Ruthe Stein

The new movie shrieks of motherhood - raising hot-button issues like biological clocks running down, the rights of birth mothers and whether to adopt or give artificial insemination a shot.

Still feels stagebound, inert when it needs to be cinematic.

A compelling and visually arresting drama.

As good as family entertainment gets.

Pretentious drama.

Much as she did in "Little Miss Sunshine," Breslin imbues Kit with joy.

Suffused with a golden glow, the movie looks and sounds like a fairy tale.

This movie borders on the ridiculous, but is pulled back by an aesthetic portrayal of the supernatural and by its stars.

A quirky but surprisingly lighthearted dark comedy.

Every once in a while you catch glimpses of originality and see what Gray Matters might have been if it hadn't gone soft and safe.

Considering the talent on both sides of the camera and a story that worked beautifully the first time around, Shall We Dance? should have been a lot better than OK.

Bloody good.

A warmhearted film.

The problem with this one may be that it just isn't British enough.

Like its singular central character, Before the Fall stands out from the pack.

Glatzer and Westmoreland live in Echo Park, and they have given their film a remarkable sense of place.

Boasts a collection of oddball characters, some more sharply written than others.

Don't little ones have enough to worry about without ecological concerns popping up in family entertainment? Happy Feet should have stayed light on its feet.

The Fountain' never comes together. Like the time traveler at its center, it's all over the map.

This so-called comedy is so not funny, it makes "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" look like Chaplin.

Filled with moments that will make you smile.

A frothy comedy with the most adorable buddies since "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

The film has aged gracefully.

To say it is about a debilitating disease is as reductive as saying "Little Miss Sunshine" is about a beauty pageant. Both are intimate stories of family ties that bind but sometimes also choke.

A junior version of "Fight Club," only with no movie stars and different moves.

By creating likable characters and putting them in situations that seem plausible, if a bit of a stretch, the film succeeds where others of its genre fail.

Fun to watch although falling short of a real hoot, this latest in a barrage of family movies largely succeeds at keeping the kiddies entertained and their parents from nodding off.

Director Robert Mulligan exhibits the same sensitivity about young people and their foibles as he did in "To Kill a Mockingbird." In 1962. You never sense that he's making fun of Hermie or his pals. [08 Jul 2007, p.16]

It's doubtful that audiences go to animated features to hear movie stars talk. They go because a film sounds like fun and something their kids and maybe they themselves might enjoy. Bolt is all that and more.

Watching the film is like being at a freak show: You feel like a voyeur, yet you can't take your eyes off this Mommie Dearest or her childlike middle-aged daughter.

The director has a natural's gift for storytelling and eye for casting.

A solid WWII movie that's been lost among myriad others about the same war. [02 Jul 2006, p.28]

Lange seems at a loss to know how to convey Martha's malevolence -- and writer-director Jonathan Darby offers almost no guidance.

Caruso, a very visual director, serves up some surprises and scares, and he's paced his movie briskly. You're out of this disturbing suburbia before you know it, shaken and even stirred.

The casting, at least, is magical. Plowright shows both her character's strength and her heartbreaking vulnerability, sometimes at once.

A wildly entertaining fantasy thriller that propels Russian cinema into the 21st century.

If you can still be entertained by a thriller that unabashedly borrows from others of its ilk and don't mind reading subtitles, you could do worse than District B13. It's over so fast, in a quick 85 minutes, there's scarcely time to get bored by the silly plot.

The ending is predictable to anybody who's followed the trajectory of outsourcing. Outsourced humanizes those affected by it - even if the story sounds familiar.

One of very few films to accurately portray the experience of growing up male.

Becomes tiresome.

A breed apart from anything coming off the Hollywood assembly line or, for that matter, from the saccharine romances Britain has lately produced.

Vanessa Redgrave makes a regal if too-brief appearance.

Hanssen is such an enigma that any attempt to explain him has inherent interest. Breach expends too much energy on a minor functionary, but it is still worth seeing for its fleeting looks into a heart of darkness.

Heart-wrenching film.

It is crystal clear who screwed up this tortuously slow-moving romantic drama.

With a strongly visual director, Ridley Scott ("Blade Runner," "Alien", the film really shows what's involved at this level of combat training.

Intermittently funny.

Van Houten, a veteran of European TV, is in almost every scene, and her energetic performance keeps Black Book percolating despite an overstuffed plot that strains credibility and often tips over into melodrama.

A heartwarming, inspirational tale.

Attempts something startlingly original by melding light opera with soap opera.

Sleuth"is that rare film that would have been better longer. You're not through looking at Caine and Law when the final credits roll.

