Connie Ogle

The film is more of an exercise in pandering and propaganda -- give your baby up for adoption, you selfish pig! -- than the heartfelt drama it aims to be.

Impossible not to like.

The film isn’t overlong. But it tries to fit so many themes into its brief running time — that it merely touches on most conflicts instead of exploring them in depth or with any delicacy.

The Great Debaters keeps things on the surface and pushes the obvious buttons, hoping you won't notice its distinct lack of depth.

Above all, this story is about the peril that lurks under life's surfaces.

Kill Your Darlings is more coming-of-age story than murder mystery, but its characters are so well drawn and complex the emotional weight carries a suspense all its own.

In a way, Phillip Noyce's film is the anti-"Inception"; it's never dazzling, but it's never confusing, either. It's a Bourne movie minus the exotic locations and sickening handheld camera, and its head spy has way better lips than Matt Damon.

Apted delivers a fine, righteous climax and packs his film with some of Britain's best character actors.

Gamely depicts an interesting bit of history, but its real message is a matter of principle.

Dan in Real Life is basically a slightly less-sappy version of "TheFamily Stone."

Just plain fun. Don't miss it.

Despite the film's sloppy structure, it feels weirdly good to hang out with these losers again.

In the end The Overnight promises more than it can deliver: Some of the supposedly provocative material ends up being juvenile, and the movie ends just as the situation gets truly, weirdly interesting. It’s too tame a resolution to a film that suggested the capacity for more.

Mostly, though, Ondine deftly demonstrates just how far we'll reach for any promise of relief from life's hardships, in whatever form -- magic or plain dumb luck -- it arrives.

Coppola and her crew were allowed to shoot at Versailles -- family pedigree does pay dividends, apparently -- which gives the film a needed whiff of reality.

Some of the developments feel a bit predictable — shot in the dull hues of gray that match Maud’s life, Suffragette occasionally turns hard truths into platitudes — but the story is inspiring, buoyed by a fine cast, a pointed, important examination of the price paid for a shot at equality.

The film builds to a three-pronged tumultuous climax, shot in slow motion that could have been overwrought but somehow isn’t.

The film hardly aims to be serious entertainment, and, to its credit, it's never uninteresting visually.

Quartet is truly an actor's film.

It's a small, heartening slice of life that feels like a crucial step toward something bigger.

Solid family entertainment, with thrilling action sequences and gorgeous scenery.

It still feels a little like a lesson you’re supposed to learn before you can enjoy anything truly satisfying.

The idea of cracking a secret message from the enemy during war is thrilling; making the process interesting to watch is more problematic.

Page, who died in 2008 in Los Angeles at the age of 85, makes for a blunt but engaging narrator who’s refreshingly candid about sex and her own inner demons.

This new Brideshead Revisted, though imperfectly revised, is not entirely regrettable.

A nice set of drapes and a striking ballgown or two are not enough to provide this interesting love story any serious heft or insight.

Co-written by Tony Gilroy, who penned the tricky "Michael Clayton" and the even trickier "Duplicity," State of Play displays its savvy without being quite so showy.

It turns out to be a satisfying, if occasionally wandering, adventure.