THE EXCEPTION

R, 107 minutes. Madison Art Cinemas. “The Exception” is a handsomely mounted World War II-era romantic thriller, enlivened by vibrant performances and vivid sexual encounters and inspired by a little-known footnote to history, the story of a ruler who left but never went away. That would be Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II, engagingly played by the veteran Christopher Plummer. Though the kaiser exited history’s stage when he abdicated in 1918, Wilhelm lived on in exile in the Netherlands for more than 20 years, a span that inspired Alan Judd’s novel “The Kaiser’s Last Kiss” on which the current Simon Burke screenplay is based. Though the kaiser’s presence anchors the thriller parts of the story, the romance is more than capably handled by the considerably younger pair of Lily James, madcap heiress Lady Rose in “Downton Abbey,” and Australian hunk Jai Courtney. As put together by British theater director David Leveaux, making his theatrical feature debut, “Exception” breaks no new ground but is a solidly done and always engrossing piece of alternate history, mixing real people and events with fictional ones. The year is 1940 and topping the fictional list is German army Capt. Stefan Brandt (Courtney), a brooding and enviably fit third-generation officer who is being held back from active duty because of some initially unspecified “business with the SS in Poland.” When his new assignment comes in, the captain is not happy about it. He’s to go to the Netherlands to take command of the personal bodyguard of a man he’s assumed was dead, a man he’s told in no uncertain terms has “tremendous symbolic importance to the German people.” The kaiser is living on a splendid estate outside Utrecht, shielded from pedestrian concerns by a loyal coterie that includes his aide-de-camp Col. Von Ilsemann (Ben Daniels) and his calculating empress, the Princess Hermine (the always excellent Janet McTeer). Both of these people, and the kaiser himself, harbor the not exactly realistic hope that the former ruler will, if he plays his cards right, be called back to the German throne as “the physical manifestation of God’s will on Earth.” As played by Plummer, whose physical resemblance to the real man is remarkable, Wilhelm is way more interesting than his entourage. An actor who is always a treat to watch, Plummer brings alternating severity and PG-13. 89 minutes. Waterford, Stonington, Lisbon, Westbrook. After the surprising success of last year’s “girl with shark” thriller “The Shallows,” “47 Meters Down” seems to be posing the question, “what if ‘The Shallows’… but deep?” Because that’s exactly what it is, and it even tells you how deep right there in the title. This time there are two girls, not just the one, though star Mandy Moore is ostensibly the lead in this claustrophobic underwater nightmare, directed by Johannes Roberts, written by Roberts and Ernest Riera. Back in ‘75, “Jaws” inspired audiences to stay out of the water, and thanks to “47 Meters Down,” cage-diving might see a dip in popularity this summer. If there’s a message to be found in this film, it’s to never do things that scare you. It’s not worth the risk. Just stay at the resort, sipping cocktails at the pool. Being boring is better than being chum. Fear of “boring” is what gets Lisa (Moore) into the water, against her better instincts, with her adventuresome sister Kate (Claire Holt). The “b-word” was levied against her during a breakup, and that insult is what drives her to wildly overcorrect, setting off for a day trip cage diving with great whites with no SCUBA certification, in an unlicensed rust trap of a boat. Kate and Lisa have 30 seconds of a good time before they’re trapped in the cage on the ocean floor, surrounded by massive sharks. Tourism: don’t do it! — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOL.2

1/2 PG-13, 138 minutes. Waterford, Westbrook, Lisbon. When the first “Guardians of the Galaxy” came out three years ago, it was a minor revelation. Here was a comic-book movie with characters few outside of rabid Marvel fandom knew about that had heart, humor and a cool soundtrack. What’s not to love? “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” feels less like a fresh discovery and is far more self-conscious about its quirkiness. Director/co-writer James Gunn returns with what’s essentially more of the same; there’s nothing particularly surprising and, at 15 minutes longer than its predecessor, it has moments that sag. Still, “GotG 2” at its best is a lot of fun, even if it now seems the “Galaxy” formula has been set for the many sequels surely to come. Much as with that other behemoth of a franchise starring Vin Diesel, “The Fast and the Furious,” “GotG” is all about misfits finding familial bonds with each other. This time around our reluctant hero from the last film, Peter Quill/ Star Lord (Chris Pratt), is reunited with his father, Ego (Kurt Russell), who abandoned him many years before and Peter never knew why. Peter gets to put the missing puzzle pieces together as Ego re-enters his life, promising him things that just may be too good to be true. — Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