A bit of fluff expertly made and a hoot to watch.

Deliriously original.

It's a first feature film for both screenwriter Alex Rose and director Gaby Dellal, and their inexperience shows in Frank's underdeveloped relationships with family and friends and in the movie's sluggish pacing.

Sounds great and if nothing else should help diminish the stereotype, blasted by the film's subjects, of Gypsies as little more than pickpockets whom travelers need to be wary of.

With Lloyd Webber onboard not just as composer but also co-screenwriter and producer, the film seemed destined to stay true to its roots rather than attempt to transcend them.

Overly long and not especially enlightening film.

A mess, and that's really a shame.

Given the juiciest plotline, Tamblyn goes for it, turning in a hard-boiled performance that's a needed contrast to her co-stars' tendency to go for sweet.

A mishmash of a musical. The movie never gels -- despite Kline's nuanced performance, the stars' exquisite period clothes, designed by Armani, and, of course, Porter's great songs.

The film is a particular disappointment considering its pedigree.

A sweet, bordering on saccharine, comedy.

The film is better than it has any right to be, considering the prosaic source.

While dinner and a movie is in theory a great idea, I'd avoid eating before taking in Lunacy.

A slow-moving family drama guaranteed to induce a nap if not somnambulism.

I'm not denying that a 40-year- old woman might be self-conscious about going around with someone this young. But the subject isn't interesting or provocative enough to sustain an entire movie.

Has the slapped-together, cheesy look of a porno movie. While this could be distracting, the shoddiness sets the mood for a humorous spin on the European porn industry circa early 1970s.

Extremely pleasurable and well worth seeing.

The movie is unable to achieve lift-off and transcend the formulaic stuff coming out of Hollywood, despite the perfect casting of Uma Thurman.

A sequel arrives for Valentine's Day with the unwieldy title Step Up 2 the Streets. If it performs as well, watch for "Step Up 3: the Sprained Ankle."

An appealingly quirky thriller from Brazil.

Wise and wondrous.

Has an old-fashioned feel, as if it had been made in the period of its setting. I mean this as a compliment.

The key to enjoying the film is warming up to the heroine, Poppy.

The sequel is one big tease.

Suffers from Resnais' inability to open it up and give it the look and pulse of a film.

Evokes grand emotions -- anxiety, sadness, joy -- sometimes within moments of one another. Broken Wings has heart and a poetic soul.

As uneven as I Think I Love My Wife often is, it still has an emotional resonance lacking in most films about relationships. By dealing with temptation in even a quasi-realistic way, it affirms that, like comedy, monogamy is hard.

The movie [Sugarman] made gives little indication that she understands teen girls, dramatic or plain. Much of Confessions seems clueless and -- even worse for moviegoers of any age -- listless.

This deeply moving and disturbing film derives power from being based on the true story of a black South African who does everything possible, no matter how degrading, to get by within an immoral system, but becomes radicalized almost despite himself.

It's amusing in a trashy sort of way.

That Pride ultimately gets to you is more of a surprise than the outcome because it's not very well-constructed.

Visually, the film is a stunner, dotted with psychedelic colors and many shades of red -- one battle is fought with red laser-gun sights -- some looking realistically like blood. When gangsters open fire, their falls are choreographed like a ballet. The problem comes when the cast opens its mouth and Elizabethan dialogue tumbles out.

Shot on the streets of New York and offering vistas of the city before all the glass and steel skyscrapers, The Naked City, which won Oscars for cinematography and editing, boasts an impressive pedigree. [04 Jan 2004]

It works as an intriguingly offbeat character study while offering Nicolas Cage a chance to show why he used to be considered one of the top actors of his generation.

This harmless bit of fluff lacks the element of surprise but is not without random charming moments supplied by its incandescent star.

Well-intentioned but frequently inert.

If you enjoy gross humor -- elevated by an occasional witty line -- and looking at babes, and don't mind a little blood and gore, do I have a date movie for you.

For all its depiction of a descent into drug addiction, Candy is filled with surprisingly sweet moments and goes down more easily than seems possible given the subject matter.

Adapted from a French play but never seems stage- bound.

It says something about this movie that Redford is at his most compelling playing opposite a nag.

A revelatory independent film whose moments of incredible sadness are offset by the same state of grace that blesses its astonishing title character.

Recalling the earthiness Broderick Crawford brought to the original, I couldn't help thinking Gandolfini should have been cast as Willie.

A subtly rich performance by Dillane and a fine supporting cast make this Holocaust drama worth seeing, even if you don't think you can bear another one.

The biggest puzzlement about "What'' is what it's doing in major movie theaters around the country when it so clearly belongs on one of those small cable channels given to peculiar programming.

