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January 8-14, 2009
buzz@boulderweekly.com
 Australia
En route to love, and to save his ranch from the clutches of a rival, a cattleman known as “The Drover” (Hugh Jackman) guides a prim Englishwoman (Nicole Kidman), a crew of mixed-race outcasts and 1,500 head of cattle across thousands of miles of Australia during World War II. The second half of director Baz Luhrmann’s first project since Moulin Rouge! develops some momentum. But you have to pass through the first half to get to the second, by which time you may find yourself drowning in high-fructose Aussie corn syrup. Rated PG-13 (a scene of sensuality, brief strong language and some violence). At Flatiron. — Michael Phillips
Bedtime Stories
Adam Sandler plays Skeeter, a hotel handyman under the thumb of the owner (Richard Griffiths) and manager (Guy Pearce). Skeeter and his sister (Courteney Cox) grew up in a motel bungalow court, and Skeeter longs for a crack at running the hotel that’s built on the site. While Sis is away, Skeeter must baby-sit for his niece and nephew, and the adventure stories he spins become fantasy vignettes that somehow manage to improve his disappointing life. It’s an adequate idea, dutifully delivered. Rated PG (some mild rude humor and mild language). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
Bolt
Voiced by John Travolta, the chief asset in a bland ensemble struggling with its material, Bolt is a canine who headlines a TV show co-starring his longtime owner, Penny (Miley Cyrus). Bolt has never been told that his life-or-death adventures are fake, so he’s the star of his own depressing version of The Truman Show. Complications separate Bolt from Penny, sending him to New York City, where his superpowers, which he believes to be real, are useless. This animated Disney feature is stingy on wit, charm, jokes and narrative satisfactions. Rated PG (some mild action and peril). At Flatiron. — Michael Phillips
 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
This is a tall tale of a man aging in reverse while bobbing serenely on life’s unpredictable seas. The colorful supporting characters spill their guts to the wonder of nature played by Brad Pitt, as he begins his life a very old man, ages into late-middle age, ripens into... well, Brad Pitt, then embarks on the big fade into childhood, infancy and check-out time. It’s worth seeing because the sights are truly something. As with his earlier Zodiac, director David Fincher applies the right technology in the right way. Rated PG-13 (brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The year’s least necessary remake stars Keanu Reeves as interplanetary visitor Klaatu, first introduced in the 1951 original. This time, Earth’s sins are more climate-based than warfare-based. Klaatu has come to issue a warning to Earth’s leaders: Either treat your planet with more care or prepare for mass extinction. Reeves’ portrayal offers little spark or surprise. Klaatu is a blank, and all around him, the flying spheres and Mummy-inspired digital swirls of schmutz are strictly routine. Rated PG-13 (some sci-fi disaster images and violence). At Flatiron. — Michael Phillips
Doubt
A deft, beautifully built play has made it to the screen with its dramatic juice intact. John Patrick Shanley adapted and directed his stage piece set in a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964, pitting Meryl Streep’s Sister Aloysius against Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Father Flynn, who’s suspected of an improper student relationship. Rated PG-13 (thematic material). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Mayan. — Michael Phillips
Frost/Nixon
Director Ron Howard’s screen version of the Peter Morgan play allows Michael Sheen and Frank Langella to re-create their stage roles as David Frost and Richard Nixon, respectively. Frost’s people paid Nixon’s people $600,000 for the disgraced former president to sit for a series of television interviews taped in 1977, not quite three years after Nixon resigned. Watching Frost lock rhetorical horns with his subject made for a riveting postmortem on a fall from power. Howard’s film pours old-fashioned theatrical juice into a cinematic bottle and lets the actors drink it up. Rated R (some language). At Century. — Michael Phillips
Gran Torino
Clint Eastwood’s performance as a reclusive Korean War veteran toughing it out in a sketchy Detroit-area neighborhood may well lead to his first Academy Award for acting. But we’ll have to assume he’s winning it for richer assignments en route. After the vet’s young neighbor (Bee Vang) breaks into his garage to steal the car for which this film is named, our hero sets out to teach the boy how to stand up to his venal gangsta cousins. Some of this is affecting and painful in the right way; a lot of it is just cheap. Rated R (language throughout and some violence). At Flatiron, Century and Colony Square.
