NEW THIS WEEK
ALONE IN THE DARK (R) All that's missing is Shaggy and Scooby, in this based-on-a-video-game spookfest about a "detective of the paranormal" (Christian Slater) and his cute girlfriend (Tara Reid) investigating zombie shenanigans at – wait for it now – Shadow Island. Also stars Stephen Dorff. Opens January 28 at local theaters. (Not Reviewed)
HIDE AND SEEK (R) Robert De Niro stars as a distraught father realizing his little girl's imaginary friend might actually be some sort of terrible, unknown entity? and not nearly so imaginary after all. Also stars Dakota Fanning and Famke Janssen. Opens January 28 at local theaters. (Not Reviewed)
SARASOTA FILM FESTIVAL
Selections listed below will be screened in the Regal Hollywood 20, Sarasota. For a full schedule, see
www.sarasotafilmfestival.com or call (877) 733-8491.The Break-Up Artist Vincent Rubino and Pamela Thur's 82-minute film, a Southeastern premiere, finds its hero Jim Verdi (Joseph Lyle Taylor) in the throes of a failed relationship. And while a break-up is eminent, Verdi avoids the task. A death of a close family member tosses Verdi into a search for meaning , and as relationships around him dissolve bitterly, he seeks out true love from a longtime female friend. 3 p.m., Feb. 3; 5:15 p.m., Feb. 5. 
-Allyson Gonzalez
Citizen Verdict Celebrity faces dot this Tampa-filmed movie about a courtroom reality show in which TV viewers act as de facto jurors to decide a man's guilt or innocence. Part satire, part indictment of the justice system, this 97-minute world premiere tries to cover a vast territory, but finally stretches itself too thin. Still, Citizen Verdict boasts fine camera work and a cast of familiars – Jerry Springer, Armand Assante, Roy Scheider – and asks pointed questions about the world in which we live. 7:45 p.m., Jan. 29; 4:30 p.m., Jan. 30. -A.G.
MirrorMask (NR) The narrative is a bit muddled in spots, but it's rare to see an entire world evoked with as much sheer imagination as what's laid out before our eyes in MirrorMask. Most of the movie seems to unfold as the fever dream of a young girl (Stephanie Leonidaas) who blames herself for her mother's illness and lets that guilt seep into a fantasy taking place in a strange, phantasmagorical world populated by extremely curious, masked inhabitants. There's more than a little Lewis Carroll at play in this dark, visually spectacular offering, but fans of the British cult classic Paperhouse will find some parallels to that film as well. Jim Henson's workshop helped supply the wonderful special effects. Jan. 31, 5:45 p.m.; Feb. 14, 3 p.m.
Old Boy (NR) South Korea is one of the hotbeds of world cinema right now, and Chan-wook Park is right at the top of that country's A-List of directors. Old Boy takes all of the psychological edginess, visceral punch and hallucinatory imagery of the director's previous near-masterpiece, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, distills it into something even more unsettling, and, incredibly, cranks up the intensity level another half-notch. The film is an action movie for existentialists, about a man whisked off the street and imprisoned for 15 years, for no apparent reason, and then released one day, also without any explanation, and charged with finding out what it all means. The most obvious cinematic reference points here are Lynch and Cronenberg, but the film is closer in spirit to Kafka and Camus, with a touch of Die Hard thrown in for good measure. Amazing, tough, deeply disturbing stuff. Feb. 2, 8:30 p.m.; Feb. 4, 9 p.m.
Ong Bak (NR) A testosterone extravaganza from Thailand in which impossibly tough guys square off for a series of wall-to-wall, state-of-the-art fisticuffs, oblivious to small details such as the fact that their lower bodies are on fire. Most of these guys fight way past their breaking points, and some of them knock each other out of tall buildings and then continue to deliver killer punches even as they fall. The story is slight in the extreme, and so primitive it's actually charming – a pure-hearted warrior (Phanom Yeerum) tracks down a very bad criminal to Bangkok and proceeds to beat him to a pulp – but the battles and stunts are the most imaginatively choreographed and breathtakingly executed of any since the glory days of Jackie Chan. A guy's flick, to be sure, and a major guilty pleasure to boot — but at least there's a sense of humor in evidence here, and it's sure a lot more fun than sitting through Hotel Rwanda again. Jan. 31, 7 p.m.; Feb. 2, 7:30.