MEGAN LEAVEY

1/2 PG-13, 116 minutes. Lisbon. Based on a true story, “Megan Leavey” is a unique movie about war. It’s a story of heroism, sacrifice, and connection forged on the battlefield, but it’s remarkable in how the story it tells is so deeply personal that it obfuscates the political. The focus is on the troops, as it should be, and in this case, troops whose stories haven’t always been seen on screen — the women, and the canine. Named after the woman who protected soldiers in Iraq with her IED-detecting K9 officer, Sergeant Rex, “Megan Leavey” might be a story about war, but it’s much more a tale about the bond between humans and animals. “Blackfish” director Gabriela Cowperthwaite was recruited to direct her first narrative feature by star Kate Mara, who was inspired by Cowperthwaite’s animal advocacy with the Sea World documentary. In placing the relationship between K9 dogs and their handlers at the forefront of this story, this film about war is far ore a story about compassionate connection under fire than the circumstances that lead to such events. Leavey (Mara) signs up for the Marines as a way out of her dead-end life, and there, she finds a purpose, and a soul mate, in Rex. As a female K9 handler in Iraq during the height of the conflict in the early 2000s, she is out in front of the front lines before women were even allowed in combat, and Cowperthwaite captures that queasy sense of unease and terror of walking out into unknown territory, bombs potentially anywhere underfoot. Wounded in an explosion, Leavey is awarded a Purple Heart, and leaves the Marines, but is separated from Rex, who is re-deployed. Thus, she begins an odyssey to reunite with and adopt her best friend. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

THE MUMMY

1/2 PG 13, 107 minutes. Through tonight only at Stonington, Waterford. Still showing at Niantic, Westbrook, Lisbon. There is so much riding on “The Mummy,” far more than its skeletal shoulders should have to withstand. The studio behind the summer horror-adventure flick, Universal, is kicking off its “Dark Universe,” with the film, its answer to the Marvel or DC cinematic universes. So they’re dusting off the familiar names that have graced cinemas for nearly a century now, like “Bride of Frankenstein” and “Creature from the Black Lagoon.” Those, and other monsters, were popularized in the 1930s with the Val Lewton gothic monster flicks, effectively inventing horror filmmaking as we know it. Universal is hoping audiences might still have an appetite for these titles. Therefore, “The Mummy” director and co-writer Alex Kurtzman is saddled with several enormous tasks to achieve in one film. It has to reboot the popular older series of “Mummy” films from the 1990s and early 2000s, it has to (hopefully) launch a new franchise, as well as the Dark Universe, and it has to be a Tom Cruise vehicle. The first half of “The Mummy” shows tremendous promise. It’s the kind of rollicking, goofy, perfect summer fun to be found at the movies. After the legends are established, of crusading English knights and vengeful Egyptian princesses unleashing evil curses, we drop in with Nick Morton (Cruise) and Chris Vail (Jake Johnson), a pair of special-ops types who like to spend their time in Iraq antiquity hunting rather than insurgent stalking. One of their escapades involving a hasty airstrike unearths a secret tomb, and British archaeologist Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) is on the scene to excavate the sarcophagus within; it’s confined in a pool of mercury, imprisoned in a series of traps and chains. As we have been informed, liberating this soul from its resting place could have deadly repercussions, and our protagonists soon discover this as well, as the mummy princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella) lays waste to their cargo plane and sets off to repossess her sacred dagger from the knights who looted it a few centuries ago. She needs it to turn her “chosen” into a god, and you can imagine on whom she’s set her sights as the perfect immortal mate. While consummate movie star Cruise is always a joy to watch onscreen, there’s something that isn’t quite right here. It seems to be a problem with both casting and writing. The role demands that Cruise be a rakish, lady-killing bounty hunter, but also perform a kind of befuddled banter with buddy Vail and love interest Jenny. Cruise’s persona doesn’t quite jibe with that, though Wallis is perfectly cast as the intelligent and saucy academic. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