Happy Go Lucky
This is accomplished director Mike Leigh’s most buoyantly comic feature, and it’s a marvelous showcase for Sally Hawkins, who stars as the perpetually cheery Poppy, a grade-school teacher in North London. Happy-Go-Lucky is an ode to the power of irrational exuberance, and Leigh keeps the narrative machinery to a minimum. Everything is a bit neat, but a lot of Leigh’s work tends toward a heightened theatrical neatness. When it works, the result is a slice of life that, in terms of honest cinematic storytelling, is more like a slice of cake. Rated R (language). At Starz. — Michael Phillips
I’ve Loved You So Long
Kristin Scott Thomas may be a more subtle and expressive performer in French than in English, and in this absorbing if schematic French-language drama, she’s superb as a doctor recently released from a 15-year prison sentence. The particulars of her crime, and her uneasy adjustment to a new life, form the basis of writer-director Philippe Claudet’s debut feature. Expect an Oscar nomination for Thomas. Rated PG-13 (thematic material and smoking). At Starz. — Michael Phillips
Marley & Me
The misadventures of a lovable Labrador retriever frame this sweet, surprisingly moving chronicle of a young couple’s struggle to simultaneously build a family, advance their careers and maintain their sanity. Owen Wilson plays journalist John Grogan, whose popular 2005 memoir spawned this film, and Jennifer Aniston plays Jenny, his wife. Dog lovers will laugh delightedly for the first hour and spend the second hour weeping openly. Rated PG (thematic material, some suggestive content and language). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Jessica Reaves
Milk
The story of Harvey Milk is a tragedy, but not since Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High has Sean Penn played such a serenely happy individual. Penn is superb as the martyred San Francisco city supervisor, America’s first widely acknowledged openly gay elected official. He was killed by Milk’s former colleague, Dan White (Josh Brolin, also excellent), minutes after White’s fatal shooting of Mayor George Moscone in 1978. Rated R (language, some sexual content and brief violence). At Mayan, Century and Chez Artiste. — Michael Phillips
Rachel Getting Married
Jonathan Demme’s most bracing narrative feature since The Silence of the Lambs combines a wedding with a tense family reunion, starring Anne Hathaway as a recovering addict returning home for her sister’s nuptials. A triumph of ambience, this is the first Demme film since the 1980s that feels like a party — bittersweet, but a party nonetheless. Rated R (language and brief sexuality). At Starz. — Michael Phillips
The Reader
Kate Winslet stars in the film version of Bernhard Schlink’s 1995 novel about a 15-year-old West German boy who, in 1958, embarks on an affair with a 36-year-old trolley conductor with more on her mind, and in her past, than she admits. The novel was hugely popular as well as controversial worldwide and an Oprah’s Book Club selection besides. However, it needed a different set of interpreters to make any emotional sense of it on screen. Even in the scenes dominated by Winslet, you never quite believe the way anything unfolds. Rated R (some scenes of sexuality and nudity). At Century and Chez Artiste. — Michael Phillips
Revolutionary Road
See full screen review on page 27. Rated R. At Esquire.
Seven Pounds
This movie has a big heart, but it’s made out of high-fructose bull. Will Smith plays an IRS agent who has committed a terrible deed and appears to be investigating the cases of a carefully selected group of people, including a seriously ill heart patient (Rosario Dawson) and a blind pianist (Woody Harrelson). This specious tale of redemption is likely to be the sternest test to date of Smith’s box-office prowess. If he puts this one over, he can do anything. Rated PG-13 (thematic material, some disturbing content and a scene of sensuality). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a ruthlessly effective paean to destiny, leaving nothing to chance. It also has a good shot at winning this year’s Academy Award for best picture, if the pundits have anything to say about it. Every arrow plucked from director Danny Boyle’s quiver takes aim at the same objective: to leave you exhausted but wowed. An 18-year-old (Dev Patel) in the former Bombay, India, is suspected of cheating his way to national fame on the Hindi version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? Rated R (some violence, disturbing images and some language). At Flatiron, Century, Esquire and Chez Artiste. — Michael Phillips
The Tale of Despereaux
This earnest, emotional film is a mixed but pretty interesting bag, though its G rating may mislead some parents into taking 4- or 5-year-olds to it, which could lead to some freakouts. Much of the movie, based on a Newbery Medal-winning book, has a grim narrative. But this rodent story featuring the voices of Matthew Broderick, Emma Watson and Kevin Kline, among others, is still better-than-average animation. Rated G. At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
Twilight
This highly anticipated, surprisingly low-key vampire movie is a film of intelligent strengths and avoidable weaknesses, a modest adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s publishing phenomenon. It’s faithful to its source material, and it’s better written than Meyer’s frothy book. Teen Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) relocates from Arizona to Washington, where she falls for tortured, sensitive vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Director Catherine Hardwicke was right to concentrate on getting the smoldering down between her stars, but her film lacks visual magic. Rated PG-13 (some violence, and a scene of sensuality). At Flatiron. — Michael Phillips
Valkyrie
Director Bryan Singer’s drama about a plot to assassinate Hitler stars Tom Cruise as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, a cultured aesthete who turned against his supreme commander. Cruise isn’t bad, but he cannot suggest the aristocratic hauteur or the steely authority needed in this role. Going into this film, you know how things are going to come out. Still, with actors as good as Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Thomas Kretschmann and Kenneth Branagh in key supporting roles, this ensemble piece avoids the usual action-movie triumphalism. Rated PG-13 (violence and brief strong language). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
The Wrestler
See full screen review on page 57. Rated R. At Mayan.
Yes Man
Jim Carrey plays a loan officer who can’t get out of his self-pitying rut three years after a breakup. Then he encounters a self-help guru (Terence Stamp, in his first genuinely funny screen appearance) who challenges his followers to say “yes” to every single thing that comes their way. Zooey Deschanel plays the love interest, a bohemian L.A. girl. The tone of Yes Man isn’t predominantly manic, which may throw some die-hard Carrey fans expecting the old shtick. But the interplay between Carrey and Deschanel makes this one worthwhile. Rated PG-13 (crude sexual humor, language and brief nudity). At Flatiron, Century and Colony Square. — Michael Phillips
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