Sunrise (NR) One of the very greatest of all films, FW Murnau's 1927 masterpiece tells the story of a man and a woman (referred to only as "the man" and "the woman" to better underscore the film's metaphorical intent) who experience an ugly falling out and then spend most of the movie reconciling. Sunrise represents the peak of the silent cinema, and of cinema in general, with its magnificent, wordless visuals perfectly communicating the joys of being in love and experiencing the world through the eyes of a loved one. The rare opportunity to see a restored print of this legendary classic up on the big screen simply shouldn't be missed. Stars George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor and Margaret Livingston. Jan 29 at 2:45p.m.
Torremolinos 73 Filmmaker Pablo Berger follows one couple's comic stumble into the porn industry as they pine for the domesticity of family and kids. Set in 1970s, the film is the story of a balding encyclopedia salesman named Alfredo Lopez (Javier Camara) and his stunning wife Carmen (Candela Peña) who find themselves in the unlikely roles of porn stars after their amateur erotic films take hold – especially in Scandinavia. While the subject matter recalls the 1997 Boogie Nights, this dark, offbeat film emerges with its own unique perspective. Jan. 31, 7:45 p.m; Feb. 2, 4:30 p.m. -A.G.
Wild Side (NR) Diehard art film buffs will probably want to check out Wild Side when it plays at this week's Sarasota Film Festival, but they may not like what they see. The new film from French auteur Sebastian Lifshitz contains little of the blazing originality of his acclaimed Come Undone, and, despite moments of genuine power, its depiction of the three-way relationship between a transgender hooker, an Arab hustler and a Russian immigrant too often borders on the artistically pretentious and gratuitously shocking. Feb 2, 2:15 p.m.; Feb 4, 5:15 p.m.
The World (NR) There are lots of remarkable films playing at this year's Sarasota Film Festival, and many more that, while I haven't had a chance to preview them, sound extremely promising. This one might just be the best of them all. Young Chinese director Jia Zhangke took the international cinema world by storm a few years back with his austere, uncompromising and impeccably realized films Platform and Unknown Pleasures. Now, Jia is back with a new minimalist epic, The World, a film that reportedly once again examines the director's trademark obsessions of youthful alienation in the shadow of the encroaching Westernization of his native country. The movie observes the eroding relationship of two workers in an enormous Chinese theme park (filled with life-size replicas of famous Western landmarks) and, at least for those unafraid of major doses of art in their foreign films, it sounds like the one must-see of this festival. Feb 2, 6 p.m.; Feb 5, 12:15 p.m. (Not Reviewed)
RECENT RELEASES:
AFTER THE SUNSET (PG-13) Although there are worse ways to while away 90-some minutes, After the Sunset isn't really exciting or original enough to engage us as a heist movie, and it's not funny enough to succeed as a comedy. Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek are retired jewel thieves playing elaborately pointless cat-and-mouse games with FBI agent Woody Harrelson while they consider that inevitable one last heist. Also stars Don Cheadle.
ALEXANDER (R) Oliver Stone's three-hour biopic of Alexander the Great is, at best, a curiously uninvolving affair. There are lots of long, boring speeches; hokey dialogue; an unintentionally silly mélange of accents; a couple of extended battle scenes where the cry of "Glory!" becomes a four-syllable word; a horribly manipulative soundtrack (courtesy of Vangelis); and a narrator who tells us about key events in the hero's life so that we don't have to actually witness them for ourselves. Colin Farrell makes a surprisingly lackluster Alexander, playing the great conqueror as a whiny, poofy-haired surfer dude with mother issues and an eye for the boys. Also stars Val Kilmer, Anthony Hopkins, Jared Leto and Christopher Plummer.
ARE WE THERE YET? (PG) Sweetly moronic comedy with Ice Cube as a dedicated player and confirmed kid-hater who falls for a pretty single mom (Nia Long) and winds up chaperoning her children on what is supposed to be a short trip from Portland to Vancouver.
ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (R) Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne star in this competently crafted but otherwise unremarkable remake of John Carpenter's 1976 genre slam dunk (which was itself an homage to Howard Hawks' immortal Rio Bravo from 1959). The movie's premise remains the same – cops and criminals in an old Detroit precinct house band together to stave off an assault from marauding hordes outside – but the film dulls its impact by paying too much attention to its stock characters, while making the predictable move of exchanging the original's main bad guys – urban gangsters and lowlifes – for everybody's new favorite whipping boys, corrupt cops.
