Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Terrence Howard, Marcel Iures
It's only a slight exaggeration to say that the whole first half of Hart's War could be lopped off and it wouldn't make that big a difference. This anemic World War II drama, based on a 1999 novel by John Katzenbach, spends more than an hour ploddingly establishing its main characters and storylines before jettisoning much of that to swerve off abruptly in pursuit of an engine-revving action plot. Caution: Viewers may suffer whiplash.
In Belgium, circa 1944, German troops capture Lt. Thomas Hart (Farrell), a privileged stripling whose father is a U.S. Senator. They transport him to a German stalag, where tough guy Col. William McNamara (Willis), the ranking Yank officer, rules the roost among the prisoners. When another POW, an African-American pilot (Howard), is charged with killing a racist fellow internee, the colonel talks the Germans into allowing a court-martial and tabs Hart, a law student at Yale, to defend the black officer. But McNamara keeps undercutting Hart's legal efforts. What's really going on? Far more than Hart realizes, though trailers and TV ads for War give the surprise away. (We won't.)
The film, as directed by Gregory Hoblit (Frequency), tries to be too many movies at once: a coming-of-age tale, a portrait of racial injustice, a whodunit and a prison-intrigue story. Instead of seamlessly weaving these threads together, it leaves them in a tangled lump for viewers to unravel. Farrell, an explosive actor, here disappointingly comes across as a passive pretty boy, a vest-pocket Tyrone Power. Willis seems disengaged, getting juiced solely for his one-on-one confrontation scenes. Only Howard, delivering his big speech ("I came here to kill Nazis; if I wanted to kill crackers, I could've stayed in Georgia"), makes one sit up and take notice. (R)
Bottom Line: Uniformly uninspired
Big Fat Liar
Frankie Muniz, Paul Giamatti
Revenge is sweet, even if served with only modest laughs in this passable kids' film. The best part of Big Fat Liar is that the 14-year-old hero's elaborate revenge scheme targets not his parents, sibling or peers, but rather a scuzzball Hollywood producer who done him wrong.
No, Jason Shepherd (Muniz, of TV's Malcolm in the Middle) isn't trying to avenge having had to sit through the preachy The Majestic. He's ticked because mogul Marty Wolf (Giamatti), while briefly visiting Jason's hometown in Michigan, stole a short story that Jason had written for a homework assignment and is making a movie out of it. Jason heads to Los Angeles and when Wolf won't own up sets in motion a slick plan to humiliate the producer (dumping blue dye into his swimming pool, putting Super Glue on his cell-phone earpiece).
Muniz and Amanda Bynes, as his best pal, are appealing. Liar's weakness is that Giamatti's Wolf seems a puny target for all this contempt. Though Giamatti is a comic actor of considerable skill, the role requires an out-there audacity—paging Jim Carrey—he can't muster. (PG)
Bottom Line: The truth is kids will like it
The Son's Room
Nanni Moretti, Laura Morante
Featured attraction
A middle-aged psychiatrist living in a small, picturesque Italian town is content with his life, almost to the point of smugness. Giovanni (Moretti, who also cowrote and directed) has a healthy practice and a great relationship with his attractive, sexy wife (Morante), and he adores his two teenage children, a daughter (Jasmine Trinca) and a son (Giuseppe Sanfelice). Then one Sunday morning the son goes diving in the sea with friends and dies in a tragic accident. How each family member mourns his death and eventually manages to go on is at the heart of The Son's Room, an immensely moving Italian-language drama.
Winner of the Palme d'Or at last year's Cannes Film Festival (the equivalent of a Best Picture award), Son's Room is sort of a quiet version of In the Bedroom, a similarly themed film currently in theaters. With less melodrama and yelling, Son's Room shows what family members can say to each other and what they can't. Here, the father loses interest in his practice and tries to find someone to blame for his son's death. The mother latches on to a young woman (Sofia Vigliar) who was briefly her son's sweetheart, trying desperately to keep his memory alive. The daughter, feeling neglected, spends time on the athletic field at school.
Son's Room is one of those movies filled with small, carefully observed moments and understated performances that add up to a powerful whole. Some will find it excruciatingly slow and too tasteful while others—count me in—will find this journey through the desolate land of grief a trip well worth taking. (R)
Bottom Line: Room with a worthy view
Made with Hearts and Craft
Looking for a refresher course on romance pre-Feb. 14 or just a cheap way to spend Valentine's Day? Why not curl up on the couch, alone or, even better, a deux, with a great romantic movie? These favorites are all available on video and some on DVD.
MISSISSIPPI MASALA Denzel Washington, Sarita Choudhury. Washington has never been as heart-meltingly sexy as he is in this 1992 romance, wooing Choudhury in a match objected to by both their families. Best scene: Whenever he smiles.
TRULY MADLY DEEPLY Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson. Love means never having to say you're outta here, even though one of the partners is dead in this sly, 1991 British comedy romance. Best scene: When all his dead buddies show up to watch movies.
THE AFRICAN QUEEN Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn. A spinster missionary and an alcoholic boat captain find passion while attacking the Germans during WWI in a 1951 classic. Best scene: She dumps out his gin.
ROBIN AND MARIAN Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn. The Robin Hood Forest sweet-legend revisited but with its lovers now middle-aged and wiser in a wistful romance from 1976. Best scene: Their first reunion.
LOVE AFFAIR Charles Boyer, Irene Dunne Fans of 1957's An Affair to Remember, with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr—or even the lead-footed 1994 remake, Love Affair, with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening—owe it to themselves to catch the glorious original, from 1939, with Boyer and Dunne smoldering as shipboard lovers separated first by resolve and then by tragedy. Best scene: When they promise to meet again in six months.
Birthday Girl A Russian mail-order bride (Nicole Kidman) has a big surprise for her groom (Ben Chaplin) in a small-but-entertaining romantic thriller. (R)
Monster's Ball Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry, giving the performance of her career, shine brightly in a powerful film about the unlikely romance between a prison guard and the widow of a man he helped to execute. (R)
Scotland, PA Shakespeare's Macbeth plopped down in a fast-food joint. Amusing for a while, with deft work by Maura Tierney and James LeGros. (R)
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!
