BY LEAH ROZEN
COMEDY
A subdued Robin Williams is rarely a funny Robin Williams. Or at least not as gut-bustingly hilarious as this inventive actor can be. The Williams who shows up to run for President in Man of the Year is a curiously muted one, given to lobbing spitballs rather than grenades.
It's not all his fault. Year, as written and directed by Barry Levinson (Wag the Dog), is an ungainly hybrid: part satirical comedy, part cloak-and-dagger thriller. Williams plays Tom Dobbs, a comedian who, much like Jon Stewart, pours acid on politicians on his TV show. He runs for the nation's top job and, improbably, wins. But his victory is due to an undetected computer glitch. Can a fetching whistle-blower (Linney), who helped develop the voting program, convince Dobbs of the problem before the computer company shuts her up for good?
Much of Man is timely and will have you chuckling, but its edges aren't as sharp as they could be. It's updated Frank Capra (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) but with less charm. Williams is best in scenes with the lovely Linney, the two shyly circling each other romantically, even as democracy's fate is at stake. (PG-13)
Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig, Sigourney Weaver
CRITIC'S CHOICE
DRAMA
Same story, different emphasis. That's the nutshell description of Infamous, a doppelgänger to last year's Capote. Infamous is good. Just not quite as good as Capote.
Both movies tell the real-life story of how Truman Capote came to write In Cold Blood, his compelling nonfiction bestseller about the murder of a Kansas farm family by two ex-cons in 1959. Capote's point—one it made elegantly—was that for the sake of his book, Capote betrayed even those he loved and came to despise himself for it. Infamous, written and directed by Douglas McGrath (Emma), sees Capote's despair as growing out of his disenchantment with playing court jester to Manhattan's society elite and his doomed love for Perry Smith (Craig), one of the killers.
Like the earlier film, this one boasts a tremendous cast. Jones transforms himself into Capote, a fey elf with a twinkle in his eye. Bullock is terrific as writer Harper Lee, Capote's childhood pal and conscience. Craig (the new James Bond) is alternately sensitive and menacing as Smith, while Weaver sparkles as socialite Babe Paley and Juliet Stevenson is wickedly funny as Diana Vreeland, the waspish editor of Vogue. (R)
Amber Tamblyn may be best known as TV's Joan of Arcadia, but she's a horror-film veteran: She was the first to die in The Ring. Now she's taking over ghost-busting duties from Sarah Michelle Gellar in The Grudge 2. But first she had to take part in an on-set Shinto ceremony in Japan. "They believe doing a film about ghosts can bring evil spirits into your life, so they bless the set," says Tamblyn, 23. "It was intimidating getting off the plane jet-lagged and they say, 'We're going to bless you because a ghost might kill you.'"
When Philip Seymour Hoffman won this year's Best Actor Oscar for Capote, Toby Jones got sympathy calls. "People rang and said, 'This is terrible,'" recalls Jones (left), 39, who says he "never really thought about the other film" while prepping his own turn as the flamboyant author in Infamous. The British actor (Finding Neverland, Ever After) says nailing Capote's high-pitched voice involved an hour-long warm-up and "jutting my jaw forward so my bottom set of teeth hung directly underneath the top." For Jones, changing his tones isn't new: He voiced Dobby the House Elf in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
The Break-Up ($29.98) This sour romantic comedy brought Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston together in real life, though their characters spend the movie splitting up. Despite scattered funny bits, watching them spat for two hours is more exhausting than amusing.
Extras: Plentiful, including chatty commentary from the stars, an alternate ending (only a minor variation on the one used), deleted scenes and a zippy tour of Chicago locations. (PG-13)
Movie:
Extras:
Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker A 14-year-old youth (Alex Pettyfer) is recruited into the British secret service after his guardian, who was secretly a spy, is killed. Plays like a training film to turn young viewers into action fans. (PG)
Sweet Land In a lovely, spare drama, a Norwegian woman (Elizabeth Reaser, of TV's Saved) arrives in Minnesota in 1920 to wed a stranger, an immigrant farmer (Tim Guinee). When the wedding is delayed due to complications, the two slowly get to know each other and fall in love. (PG)
Deliver Us from Evil A disturbing documentary tells how a pedophile priest, Father Oliver O'Grady, molested numerous kids in California as church officials shifted him from parish to parish. O'Grady, who served time and was deported to Ireland, chillingly talks to the camera. (Not rated)
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