THE AVIATOR (PG-13) Martin Scorsese's biopic about Howard Hughes (played here by Leonardo DiCaprio) begins in the 1920s with Hughes' flirtation with Hollywood, segueing into his affairs with the likes of Katherine Hepburn (an uncanny impersonation by Cate Blanchette) and Ava Gardner (a lightweight Kate Beckinsale), his outrageous financial triumphs and his steady surrender to his delusions. The Aviator covers a lot of other ground, too, and the question becomes how could one film do justice to this life. The answer, of course, is that it can't. But Scorsese has given us a big, muscular epic that, while not ranking with his very best work, is at least two films in one, both good enough to ensure that one of those nice, shiny statues will soon be residing on the director's mantelpiece.
BEING JULIA (NR) "Luminous" is a word that film critics tend to overuse when describing beautiful actresses lighting up the screen, beautifully, but hardly any other word will do for Annette Bening's career-topping performance here. The film itself is lushly mounted but otherwise pretty standard stuff – Bening plays an aging diva in 1930s London, engaged in a clandestine affair with a younger man – but Bening herself is on screen nearly every moment, and it's impossible to take our eyes off her. Director Istvan Szabo (Mephisto, Sunshine) invests the material with an appealingly light touch, lovely visual flourishes and as much wit as we might expect in what is essentially a pretty dull story. Currently playing at Burns Court Cinemas in Sarasota and Sunrise Cinemas in Tampa. Call to confirm.
BEYOND THE SEA (PG-13) Kevin Spacey's well-intentioned but seriously bungled biopic about Bobby Darin nails the singer's voice, his stage mannerisms and his act, but gets almost everything else wrong. The movie takes one of those warmed-over Dennis Potter-esque approaches, à la All That Jazz and De-Lovely, where the characters step outside the action to comment on it and take us on a guided tour of their lives while conversing with younger versions of themselves. The pomo trappings fall particularly flat here, a lame attempt to disguise the movie's shallow and crushingly uninspired adherence to standard biopic formulas as it trudges along from one episode in Darin's life to the next. Currently playing at Burns Court Cinemas. Call to confirm.
BLADE: TRINITY (R) Wesley Snipes returns as the iconic, elaborately tattooed hybrid human-vampire, but this time he's reduced to a minor character in his own movie, overshadowed by a pair of young, vampire-hunting hipsters. One is Jessica Biel, who slinks around exposing her midriff when not kicking vampire butt, and the other is Ryan Reynolds, who engages in incessant, lively banter with Blade and supplies most of the movie's comedic moments. We quickly become numb to all the blood, guts and speed, and there really isn't much spooky stuff to be found, much less atmosphere. Blade: Trinity also features no less a baddie than Dracula himself (now known simply as Drake), although he's a bland, gold-chain-wearing beefcake, shirt unbuttoned to display the bulging pecs where his acting ability apparently resides. Also stars Dominic Purcell.
CLOSER (R) Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen play sexual (and maybe, just maybe, romantic) musical chairs in a raw-boned ballet of what director Mike Nichols probably intends as modern alienation. Law's would-be writer and Portman's off-and-on stripper are Couple No. 1, and Roberts' long-suffering photographer and Owen's rude-and-crude dermatologist are Couple No. 2, although each time the movie jumps forward in time it seems like someone is screaming at someone for screwing someone else. Nichols and writer Patrick Marber give us some moments of genuine, albeit vicious, power here (particularly in the film's later stages), but Closer's basic take on self-destructive relationships often seems like it's been chiseled with a sledgehammer – and it's certainly nothing new.
COACH CARTER (PG-13) Samuel L. Jackson stars in a drama based on the true story of a high school basketball coach who valued grades as much as the ability to win games. Also stars Rob Brown and Vincent Laresca. (Not Reviewed)
DARKNESS (R) Stylish visuals and atmosphere up the yin-yang are all well and good, but do not necessarily a good horror film make, as proven in spades by this swell-looking mess of a creepfest. Spanish filmmaker Jaume Balaguero, who previously gave us the excellent The Nameless, seems like a fish out of water directing a cast of English-speaking actors in a disjointed story about an American family coming apart at the seams while holed up in an isolated home in the Spanish countryside. Stars Anna Paquin, Lena Olin and Iain Glen.
