BY LEAH ROZEN
MUSICAL
Dreamgirls sets itself an ambitious goal: to show how black pop music began crossing over in the '60s—often at a painful price. Singers who couldn't or wouldn't adopt a mainstream look and sound were often left by the wayside. The conflict plays out onscreen in the battle between malleable beauty Deena Jones (Knowles) and heavyset belter Effie White (Hudson), which parallels the smackdown between Diana Ross and original Supreme Florence Ballard.
Chicago (2002), whose screenplay was by Dreamgirls writer-director Bill Condon, set a high standard for movie musicals; despite pushing hard, Dreamgirls falls short. A handsomely produced version of the 1981 Broadway hit, it boasts moments that soar but others that stumble: The result is entertaining but uneven. Hudson (American Idol) and Murphy, playing an old-school R&B crooner, dazzle; Knowles is frustratingly inconsistent, and Foxx, as a music promoter, is uncharacteristically flat. (PG-13)
Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Claire-Hope Ashitey
CRITIC'S CHOICE
DRAMA
Sci-fi doesn't come smarter, better or less flashy than this. In an engrossing thriller set in 2027, a baby's cry hasn't been heard on Earth for 18 years. That's when the last infant was born; since then, mysteriously, infertility prevails, along with death, destruction and anarchy. England remains one of the few functional countries and is home to Theo (Owen), a weary bureaucrat. Given the chance to play Joseph to a potential Mary—the film knowingly echoes the Nativity story—he reluctantly rises to the occasion. Expressively directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), Children of Men presents a chillingly believable version of the future. It will stay with you long after the end credits fade. (R)
Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro, Tammy Blanchard
CRITIC'S CHOICE
DRAMA
An older spy advises a protégé who has betrayed him, "Get out while you can, while you still believe, while you still have a soul." The warning comes too late for Edward Wilson (Damon), the younger man, who is at the center of director Robert De Niro's ambitious, complex look at the early years of the Central Intelligence Agency. Recruited while still a student at Yale, Wilson spends WWII working with British intelligence in London and then goes on to fight the Cold War and oversee the disastrous Bay of Pigs operation. Along the way, he manages to wrong his wife (Jolie), son and others, all in the name of protecting his country. While a smidgen overlong and sometimes confusing, Shepherd offers strong performances and builds to a devastating climax. (R)
Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya
CRITIC'S CHOICE
DRAMA
Talk about being on a roll. Director Clint Eastwood just makes one masterful movie after another. His latest is a moving companion piece to his recent Flags of Our Fathers, which focused on American soldiers who fought at Iwo Jima. In the Japanese-language Letters from Iwo Jima, he shows the epic World War II battle from the perspective of their opponents. Main characters include a brilliant, innovative commander (Watanabe), a fanatical officer (Shidou Nakamura) and a slacker foot soldier (Ninomiya, a beguiling sprite). All know the battle for the tiny Pacific island is hopeless but fight on bravely for love of country and their fellow soldiers—just as the victorious Americans did. Like President Richard Nixon going to China, it took Eastwood, a bona fide American icon, to break through years of Hollywood war-movie clichés and build a bridge to the other side. (R)
>Eddie Murphy Regains His Mojo
Murphy, 45, is back with a vengeance. After years of ambling through forgettable family films (excepting 1999's Bowfinger and the Shrek duo), in Dreamgirls he comes alive as James "Thunder" Early. To portray this hip-shaking soul singer, Murphy—now a Golden Globe nominee—draws on the ferocious energy familiar from his comic heyday but layers on a desperate, sorrowful edge. Bravo.
Rocky Balboa
Been a long time, buddy, welcome back! This sixth—and apparently final—entry in the 30-year-old series is just modest enough in depicting how boxing great Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone, below left) is spending his retirement that it wins you over. (PG)
We Are Marshall
A new coach (Matthew McConaughey, below, who is mighty appealing) helps a football team and town recover from a tragedy. While uplifting, this film fails to transcend its clichés. (PG)
The Painted Veil
In a beautifully shot and acted drama (based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham), an estranged English couple (Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, below) grow to love each other while helping during a cholera epidemic in rural China in the 1920s. (PG-13)
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!