Richard Jenkins gives the standout supporting performance, worthy of Oscar consideration, as Josey's father, a miner unable to conceal his anger at his daughter for having a child out of wedlock and, now, creating dissension at his workplace.

An argument could be made that too many bad things happen to the good members of this sisterhood. The movie does occasionally teeter on the brink of soap opera, but then, so does life.

Perhaps the humor has been lost in translation.

Karyo -- a big star in France but little known in this country -- has Steve Martin's knack for keeping his dignity while doing outrageous slapstick.

Fascinating and distinctly politically incorrect.

Like a soap opera, but most of what glitters is gold.

Far from the worst cookie-cutter film to come off the Hollywood assembly line, merely the latest.

Another art film that's more pretentious than it needs to be.

Shoot 'Em Up is not only the title of Hollywood's latest descent into nonsensical mayhem but pretty much sums up the entire inane plot as well.

Muddled, to put it kindly.

Wondrous performances.

The star's amusingly inventive performance keeps your attention through predictable early scenes when "Ohio" repeats familiar material on women's sexuality. It's like a continuation of "The Vagina Monologues" to see Liza Minnelli, as a New Age orgasm coach.

The whole thing is dizzying, like "Moulin Rouge" without songs and dances extolling love.

A tearjerker that earns its sobs with heartfelt emotions.

Dunye's engaging personality quickly wins you over. She deserves to be a character in a movie; she's more interesting than most.

An enjoyable if fairly predictable film.

The movie is shamelessly manipulative.

You're under the thrall of a new peculiar couple. Both actors appear to be having fun outmaneuvering each other on the ice and onscreen.

Although the acting is uneven and the movie's dead spots make it feel far longer than its running time, the twist in Twist' is certainly clever.

An engrossing new drama from France.

A dreary little thriller that irritates more than it thrills.

Extremely amusing.

An unusual look at love and how it can unexpectedly develop. Those for whom the concept of an arranged marriage is foreign will get a little history lesson on the immigrant experience watching this sweetly engrossing film.

One of those quirky little movies that you marvel ever got made.

The Visitor, is, if anything, more imaginative and touching than his first.

You can be 100 percent in favor of rescuing adorable orphans from war-torn zones and still find The Children of Huang Shi a tough haul.

An extremely good picture that, with a little tweaking, might have been a great one.

Frothy and exuberantly entertaining - in part because of the sexual innuendoes - it's the best romantic comedy so far this year.

Deeply affecting, "Blade'' portrays an oddly elegant way of life that will soon be like the era in that other movie, "Gone With the Wind."

It lives up to its title, flying by in fast motion. Even the first-wave MTV generation may find the pace exhausting, but this piece of fluff wasn't made for them.

Often amusing but lacks the necessary bite.

A needlessly complicated and confusing thriller.

An emotionally charged coming-of-age saga that will make you laugh and cry, maybe at the same time.

A spellbinding Australian Western.

For all the filmmaker's good intentions, Fast Food Nation isn't a particularly good movie. It doesn't hold together or grip you the way a documentary might have.

As moving as some parts are, it's muddled by a script that tries to pack in too much. There's sufficient material for a couple of films and a sitcom.

An intriguing exploration of New York theater at the height of its glory.

Powerful and moving.

A peculiar little film -- grim and disturbing yet perversely riveting.

There's an edge to this exemplary family movie, just as there is in the story.

Leaves you feeling buoyed, but you must endure a level of overacting more suitable for the soaps.

Sad yet offering glimpses of hope.

A slow seduction.

Poor casting is compounded by a ludicrous script.

Exhilarating and enchanting family picture. It's the best I've seen this year and highly recommended for girls and for boys, too.

A pile of junk.

Often is on the verge of spilling over into melodrama, but that doesn't bother me because life is the same way.

Offers a brew of wondrous chimera combined with the wonders of human nature.

The thrills in Spike Lee's singularly savvy thriller are in small unexpected moments.

A supernatural thriller that keeps your attention while failing to hold you in its grip.

Broken English doesn't break any code or offer original insights on the subject. But there's a spark whenever Posey and Poupaud are together.

Mehta has created the perfect guide to this strange female world.

Unlike Sean Penn's demagogue in "All the King's Men," you're able to forget that Whitaker is acting. He embodies the role. When clips of the real Amin are shown at the end, it's almost shocking to realize the extent to which Whitaker has become him.

As bad as its title.

Block's hypnotic documentary, among the finest of the year.

It tells the amazing, but mostly true, story of a late-18th century aristocrat who made an indelible mark on English society akin to that of her direct descendant, Lady Diana.