ELEKTRA (PG-13) Her name is Elektra, "Like the tragedy," as one of the movie's characters puts it, and truer words were never spoken. Slick, loud, stupid and phony down to the marrow, this latest big-screen adaptation of a Marvel comic book is a tough slog. Jennifer Garner reprises the ninja-like superheroine character she played in Daredevil, but lacks the gravitas to pull off the role and comes off about as believable in the part as, say, Pamela Anderson. Frankly, Pam might have been a better choice; at least her presence might have provided this glum project with some much-needed, self-deflating humor or, for that matter, personality. 1/2
FAT ALBERT (PG) That old-school gang of cartoon characters from the '70s TV show are transported into the real world of 2004, where they're briefly transformed into flesh-and-blood versions of their two-dimensional selves in order to help out a young girl's low-esteem issues. The first 45 minutes or so of this good-natured kiddie comedy is surprisingly watchable in a so-ridiculous-you-just-gotta-love-it kind of way, as Fat Albert and his crew riff away on their established cartoon personae while revealing themselves as street kids from a kinder, gentler time. It's not until the last half hour, when the Cosby Kids start becoming assimilated with the real world, that the movie ceases being very much fun and starts making with the messages. 1/2
FINDING NEVERLAND (PG) Finding Neverland depicts the friendship between Peter Pan creator J.M. Barrie (an unusually subdued Johnny Depp) and the five young sons of a beautiful young widow (Kate Winslet), giving us a romance, a coming-of-age tale, and an elaborate parlor game in which we're teased with the bits from Barrie's life that served as inspiration for his classic-to-be about a boy who refused to grow up. It's best to put history out of your mind here, since the movie whitewashes several key facts of Barrie's life, but then again Finding Neverland is a movie designed to lift spirits, not dash them. Marc Forster, a talented director previously responsible for the much grittier Monsters Ball, coaches solid performances from the cast and layers Neverland with pleasing symmetries, wit and moments that make good on a clear intention to appear "magical." What we get is pleasant enough but a bit too pre-digested to take completely seriously. Also stars Radha Mitchell, Julie Christie and Dustin Hoffman. 1/2
FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX (PG-13) A by-the-numbers re-working of Robert Aldrich's 1965 curiosity about a ragtag group of plane-crash survivors stranded in the middle of the desert and attempting to survive while they rebuild their plane. The 2004 version turns the characters into a much blander crew of misfits, adds some awful-looking CGI sequences and a couple of supposedly rousing inspirational speeches, and pads the action with extended and almost entirely gratuitous montage sequences set to classic rock songs (and a smattering of new tunes that smack of readymade nostalgia). Giovanni Ribisi is fairly interesting as the quirkiest member of the crew, but the rest of the cast is utterly forgettable, not excluding Dennis Quaid, who spends a lot of time with his shirt off but is not remotely up to the task of slipping into Jimmy Stewart's shoes.
HOTEL RWANDA (R) The first film about the Rwanda genocide of 1994 — when nearly 1 million Tutsi were slaughtered by Hutu tribesmen in barely 100 days – is earnest, informative and well-meaning, but ultimately just a bit toothless. Don Cheadle gives a nicely understated performance as the manager of an upscale Rwandan hotel secretly transformed into a refuge for those facing extinction, including his own family. The film takes a Schindler's List-lite approach to its tragic topic, focusing on relief efforts and survivors, with little overt violence or gore on display and just a sprinkling of scenes hinting at the real extent of the horror that's occurring. We know the situation is terrible mainly because various characters keep telling us that it is in a series of melodramatic and/or preachy monologues that turn the film into a message movie that's more tearjerker than jaw-dropper. Hotel Rwanda performs the dubious task of taking horror of nearly unimaginable proportions and making it, if not palatable, at least understandable – but, as Pasolini showed us in Salo, there's something to be said for making an "undigestible" film. Some things are simply not meant for us to wrap our minds around. Also stars Nick Nolte and Sophie Okonedo.
