Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Danny Huston, Bill Nighy
CRITICS CHOICE
School-phobic kids are frantically clinging to these final days of summer, but by this time of year most adult moviegoers are ready for fall and the meaty, cerebral Oscar bait that the new season brings. This year grown-ups are in luck: The thinking cap went on early, thanks to this glorious drama based on John le Carré's 2000 novel about a reserved British diplomat (Fiennes) living in Kenya who learns that his activist wife (Weisz) has been brutally murdered. He begins to piece together her mysterious death while flashing back to how their relationship first flourished. Soon he stumbles upon a massive conspiracy involving "Big Pharma" (pharmaceutical companies testing drugs on African villagers) and his own British High Commission.
Always artfully understated, Fiennes is a master of restraint here, allowing quiet devastation to slowly ripple across his face as he learns of his wife's death. He and Weisz have an easy, tender rapport. Following up his exhilarating 2003 debut City of God, Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles again paints a vivid, breathing portrait of a fascinating foreign land, discovering new ways of distilling chaos and despair. It's the perfect antidote to three months of mostly brainless summer fare. (R)
COMEDY
Michael Showalter, Elizabeth Banks, Justin Theroux, Michelle Williams
I've always pitied the nice guy in films like Sleepless in Seattle or Sweet Home Alabama who ends up being ditched—often at the altar—so the heroine can find romantic bliss with her real soulmate. But after spending time with this personality-free perpetual dumpee (Showalter), whose latest fiancée (Seabiscuit's Banks), seems ready to leap back into the arms of her ex (Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle's Theroux), now I'm wondering what took Meg and Reese so long to cut bait. Showalter (Stella), who also directed and wrote this romantic comedy, starts off puncturing sappy genre clichés (especially those eleventh-hour declarations of love), but like his sad-sack character, plays it too safe, ultimately embracing those very same plot staples. (PG-13)
ADVENTURE
Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Jonathan Pryce, Lena Headey, Monica Bellucci
Terry Gilliam would have gotten along famously with the Grimms. Like the famed fairy-tale authors, the director of such 12-course visual feasts as Brazil and 12 Monkeys specializes in absurdist, fantastical landscapes, and he was an inspired choice to helm this engaging story about Will (Damon) and Jacob Grimm (Ledger), here not yet scribes but charlatan 19th-century ghostbusters who must do battle with real evil spirits.
Quick-thinking lothario Damon (gleefully letting his bushy hair down as he invites two comely lasses to play his favorite game, Who's the Fairest of Them All?) and the dry, bespectacled Ledger swap verbal jousts like real siblings, and viewers will delight in spotting the frequent allusions to Grimm stories (including Hansel and Gretel and Red Riding Hood). Gilliam has created yet another wondrous cinematic sandbox to play in, though his efforts are somewhat marred by jarring edits and a jumbled ending. The result isn't a suitable bedtime story for children (not with horses swallowing boys and kitties getting pureed) but an enchanting tale nonetheless. (PG-13)
The Memory of a Killer
Two detectives pursue an aging hitman who's trying to finish one last job before succumbing to Alzheimer's in this taut Belgian thriller. Director Erik Van Looy, best known in the U.S. for creating the insipid reality series The Mole, boosts the tension here with several nail-biting standoffs. (R)
Dirty Deeds
On film, at east, it's more fun to be a Mean Girl than a good girl. That's probably why Lacey Chabert looks so bored playing a valedictorian hopeful in a formulaic comedy about high school teens (including Gilmore Girls' Milo Ventimiglia) engaged in a traditional pre-homecoming prankfest. (PG-13)
March of the Penguins
The big summer blockbusters have come and gone, yet this triumphant documentary about the life cycle of Antarctica's Emperor penguins has outlasted them all. (G)
Patrick Swayze
The Dirty Dancing star, 53, proves he still has the moves in the new-to-DVD drama One Last Dance, costarring and directed by his wife, Lisa Niemi, 49.
ON HIS NEW MOVIE It's loosely based on our lives as dancers and the idea it's never too late to rediscover a dream.
ON WORKING WITH LISA We've always been a team. We raise horses together, run a music business and a wildlife preserve together. We have an unspoken language after all these years. We just celebrated our 30th anniversary.
ON HIS COACHING TURN ON DANCING WITH THE STARS Anything that gets people dancing is really, really cool.
ON DANCING PAST 50 The movie took us five years of training. I got back in the best shape I've ever been in in my life. Not that it wouldn't have been nice to do this movie when I was more of a rubbery person.
Pretty Woman 15th Anniversary Special Edition ($19.99)
Movie
Extras
It's hard to believe that it's been a decade and a half since Julia Roberts—then only 22—strutted onto Hollywood's A-list with this confident, starmaking turn. The hooker-Cinderella plot is even clunkier now than in 1990, but just like Richard Gere, viewers simply can't resist Roberts's charms.
Extras: Roberts and Gere kick back in enjoyable bloopers and wrap-party footage (they sing "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"); commentary from director Garry Marshall, who is such a pleasant storyteller—like listening to a bedtime tale from Dad—you almost forget that he doesn't have that much to say. (R)
Monster-in-Law ($28.98)
Movie
Extras
This Meet the Parents rip-off never gets on track, though Jane Fonda—as the overprotective mom who battles with future daughter-in-law Jennifer Lopez—is a welcome sight after a too-long absence from the big screen.
Extras: Delectable deleted scenes (including a raucous J.Lo-J.Fo catfight far superior to the silly slapfest that made the film); several lively featurettes, especially a touching look at Fonda's first day working on a movie set in 15 years. (PG-13)
Sahara ($29.99)
Movie
Extras
Matthew McConaughey obviously has Indiana Jones on the brain as he plays a roguish globetrotting explorer, but the movie never has as much fun as he does.
Extras: In a mediocre commentary McConaughey disappointingly keeps his lips sealed about falling for costar Penélope Cruz, while director Breck Eisner notes that Sahara is "somewhat about male facial hair." Maybe that's where things went wrong. (PG-13)
- Contributors:
- Jason Lynch,
- Courtney Hazlett.
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!