Brosnan and Moore display a knack for fast delivery of smart dialogue both in court and in bed. Their verbal sparring is the main attraction of Laws of Attraction and helped me overlook plot holes of massive proportions.

The sooner you let yourself go with Kim's flow, the more likely you are to come away satisfied. Think of it as South Korea's answer to "Memento," just don't think too hard.

The movie has a sweetness and innocence that makes it near perfect entertainment for its target audience.

Vitus is likable enough and definitely suitable entertainment for young people willing to read subtitles.

Columbus' schizoid approach works more often than not.

Like a Christmas present you didn't know you wanted but are delighted to receive.

A marital comedy as perceptive as it is delectable.

Daring in its affirmation that a dowdy woman in her late 60s still can let go of her inhibitions and exhibit a lascivious side.

Heart-wrenching.

A solidly above-average thriller.

Offers another way into these complex indigenous people, through storytelling as haunting as their artwork.

Like its low-key star, Hamlet 2 is more likely to elicit quiet chuckles than raucous laughter.

Utterly enchanting.

This will never be the movie of the month, but you could do a lot worse at the multiplex.

A compelling Irish drama.

Sly, near-perfect comedy.

The way Boynton Beach residents reach out to one another is enough to make you consider relocating to one of these communities.

A half-baked script by Jacob Meszaros and Mya Stark admittedly gives Feig little to work with. But his young cast is capable of a lot more than is required of them in this so-called comedy.

Feels like a personal vendetta.

Although well intentioned, has the superficial gloss of a TV movie of the week.

Much about Living Out Loud is pretty far-fetched, but at least it accurately portrays the dating possibilities for newly divorced women of a certain age.

It's as if a trumped-up biopic of Andy Warhol were to appear titled "Soup.''

An unfortunate casting decision, however, comes close to sabotaging a witty script.

The Pillow Book sometimes seems like three different movies, each one an eyeful but together too much of a good thing.

Lower your expectations going into Volver and accept it for what it is: a ridiculously entertaining melodrama with loud echoes of "Mildred Pierce" that provides Penelope Cruz with a vehicle for her multifaceted talents.

That the film succeeds as well as it does despite a series of coincidences that strain credibility is a credit to a fine cast and a joie de vivre that pervades even the most implausible moments.

A powerful and disturbing political drama.

A lumpy concoction.

The film will have to settle for a bogey rather than a par. Still, some hyperbole is warranted, like "Safest Movie to Take the Entire Family To."

To the extent that this difficult but ultimately rewarding film has a message, it's that you can't run away from who you are.

Quietly unsettling.

Has a certain charm and is sure to appeal to tweens, at least the female variety.

Hogwash and not even funny hogwash.

It looks like a low-budget film, but in this case that just adds to the charm. Croghan's only false move was to divide her film into segments, each one introduced by a quote from a famous writer.

The very best thrillers -- a select group to which The Clearing clearly belongs -- exploit subconscious fears that bubble up at vulnerable moments.

The humor manages to be simultaneously sophisticated, supremely silly and very dark.

But the jury is still out on Romano's future in movies. Hackman blows him off the screen.

While still trumpeting human ingenuity, the new movie lacks the subtlety, character development and exceptional ensemble acting of the 1965 version.

Lacks the marquee names and production values of big studio romantic comedies, but it connects on an emotional level most of them fail to do.

As the title character in Lady Chatterley, Marina Hands does the most persuasive job of feigning sexual pleasure since Jane Fonda in "Coming Home."

The movie harks back to a time before state-of-the-art technology when writers and directors had to rely mostly on imagination.

Lumpy.

Surprisingly robust.

Lacks compelling narrative.

To label the parents in Wah-Wah dysfunctional doesn't adequately describe their wildly inappropriate behavior.

The real wonder becomes how British filmmaker Sandra Goldbacher was able to write and direct such an accomplished, touching and original movie her first time out.

Sharkboy relies almost entirely on 3-D for its kicks. The novelty, however, quickly wears thin with the thinnest of stories to project.

A turkey.

The desperation TV stars must feel to be on the big screen is the only explanation for Edie Falco and Elisha Cuthbert's appearance in The Quiet, a creepy family drama that reeks of pretentiousness.

This is familiar territory for writer-director Nancy Meyers, Hollywood's queen of the chick flick. Her latest has charming moments and a hopeful message for despondent singles, but it lacks the emotional resonance of Meyers' "Something's Gotta Give" and the zaniness of "What Women Want."

Sitting through Diggers is so tedious that you might find yourself envying the clam diggers. At least they get to be outdoors.