THE HOUSE OF FLYNG DAGGERS (NR) With Hero and, now, the immensely entertaining House of Flying Daggers, Chinese director Zhang Yimou morphs from art house auteur to popular entertainer, completing his conquest of the West by beating Hollywood at its own game – sheer, kickass spectacle. Zhang's movie is the latest in a modern cycle of art-fu epics that, at their best, turn swordfights and hand-to-hand combat into acts of transcendental poetry. Simpler and less demanding than any of its immediate predecessors, Flying Daggers offers less characters and fewer sub-plots to keep track of, with a central storyline that simply involves a man and a woman falling in love while making a dangerous journey together in Ninth Century China. There are also some 11th-hour twists where the secrets fall so thick and fast it nearly spoils the movie's effect, but it all resolves itself in a grand finale that's operatic in the best sense of the word, leaving us satisfied and a little excited. There's not much more to it than that, but the film is such a gorgeous, eye-popping entertainment that it's easy to forgive its lack of depth. 1/2
IN GOOD COMPANY (PG-13) Dennis Quaid stars as a middle-aged, old-school (tough but fair) executive who finds himself demoted to being the underling of a brash, twenty-something hotshot (Topher Grace) when his company is bought out by a Mega-Conglomerate run by a Rupert Murdoch-like marauder. Director Tom Weitz does a nice job contrasting the parallel paths of the younger man and the older one, with the private lives of each rising and falling in exact disproportion to what happens in the public arcs of their careers. There's also an amusing subplot that makes the most of Quaid's reactions to his young boss' romance with his daughter (Scarlet Johansson), but much of the movie falls into the realm of the predictable or toothless. Also stars Marg Helgenberger, Selma Blair and Malcom McDowell. 1/2
KINSEY (R) The so-called sexual revolution of the 20th century is a can of worms we still struggle with today, and this classy biopic of pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey gamely lays it all out, a bit provocative around the edges, but never off-putting. The film is handsomely crafted, witty, sensitive and frequently thoughtful, but it's also a bit bloodless, at least for what this material would seem to demand. Kinsey doesn't exactly ignore the meatier, thornier implications of its own story, but it folds them neatly and a little too smoothly into quantities of more conventionally appealing biopic material, beginning with Liam Neeson in the title role as another Schindler for another moment, a flawed but benevolent facilitator of refugees seeking asylum of the sexual kind. Kinsey may have been somewhat robotic in real life (think of him as the original sex machine), but Hollywood has never had much trouble making androids endearing, a feat accomplished here with the casting of Neeson, a supremely sympathetic actor, and by a sprinkling of carefully calculated insights into Kinsey's personal life and background. Also stars Laura Linney, Peter Sarsgaard, John Lithgow, Chris O'Donnell, Timothy Hutton and Tim Curry. 1/2
LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS (PG) Morbidly witty, imaginatively stylized and with surprisingly little pandering to tiny or otherwise tiny-minded viewers, there's much to enjoy in this dark-but-not-too-dark fantasy about the trials and tribulations of a trio of ingenious orphans. Jim Carrey dons a series of elaborate disguises as the young pups' nemesis, an evil actor who keeps putting the kiddies in a succession of increasingly harrowing predicaments from which they must use all their considerable, McGyver-like resources to escape. It's not exactly Shakespeare, but there are lots of curious characters, bizarre and outlandish landscapes, and a tone that's more or less faithful to the dark, disarmingly dry sensibility of the original books. The film is a production designer's dream, with wonderfully odd little Edward Gorey-esque flourishes and filigrees loitering about the edges of nearly every frame. Also stars Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly, Meryl Streep and Jude Law. 1/2
THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (R) While its joys are not so warming or self-evident as those of his previous Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, Wes Anderson's latest movie is unlike any other. With The Life Aquatic, Anderson doesn't give us particularly likeable or even "real" characters, and the humor is so dry and understated that "jokes" frequently fly under the radar, but the film does present an entire, not-quite-alternate universe, one as inexplicably skewed and intricately self-contained as something you'd find in a big, fat novel by Thomas Pynchon. Anderson seems to be setting himself up as Hollywood's Pynchon, in fact, with a movie that, while technically a comedy, is often maddeningly enigmatic to the point of obscurity, set in a world a half-stop removed from reality and floating along on a narrative both elaborate and sketch-like. The movie's characters include some magnificently strange but emotionally distant birds (led by Bill Murray as the disagreeable but oddly charismatic Zissou), a guy who periodically croons Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie songs in Portuguese, and there are even a few mock action sequences as wonderfully inept and ludicrous as anything you'll see in Team America. Also stars Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum and Anjelica Huston. 1/2
MEET THE FOCKERS (PG-13) If you liked Meet the Parents, odds are you'll love this sequel, which has pretty much everything the original had plus a little something else just to make sure all the bases are covered. Besides the patented oil-and-water dynamic between Ben Stiller and his future in-laws, we get an even more strained (and consequently, in movie logic, wackier) dynamic between those same, uptight WASPy future in-laws and Stiller's own oversexed and way ethnic parents (Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand). There's also a cute baby, a tiny dog and cat who do terrible (as in terrible-funny) things to each other, and Robert DeNiro wearing a fake boob. The main show here is Hoffman and Streisand, though, who are actually quite funny together, despite being saddled with a script that too often relies on jokes about old people having sex and that apparently thinks the ultimate in hilarity is to simply have someone say anything that pops into their heads in Yiddish. The movie also gets much comedic mileage merely by repeating the word "Focker" again and again, but, fortunately, there's a fair amount here that's genuinely amusing, too. Also stars Blythe Danner and Teri Polo.
