Wednesday roundup - pre-Thanksgiving edition
Five movies are out today, ahead of the long Thanksgiving weekend.
The big movie of the week, Baz Luhrmann's "Australia," goes for 165 minutes - and some of it is quite spectacular. Luhrmann pulls out every trick in the Hollywood epic playbook for this story of an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) and a rough-and-ready drover (Hugh Jackman) who team up to save her late husband's cattle station from a monopolistic beef baron (Bryan Brown) at the verge of World War II. Luhrmann, who's so confidently over the top when he can control his soundstage universe (see "Moulin Rouge!"), seems a bit cowed by the wide open spaces of his home country. In the end, the movie is as untamed as the land.
For Thanksgiving, we get one full-on turkey: "Four Christmases," a wheezing, labored farce starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn as an unmarried yuppie couple who must hit all four of their divorced parents' holiday celebrations in one day. This torturous comedy is harder for us to endure than it was for them.
Keeping in the holiday mood, with better results, is "A Christmas Tale," a well-acted dysfunctional-family drama from France. The great Catherine Deneuve plays the family matriarch, who is diagnosed with leukemia - which prompts a large family reunion that includes the black-sheep son (Mathieu Amalric, from "Quantum of Solace"). Director Arnaud Desplechin lets things run on a bit long at 151 minutes, but with these performances (including Chiara Mastroianni, Deneuve's real-life daughter) it's hard to see where to cut.
One more studio movie: "Transporter 3," another run of ridiculously overdone action sequences that showcase Jason Statham's muscles and the stunt team's driving skill. This time, though, the franchise is a little low on gas.
The week's best movie is a terrifying little chiller from Sweden, "Let the Right One In," in which a 12-year-old boy befriends a girl he thinks is 12 - but later finds is a permanently pre-teen vampire. The emotional impact of these two lost souls is touching, and the horror sequences are deliciously scary.
The big movie of the week, Baz Luhrmann's "Australia," goes for 165 minutes - and some of it is quite spectacular. Luhrmann pulls out every trick in the Hollywood epic playbook for this story of an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) and a rough-and-ready drover (Hugh Jackman) who team up to save her late husband's cattle station from a monopolistic beef baron (Bryan Brown) at the verge of World War II. Luhrmann, who's so confidently over the top when he can control his soundstage universe (see "Moulin Rouge!"), seems a bit cowed by the wide open spaces of his home country. In the end, the movie is as untamed as the land.
For Thanksgiving, we get one full-on turkey: "Four Christmases," a wheezing, labored farce starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn as an unmarried yuppie couple who must hit all four of their divorced parents' holiday celebrations in one day. This torturous comedy is harder for us to endure than it was for them.
Keeping in the holiday mood, with better results, is "A Christmas Tale," a well-acted dysfunctional-family drama from France. The great Catherine Deneuve plays the family matriarch, who is diagnosed with leukemia - which prompts a large family reunion that includes the black-sheep son (Mathieu Amalric, from "Quantum of Solace"). Director Arnaud Desplechin lets things run on a bit long at 151 minutes, but with these performances (including Chiara Mastroianni, Deneuve's real-life daughter) it's hard to see where to cut.
One more studio movie: "Transporter 3," another run of ridiculously overdone action sequences that showcase Jason Statham's muscles and the stunt team's driving skill. This time, though, the franchise is a little low on gas.
The week's best movie is a terrifying little chiller from Sweden, "Let the Right One In," in which a 12-year-old boy befriends a girl he thinks is 12 - but later finds is a permanently pre-teen vampire. The emotional impact of these two lost souls is touching, and the horror sequences are deliciously scary.
8:36 AM
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