MY COUSIN RACHEL

1/2 PG, 106 minutes. Mystic Luxury Cinemas. Director Roger Michell has tackled many different genres in his long career, including romantic comedies, dramas and thrillers. “My Cousin Rachel” offers the chance to sink his teeth into a juicy, gothic romantic melodrama, based on a 1951 novel by Daphne Du Maurier. The story was adapted to the silver screen in 1952 with Olivia de Havilland and Richard Burton in the lead roles, and now Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin tackle the story of passion and paranoia. In this tale, impetuous, distrustful masculinity meets mysterious, veiled femininity, which proves to be a combustible combination on contact. Though Rachel is an omnipresent figure, this story belongs to Philip (Claflin). His beloved cousin and guardian, Ambrose (Claflin plays both men), retreats to Italy to convalesce, where he meets and marries an intriguing woman, Rachel (Weisz). After his untimely death, his widow arrives at his English estate, where Philip, his only heir, is now man of the house, and highly suspicious of his new relative, thanks to a series of anguished notes from a dying Ambrose. The sheltered young man has whipped himself into a frenzy over her arrival, but it turns out the cousin in question is actually quite beautiful and charming, and soon everything is topsy-turvy. Weisz gives a performance that is virtuosic in its control. Her face is like the placid surface of a lake, never giving anything away. Is it nefarious? A defense? Both? Her Rachel is highly intelligent, resourceful, guarded, but also playful and compassionate. Claflin gives one of his best performances to date as the petulant Philip, his emotional pendulum swinging constantly from puppyish naïveté to sinister anger. —Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

PARIS CAN WAIT

1/2 PG, 92 minutes. Niantic and Art Cinema. A sunny travelogue/fantasy set in the always-ready-for-its-closeup French countryside, Eleanor Coppola’s “Paris Can Wait” is slight but charming. Its story seems to belong in a Peter Mayle book: Ann (Diane Lane), at the Cannes Film Festival with her producer husband, Michael (Alec Baldwin), can’t fly to Paris because of an ear ache; instead, she accepts a ride with her husband’s French colleague, Jacques (Arnaud Viard). The daylong trip stretches to two days, filled with lovingly photographed meals (impeccably lit Madison

cheese is practically a supporting character here) and mild flirtation. Coppola’s been part of the film world for most of her life: She’s the wife of an Oscar winner (Francis Ford Coppola, the “Godfather” saga) and mother of another (Sofia Coppola, “Lost in Translation”), and is herself an Emmy Award winner for the documentary “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.” At 81, this is her first feature film, and while very little happens in “Paris Can Wait” — its dramatic highlight is the fact that Jacques and Ann, in the same day, have a delightful French-lunch-with-wine twice — it’s never less than pleasant viewing. Much of that is due to Lane, a performer whose warmth could melt that delicious-looking French ice cream Jacques encourages her to try — three cones’ worth. (Seriously, the amount of food consumed in this movie will either make you very hungry or compel you to go lie down.) Viard delivers nicely on the standard-issue movie Frenchman — the Peugeot, the pocket square, the casual tossing-off of instruction about “the best time of year to eat young animals.” And Baldwin, employing the Jack Donaghy Pause to fine effect (if you’re not a “30 Rock” aficionado, you’ll … not know what I’m talking about), is always a welcome sight. “Paris Can Wait” isn’t exactly a feast, but it’s a snack worth having. — Moira Macdonald. Seattle Times

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES

PG-13, 129 minutes. Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. Since Hollywood loves a nostalgic reboot, it’s no surprise that the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise is setting sail once again, six years after 2011’s “On Stranger Tides.” For this film, subtitled “Dead Men Tell No Tales,” Disney has hired a lesser-known filmmaking duo to reanimate the series — a pair of Norweigan filmmakers, Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, who helmed the 2012 oceanic adventure film “Kon-Tiki.” What they’ve delivered is a cookie-cutter “Pirates” movie that faithfully follows the formula. “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” is a strictly color-by-numbers affair. Watching it feels like reading a recipe attempting to replicate what made these films appealing in the first place. Mix one swaggering, slurring, Johnny Depp (heavy on the eyeliner), one headstrong young lass in a cleavage-baring corset, and one noble, handsome upstart. Fold in a waterlogged supernatural villain, then haphazardly sprinkle a daring heist, an execution escape, and several nautical battles. Finish with a supremely outlandish denouement. The story laid on top of that concerns young sailor Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites), determined to free his father, Will (Orlando Bloom), from a watery cursed existence. Henry believes the notorious Jack Sparrow (Depp) will help him find the trident of Poseidon to break the curse. It’s a wonder anyone thinks Sparrow can do anything in his rum-sodden state, but Turner links up with the soggy old pirate and a young woman, imprisoned for witchcraft (read: science), Carina (Kaya Scodelario), who claims to have the Map No Man Can Read, a diary of astronomical instructions that she believes will lead them to the trident. They just have to escape Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem), a Spanish captain doomed to a ghostly existence by Sparrow. He’s been working out his frustrations pillaging Captain Barbosa’s (Geoffrey Rush) fleet, making his way to Sparrow. Carina leads this whole brigade with her map to the stars. Despite following her, no one actually believes that she knows she’s talking about. It’s frustrating, but also gratifying, when she is eventually able to prove herself right — ultimately, this is a film about men not believing women when they speak. As charming buffoon Jack Sparrow, Depp has always been able to walk the line between hero and damsel in distress, but one can’t help but think that his performance here works only because of the groundwork laid in prior “Pirates” pictures. He simply gestures toward the Jack Sparrow notes that we’ve already enjoyed, previous punchlines included. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