Distressingly predictable and not a tad scary. But as a parody of the genre, it's a scream, like the "Scream'' franchise, only funnier. It's as if all the ingredients for a thriller coagulated into Silly Putty.

Riveting.

Immediately has you in its thrall and doesn't let go -- a reminder of how powerful and moving cinema set in wartime can be when all the elements align.

Although based on a fictional story, it has the feel of truth and is a vivid reminder of the hell Mexicans put themselves through to live in the United States, even illegally.

Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard are incredibly compelling and hold your attention despite Jordan's deliberately slow pacing.

Both actors are so appealing, you root for the inevitable meeting to happen somewhere in the vicinity of Wonderland.

An eerily affecting domestic drama combining elements of "The Lost Weekend'' with "Lost Highway.''

Unfortunately, Hotel de Love also has all the originality of an all-purpose valentine. First- time filmmaker Craig Rosenberg appears to have seen every relationship movie ever made. To his credit, he borrowed only from the best.

A Western short on dialogue and long on pomposity, is little more than an extended chase scene down a snow-filled mountaintop to a desert floor.

Although The Reaping' borrows elements from classics of the genre -- rips them off might be more accurate -- it fails to build the psychological tension that made them so creepily good.

In the riveting Transsiberian, a train of that name adds international intrigue to the mix.

Hits a bulls-eye.

Revelatory as well as unsettling.

Exactly what the title implies: mindless.

Perversely fascinating.

Mate swapping is so '70s. But Alan Rudolph, who wrote and directed Afterglow, avoids making it seem dated by presenting the menage a quatre as accidental.

A lame pastiche of Hollywood romances.

While the documentary does a credible job of pointing out the magnitude of the problem, it skirts the issue of what can be done about it and by whom.

Woody Allen's strongest and most mordantly funny movie in years, even if it is also his bleakest.

It grabs you from a symbolic opening scene of gang members rolling the dice -- the odds, it soon becomes clear, are stacked against them getting lucky -- and never lets go.

A film that must be seen to understand the sad truths of our times. It's been made with a sensitivity and creativity that's come to exemplify Winterbottom's work.

Doesn't poke fun at anyone's beliefs.

The producers have stated that they're going after an American market that supports Spanish-language TV networks, radio stations and newspapers. This niche audience may well respond to not being required to read subtitles, for once, in a movie geared to them.

A pretty ugly movie in its own right.

A very human story.

A compelling, tightly made political thriller.

The Last Kiss ponders what you give up -- and what you gain -- from sticking with what you've got.

Mitchell may be another Russ Meyer -- a dubious honor -- but he's no Tony Kushner.

Raises the bar for movies geared to teens.

An emotionally satisfying example of a genre whose sketchiness can be off-putting.

Two guys panting over the same babe leads to tedium, despite a near-record number of overheated sex scenes.

Insightful but unfocused.

The directors pull off this faux documentary.

Richly satisfying entertainment the way movies are at their best, when they prod you to think.

A sharp-witted satire of celebrity journalism.

Gut-wrenching.

A Christian-themed film about redemption with almost no redeeming qualities as entertainment.

The prologue sets a simpleton tone that, distressingly, continues throughout.

An old-fashioned and occasionally schmaltzy movie that delivers an emotional wallop

An overwrought and ultimately silly thriller.

A noble try that disappoints.

Boy A will rivet you while raising issues about forgiveness and just who deserves it.

Played by likable newcomer Jamie Sives, who resembles Colin Farrell without the scowl, Wilbur grows on you the same way this offbeat movie does.

Deliriously charming.

A little picture -- the names of the entire cast would fit on half a sheet of paper -- but it’s more heartfelt than movies with 50 times the budget.

With words streaming out of their mouths instead of into bubbles, Ethan and his gang of past, present and future lovers sound laughingly unbelievable. They're on the road to inanity.

Showing the intricate dynamics of family relationships is something Mira Nair does as well as any director working today.

The truly shocking thing about the new version is that it's not bloody awful.

High-gloss trash but compulsively watchable.

Schizo offers not just the proverbial window into village life in Kazakhstan, but a panoramic view.

Known for his visual images, Jordan outdoes himself in "Breakfast,'' a feast for the eyes.

The movie is a stunner, so hypnotic that the length hardly matters.

Though overly long and difficult to digest, it's a feast you won't want to miss.

Worth seeing just to admire how Argentine writer-director Marcos Carnevale avoids so much as a whiff of condescension.

The least appealing of the trilogy.

Noirish thrillers live or die by their plot twists and dialogue -- talk literally being cheap compared to action shots. Unfortunately, the script by first-time filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson fails on both counts.