COMEDY
The Stupids would be the perfect title for this movie, if it had not already been claimed by a lousy 1996 comedy starring Tom Arnold. The main characters in this slight offering from Joel and Ethan Coen, the sibling writing-directing duo whose No Country for Old Men took home the Best Picture Oscar last spring, are all total dopes. Their unrelenting dumbness and dim-witted behavior is at first amusing and enjoyable but eventually grows wearing.
Burn After Reading is a sex farce crossed with a Washington, D.C., conspiracy thriller. Angry at being fired from the CIA, an ex-analyst (Malkovich) begins to write a tell-all memoir. Part of his manuscript accidentally falls into the hands of two gym employees (Pitt and McDormand), who reckon it contains top-secret info worth big money. Add a philandering U.S. marshal (Clooney), a snippy pediatrician (Tilda Swinton), Russian diplomats, online dating, extortion and a loaded gun, and you have an uneven movie that can't always decide what or whom it wants to focus on. The fun here is in the performances. The accomplished cast is clearly enjoying itself, with Pitt the standout as a dumbbell-lifting dumbbell. Playing a physical trainer, he manages simultaneously to be delightfully broad and smartly nuanced. Put more simply, he aces chewing gum and acting at the same time.
Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Jada Pinkett Smith, Debra Messing | PG-13 |
COMEDY
Straight hair and high heels equal happiness. That's the takeaway here as a frumpish, curly-maned, flats-wearing society wife (Ryan) falls to pieces upon learning that her Wall Street financier hubby is cheating on her. But, after switching to ironed hair and heels and adopting a "me first" attitude, she recovers, cheered on by close pals (Bening, Pinkett Smith and Messing).
In updating Clare Boothe Luce's venomous 1936 play and '39 film version, writer-director Diane English (Murphy Brown) declaws this cattiest of classics. Bad decision. Now Women plays like just another limp celebration of female bonding. Unlike Sex and the City, there's no one in The Women with whom you'd want to have brunch, no matter how hot the restaurant.
• The Six Feet Under actor, 61, runs a gym in Burn After Reading.
DID YOU PREPARE FOR THE ROLE?
They asked, "Could you really get into shape?" I said, "I'm a 60-year-old man, not Brad Pitt. My body isn't going to change." They laughed.
IN BURN, FRANCES MCDORMAND HAS NO IDEA YOU'RE SMITTEN WITH HER. COULD YOU RELATE?
My wife ignored me for two years. I have that effect on women. They want no part of me, so I'm lucky to have found my wife.
ANY PARENTING ADVICE FOR BRAD?
He doesn't need advice. He needs an extra pair of hands!
Every September, Hollywood studios trek to Toronto and launch movies with performances they hope could become contenders for Oscar gold. Several popular female stars glinted brightly at the 2008 festival. Here's a report:
PAR FOR THE CORSET
Keira Knightley, who earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Pride & Prejudice (2005), again dons corsets and ornate gowns (as well as towering wigs) for The Duchess. She flirts and suffers elegantly in a sumptuous biopic about the scandal-filled life of Georgiana Spencer, an 18th-century beauty and the Duchess of Devonshire. Opens Sept. 19.
IN RECOVERY
In the meandering Rachel Getting Married, Anne Hathaway gives a haunting performance as a fragile woman desperately trying to reconnect with her family after a long stint in rehab. Debra Winger, seen too little of late, shines as her emotionally absent mother. Opens Oct. 3.
BEEN THERE, WON THAT
Previous Oscar winners Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger both offer searing performances in The Burning Plain, a tragic drama from the screenwriter of Babel. No release date set.
BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME
Unlikely to be nominated is a wan Jennifer Aniston in Management, a total misfire of a comedy. She's stuck playing straight woman to Steve Zahn's would-be wacky—but mostly just stupefyingly dumb—slacker.
TROUBLE THE WATER
Our brush with Hurricane Gustav makes this sobering documentary about Hurricane Katrina and our government's shameful response—punctuated with harrowing footage taken by a New Orleans couple as Katrina ravages their neighborhood—even more poignant. You'll be outraged all over again.
• He's got a new movie (Righteous Kill) and album (The Block), but this New Kid on the Block, 39, is still very "old school."
ON DADDY DUTIES
On our first day of shooting, John Leguizamo, Al Pacino and I all had our 6-year-olds going to their first day of school. Between takes, we'd check in and get reports of how it was going. It was pretty funny.
ON DIVORCE
The breakup of my marriage coincided with the recording of the album, which was therapeutic for me. It's a tough process, but Kim [Fey] and I will always be the best of friends.
ON DOWNLOADING
I've never used iTunes before. I'm just being taught. I'd still buy wax [records] if I could!
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!
