Among the disconnected scenes are a few that are downright hilarious, and the actors do their best to rise above disjointed material.

Neither cheerfully naughty nor suffused with gauzy prurience, it evokes a time of turbulent (and often ugly) emotions with disquieting intensity.

Tthough it comes wrapped in a stylish French mantle of feminist rage and sexual empowerment, the picture ultimately belongs squarely in the tradition of rape revenge pictures.

While the film's exploration of Irish religious intolerance takes it to many familiar areas, the specifics are unfamiliar and fine performances -- especially those of leads Cunningham and Brady.

(Valli) brings an ethnographer's eye for detail to a plot that amounts to little more than the good old generation gap.

The result is an interesting, if slightly unbalanced, hybrid: a social problem film with the warm heart of a deeply felt love story.

Clearly, neither screenwriter Randall Wallace nor director Michael Bay ever met a cliche he didn't embrace.

Ricci brings her trademark gravity to the wary Suzie, but Blanchett's role is the dazzler.

The movie sticks with you as few do: It's rewardingly authentic and emotionally real.

Yet another of Israeli-born filmmaker Amos Kolleck's pointless, meandering tales of eccentric New Yorkers navigating the treacherous waters of love and survival.

Tame as can be by today's standards, but will charm fans of vintage erotica.

Fun for a while, but soon turns grating before ending on a startlingly tragic note.

The best parts of the film come when he (Doillon) just lets the camera roll and lets the kids be kids.

Wrapped in a layer of psuedo-spookiness that leads viewers to think the story is going somewhere it isn't.

Colossally entertaining.

Never boring, often excruciating and occasionally transcendent.

It may not be as epochal a piece of work as "Mean Streets," but packs what feels like a real-life punch none the less.

The story of the business is historically interesting, but the story of a friendship tested to the breaking point is timeless.

Stiffly animated and featuring uninspired songs.

wWhat doesn't entirely succeed as convincing psychodrama makes one hell of an acting exercise (it's great fun to see great actors purposely mangle the Bard's immortal words), and Levring's cast -- McTeer in particular -- run with it.

This brazen mix of old and new is undermined by the predictable story, shallow characterizations and a dopey sense of humor.

The film, like its subject, is a hoot, both shamelessly entertaining and bursting with personality.

Sweet, likable and consistently engaging, if so insubstantial that it's always on the verge of blowing away.

The premise is pretty simple, and at two hours the murky sound, muddy low-light images and frequently dreadful acting are a little tough to take.

The locations and production design are breathtakingly beautiful. But though cast largely with Chinese actors, it was shot in English, which no doubt made business sense but almost certainly accounts for many truly awful performances.

It's never dull -- beautifully acted and handsomely shot in sepia-toned Cinemascope.

So crammed with plot twists that it's hard to follow, simultaneously ludicrous, sappy and casually dismissive of all the things Hollywood holds dear.

The film ends with a return to the beach, and one of the most psychologically chilling and expertly photographed shots imaginable.