NATIONAL TREASURE (PG) Lightweight but entertaining yarn about a secret treasure hidden by the Founding Fathers, an invisible map on the back of the Declaration of Independence, and an enterprising treasure hunter (Nicholas Cage) who hopes to find what generations of his family members could not. The film could play as nothing more than an attempt to cash in on the massive success of The Da Vinci Code, but director Jon Turteltaub manage to keep the plot moving and the characters convincing. Cage is outstanding at the center of the film, always engaging and lending heft to the pseudo-history presented throughout the film (think of it more as name-dropping than actual history). The supporting players, including Diane Kruger as the love interest and Harvey Keitel as the cop investigating the case, are also terrific. Perhaps the film's biggest surprise is just how innocent it is, playing up adventure instead of violence and keeping the language mild. This one truly is for the whole family. -Joe Bardi
OCEAN'S 12 (PG-13) Master thieves George Clooney, Brad Pitt and the rest of the Ocean gang are back in a gleefully convoluted plot that involves a couple of heists, a sexy detective (Catherine Zeta-Jones) in hot pursuit, a showdown with a rival criminal mastermind and an assortment of glitzy Euro-destinations including Rome, Paris, Amsterdam and Lake Como. The actors all appear to be having a grand old time and director Steven Soderbergh moves the film along at a clip, with a pleasantly off-kilter, loosey-goosey style that, not to put too fine a point on it, evokes the energy and attitude (not to mention the jump cuts and radical temporal shifts) of the early French New Wave. The movie nearly breaks its own spell in the end with a final plot twist involving Julia Roberts' character that's so postmodern meta-meta it nearly breaks the film's flow, but it turns out to only be a minor disruption in what is basically a very good time at the movies. The soundtrack is pretty stellar, too. Also stars Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle and Vincent Cassel. 1/2
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (PG-13) Remixed version of the hit Broadway musical, The Phantom of the Opera finds director Joel Schumacher switching scenes around, adding a new song, wrapping the whole thing in a framing story and managing to construct a successful film out of the parts of the stage original. As the chandelier crashes and the opera house burns, it becomes clear that this Phantom, for better or worse, is pumped up with the Hollywood juice. While purists might gasp at Schumacher's liberties, the updates free the film to breathe, jump around in time and even escape the confines of the opera house (for some swordplay in a graveyard, no less). Fans, take heart: even with all the changes, the plot (Phantom tutors girl, loses girl, goes on murderous rampage) and the music manage to stay true to the original. An up-and-coming cast including local boy Patrick Wilson (as the Phantom's enemy, Raoul) and beautiful newcomer Emmy Rossum lend the film energy and heart, and the set design, costumes and staging of the musical numbers are first-rate. 1/2 -Joe Bardi
RACING STRIPES (PG) A young girl adopts a baby zebra, introduces him to a farm full of wacky barnyard animals (all of whom can talk), and dreams of turning him into a champion racer. Featuring the voices of Frankie Muniz, Michael Clarke Duncan, Dustin Hoffman, Jeff Foxworthy and Whoopi Goldberg. (Not Reviewed)
RAY (PG-13) While not quite the modern American classic we were hoping for, Ray is still solid entertainment and a particular joy for Ray Charles fans. The movie presents Charles as a fusion of musical genius, tortured soul and Daredevil/Zatoichi (with an impressively developed hearing sense compensating for his blindness), and then dutifully walks us through the high and low points of his life. We get the music (thankfully, and lots of it), the childhood traumas, the drugs, the womanizing, the refusal to see blindness as a handicap, and the eventual rise to fame. The music is glorious, of course (with a heavy concentration on Ray's brilliant mid- to late-'50s period), and Jamie Foxx's performance/impersonation ranks with Jim Carrey's impeccable Andy Kaufman, but Ray is not immune to many of the problems that inevitably plague biopics. As is common with this form, the movie tends to play like a greatest hits (and flops) of Charles' life, with equal weight given to nearly everything, too much crammed in, and too little transitional material. Also stars Kerry Washington and Regina King. 1/2