ROUGH NIGHT

1/2 R, 101 minutes. Stonington, Waterford, Lisbon, Westbrook. As women achieve more milestones toward gender parity in film (and there’s still a long way to go to), steps towards equality don’t always have to be positive or uplifting images of womanhood. Sometimes, it’s more relevant when female characters can be just as raunchy, drunk, morally corrupt and beloved as their badly behaved male counterparts. “Rough Night,” from “Broad City” writers Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs (they co-wrote the script while Aniello directed and Downs stars in the film), is the first R-rated Hollywood studio film directed by a woman, about women, in decades. It not only pushes the boundary of questionable behavior, it does a handstand on top of it, and fortunately, they just about nail the

landing. “Rough Night” is a riff on the premise of the 1998 dark comedy “Very Bad Things,” wherein Jeremy Piven and pals accidentally kill a sex worker during a wild night of partying. That film ended up fairly bleak and misogynistic, and “Rough Night” has to do much more than just flip the genders to erase the ickiness that comes with murdering a sex worker. Fortunately, Aniello and Downs manage to elide the severity of that act with some clever plotting, and a whole lot of weird and wacky elements to distract from that. “Broad City” is a series that thrives on the surreal, and in “Rough Night,” Aniello and Downs inject a lot of that strangeness into the known generic universe of the girls’ trip movie. The film, which starts off a bit rocky, as the story elements are established, only gets better and funnier as it builds, leaning into the craziness as the dominos fall into place. In what may very well be our first post-Hillary comedy, Scarlett Johansson stars as Jessica, a budding politician running for state Senate (she even has a Hillary-style haircut). She’s struggling in the polls against an opponent voters find “relatable,” even though he can’t stop tweeting lewd selfies. Nevertheless, she heads to Miami with her college girlfriends for her bachelorette weekend. Johansson plays the straight man in her posse, which includes over-enthusiastic kindergarten teacher Alice (Jillian Bell), activist Frankie (Ilana Glazer), wealthy divorceé Blair (Zoë Kravitz) and Aussie flower child Pippa (Kate McKinnon). It’s standard party girl stuff, until Alice accidentally manslaughters the young man they’ve invited into their pad as a stripper, and they decide that instead of calling the police, they’ll dispose of the body. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

WONDER WOMAN

1/2 PG-13, 141 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. It’s taken 76 years for the comic book character Wonder Woman to lasso her way onto the big screen in her very own standalone film, and it’s not a moment too soon. “Wonder Woman” arrives in theaters under an intense amount of scrutiny. The first female-starring superhero film directed by a woman, Patty Jenkins, carries the burden of representing half the population, and her success could determine the fates of other female superhero films. Not only that, but after a string of superhero blockbusters that have been battered by critics, the DC Comics cinematic universe needs an acclaimed hit. So it’s a pleasure to report that “Wonder Woman” more than delivers on its promise. It is simply awesome. The keys to its success lie in the two wonder women at the heart of the film, director Jenkins and star Gal Gadot. With her scene-stealing appearance in last year’s “Batman vs. Superman,” it was clear Gadot could ably fulfill the duties of the hero: smart, sassy, strong, and in need of no man’s aid. She remains just as headstrong and physically formidable, but in “Wonder Woman,” we get to know Diana better, and she’s one of the most charming and lovable superheroes to come around in a long, long time. Jenkins and writer Allan Heinberg have sacked the dark and dour tone that began with the Christopher Nolan “Batman” trilogy, and has persisted through Zack Snyder’s Superman and Batman films. “Wonder Woman” engages with the heavy topics of war and the dark nature of mankind, with a story set during World War I, but the film is often lighthearted and funny, especially regarding Diana’s limited understanding of the modern world. Gadot plays off Chris Pine, who plays British intelligence spy Steve Trevor, beautifully. The two have a winning chemistry together, bringing a sense of ease and humor to their dramatic performances. — Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service