ROMANTIC DRAMA
War leaves no one unaffected, not then, not now. Watching this beautifully told tale about the travails of an injured Confederate deserter (Law) and the sweetheart (Kidman) he's trying to get home to late in the Civil War, one can't help but think of the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan today and the loved ones waiting for them here. Then, and now, will each find the other changed when—and if—they reunite? Such thoughts add even greater poignancy to director-writer Anthony Minghella's admirably adept adaptation of Charles Frazier's Homeric novel. Law perfectly underplays the soldier who has seen enough of war, Kidman artfully shades her turn as a patrician compelled to learn practical skills, and a spunky Zellweger is both forceful and funny as a can-do handywoman who saves Kidman's farm. (R)
Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Sean Astin
FANTASY/ACTION
I'm still not as blissed out by this trilogy as are hardcore fans of the J.R.R. Tolkien novels or filmgoers who revel in endless battle scenes. Still, this end chapter is as visually spectacular—with its mythological creatures—as movies get. Over a rear-testing 3½ hours, LOTR's plucky heroes again rattle on in faux-Shakespearean speech and test themselves against fantastical enemies but, this time out, deliverance is within their reach. The only thing missing is director-cowriter Peter Jackson coming out to take a final deserved bow. (PG-13)
Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves, Amanda Peet
ROMANTIC COMEDY
In a film Hollywood wags have dubbed Granny Hall, Annie Hall's Keaton gives a glowing comic performance that adds a layer of depth to a saltine-thin, though enjoyable, battle-of-the-sexes comedy. She plays a successful Broadway playwright past 50 who, after a long dating drought, unexpectedly finds herself entangled with two men: a randy old billygoat (Nicholson, kidding his own image) who had been seeing her daughter (Peet), and a dashing young M.D. (Reeves, registering a pulse here). Give boasts Viagra jokes aplenty, but many of them amuse, and Keaton is radiant. (PG-13)
Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Ron Eldard
DRAMA
CRITIC'S CHOICE
It's not much of a house, but to the destitute recovering alcoholic (Connelly) and Iranian immigrant (Kingsley) fighting over it in this superb drama, the run-down bungalow near San Francisco means everything. She lost the house in a tax mix-up; he bought it at auction, hoping the place would be his springboard to the American dream. Neither is wrong, and yet everything goes terribly wrong for both of them.
Based on a 1999 novel by Andre Dubus III and sensitively directed by promising newcomer Vadim Perelman, House of Sand and Fog follows the tragic trajectory of their escalating dispute. As a proud man no longer willing to bend, Kingsley is astonishingly, heart-breakingly good. So are Shohreh Aghdashloo as his wife, Connelly as his fragile rival, and Eldard as a cop sympathetic to her. Long after the credits have rolled on this sorrow-filled saga, the characters and their fates will continue to haunt you. House dazzles with something better than special effects: character and story. (R)
Julia Roberts, Julia Stiles, Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal
DRAMA
The period clothes, circa 1953, are swell. I covet the flattering cashmere sweater sets, the fitted wool skirts, the chic shirt dresses and camel-hair coats. But it takes more than costumes to make a movie, and Mona Lisa Smile never excels beyond its wardrobe.
Borrowing from Dead Poets Society and other exponents of the Education-Is-Good School of Filmmaking, Smile is about one teacher's making a difference. That egghead would be Katherine Watson (Roberts), a bohemian art-history professor who arrives at tradition-bound Wellesley College, a women's school, and shakes up the snooty students. The only surprise here—read no further if you hate knowing what's going to happen—is that no one gets pregnant and no one ends up committing suicide.
Roberts is coasting here, bringing out that dazzling smile when a scene needs goosing. With the exception of the willowy Gyllenhaal, who slithers about in a sexy, heated haze, the other young actresses strain at playing some misguidedly strident notion of uptight '50s womanhood. (PG-13)
Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear
COMEDY
Bob and Walter Tenor (played by, respectively, Damon and Kinnear) are conjoined twins, connected at the hip. Though happy flipping burgers on Martha's Vineyard, they head to Hollywood to pursue Walter's dream of becoming a star. He's soon cast as Cher's co-star (yes, the real Cher) in a TV show.
There may be a hilarious comedy in conjoined twins, but the flat Stuck isn't it. Though written and directed by real-life brothers Peter and Bobby Farrelly (There's Something About Mary), it is too sentimental to score high on the funny meter. (PG-13)
- Contributors:
- Leah Rozen.
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!