RED LIGHTS (NR) Based on a novel by Georges Simenon, Red Lights is an austere, oddly gripping blend of mystery, marital drama and psychological thriller that's not quite any of those things. Director Cedric Kahn begins by focusing intently on his two main characters, an alcoholic husband and his somewhat frosty wife (Jean-Pierre Darrousin and Carole Bouquet), placing them in a car together in the middle of the night and simply watching the kinks and cracks in their marriage reveal themselves as their nocturnal ride progresses. The film goes in all sorts of unexpected directions from there, throwing a few more or less traditional scares our way (an escaped prisoner figures prominently in the proceedings) but mostly discovering its suspense in small details, silence, real time and other unlikely places. Kahn cops out with a lackluster final act, but the first two-thirds of Red Lights takes Sartre's "Hell is other people" line and runs with it, creating a delicately shaded atmosphere of tension and unease where all sorts of terrible things are not only possible but deliciously probable. The score by Debussy is a nice touch, too. Also stars Vincent Denlard. 1/2
STRAIGHT JACKET (NR) Not to be confused with the old Joan Crawford camp classic about the battle-axe with the axe. This contemporary Straight Jacket lacks Mommie Dearest and has nothing to do with murderous psychos, be they carrying large sharp tools or otherwise – although it might well have benefited from some. Directed by Richard Day, creator of the wonderfully raunchy Girls Will Be Girls, this bright-eyed but not very funny comedy stars Matt Letscher as a Rock Hudson-esque '50s matinee idol attempting to hide his gayness from the rest of Hollywood and the general public by getting hitched to a ditzy blonde bimbette (Carrie Preston). The ruse marriage is in trouble from the get-go, of course, but major complications set in when our hero falls for a cute male co-worker (Adam Greer). It's all pretty much as sitcom-like as it sounds, and the campy attitude and candy-colored sets don't begin to make up for the lame jokes and terrible acting. Also stars Veronica Cartwright.
WHITE NOISE (PG-13) Sounds like a supernatural thriller of the week, in which a dead person and a surviving spouse attempt to communicate with each other across the void. A long missing-in-action Michael Keaton stars, but don't expect too much. The studio isn't screening this one for critics until it's too late for most deadlines, which is never actually a good sign. Also stars Deborah Unger. (Not Reviewed)
The Woodsman (NR) There are no easy answers, no suggestions of some miraculous cure waiting in the wings for the guilt-ridden pedophile at the heart of The Woodsman – a brave artistic decision that's bound to frustrate even the most sophisticated viewers and possibly enrage others. In its mostly quiet, deliberately paced way, the movie simply observes its recently paroled subject, Walter (a slow-burning and almost painfully intense Kevin Bacon), struggling to overcome his nature as he begins the process of picking up the pieces of what might loosely be called his life. There are a handful of minor characters here and some non-essential sub-plots, but The Woodsman is at its best when nothing much is really happening, in a strict, story-driven sense – when the movie is simply recording Walter wrestling with his considerable demons. The Woodsman admirably refrains from passing judgment, but it's not beyond stretching metaphors to encourage us to see Walter as a kind of Holy/Unholy Trinity all wrapped up in one tightly wound bundle of nerves – he's rescuer, wolf and Red Riding Hood, a conflicted hero who has to slay his own big, bad self in order to free the innocent lamb waiting inside. As human goods go, Walter's about as damaged as they come, but the last thing The Woodsman wants is for us to see him as a demon; even if his nature repels us, the film makes it surprisingly easy to be moved by the efforts of this tortured and confused man to understand himself, by his desire for transformation. Also stars Kyra Sedgwick, Benjamin Bratt and Eve. 1/2
Reviewed entries by Lance Goldenberg unless otherwise noted.
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 1, 2005.