the conclusion that their marriage is on its last fumes. Upon separating, they subject their sons (Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline) to all manner of ill-advised actions, which only serve to confuse the boys even further. The film is tantalizing in the way in which it presents just enough information so that we can't help but come to the conclusion that the self-absorbed Bernard and Joan are lousy parents -- yet then it pulls the rug out from under us by showing evidence to the contrary. Never denigrating itself by offering facile answers, it examines the difficulties of joint custody, the flaw in favoring one parent over the other, and the continued ability to wring mood out of Tangerine Dream's score for Risky Business. All four lead performances are outstanding. *** 1/2
WALK THE LINE One often encounters an overwhelming sense of déjà vu when watching a biopic about a celebrity, since they tend to trace the expected ups and downs in the most conventional manner possible. Yet "conventional" doesn't have to mean "boring," and for all its familiarity, there's plenty to like about Walk the Line. Director James Mangold, adapting (with co-scripter Gill Dennis) two Johnny Cash autobiographies, does a fine job of capturing an electric period in rock history without any strains of self-importance. First and foremost, though, the film positions itself as a love story, one that finds Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) locating his soulmate in country star June Carter (Reese Witherspoon). Phoenix commands the screen, yet even he's topped by Witherspoon in her most fully realized performance since Election. Phoenix may provide the movie with its voice, but it's Witherspoon who delivers its soul. ***
YOURS, MINE AND OURS A descent into the pits of hell disguised as a motion picture, Yours, Mine and Ours is the sort of broad, insincere schmaltz that moviegoers seem to eat up at this time of year (see: Cheaper By the Dozen in 2003 and Christmas With the Kranks in 2004). A widower (Dennis Quaid) with eight kids bumps into his former high school sweetheart, now a widow (Rene Russo) with 10 children. On a whim, they decide to get married, but managing a household comprised of 18 minors proves to be a formidable challenge. A remake of a pleasant 1968 film with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball, this jettisons all semblance of wit for the sake of one noisy, overwrought sequence after another. Somebody please kill this before it breeds again. *
OPENS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14:
KING KONG: Naomi Watts, Jack Black.
OPENS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16:
THE FAMILY STONE: Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Keaton.