NOBODY’S FOOL
R, 111 minutes. Waterford, Stonington, Lisbon. The Tyler Perry Studios logo signifies many things: a successful business model for production and distribution; a tremendous amount of work, for a wide, deep, underserved African-American talent pool; and, like clockwork, every few months, another Perry film offering a few laughs, a little sex, a lesson or two in healing and the power of family. Judging from “Nobody’s Fool,” it’s time for this talented, driven, versatile force to concentrate on craft, along with his prodigious output. The new one’s a passable dash-through of a romantic comedy, bailed out periodically by the performers. But the actors are working harder than they should for a reason: because the material needs help. Tika Sumpter plays Danica, a hotshot Manhattan advertising executive who earns “in the upper six figures.” Successful in business, foolish in love, she’s likely being duped by her long-distance virtual boyfriend, whom she’s never met, or even seen via video chat. Recently out of prison, her wild, wild sister, Tanya, enlists the help of MTV’s “Catfish” to get to the truth. Tiffany Haddish plays her, and the best laugh in the picture is the way she rolls into her sister’s swank condo and takes stock of what she’s been missing. Has it really only been a little over a year since “Girls Trip” came out, and launched Haddish into stardom? Problem is, her follow-up roles in things like “Night School” haven’t done her talents justice. In “Nobody’s Fool” she pitches everything super-broadly, even throwaway bits. In Perry’s films, protagonists typically stay in their ruts of self-destructive behavior until they wake up, smell the coffee and get with the real Mr. Right. “Nobody’s Fool” lets you know instantly that Danica is A.) wasting her time with her so-called boyfriend, and B.) talking herself out of the flawed but sexy/sensitive/capable/ worthy suitor (Omari Hardwick).
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS
H1/2 PG, 99 minutes. Niantic, Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Waterford, Stonington, Westbrook, Lisbon. “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms”? What in the cuckoo Christmas blasphemy is this? Disney, continuing on its inexorable death march to add more war to soft and beautiful classic childhood stories, has plucked all the feathers from Tchaikovsky and Petipa’s holiday ballet and tossed a bunch of glitter and circus clowns at its quivering carcass. This is your warning that if you have any affinity for the ballet, avoid this at all costs. This take on “The Nutcracker,” written by Ashleigh Powell in her screenwriting debut, somehow directed by both Lasse Hallstrom and Joe Johnston, takes merely a few key elements of the ballet and then tosses them into a blender, along with “Alice and Wonderland,” “The Greatest Showman” and Stanley Tucci in “The Hunger Games,” to create something wildly kooky and more violent. And yet it’s got incredibly low stakes, and it’s a mere shadow of what “The Nutcracker” actually is. Sure, “girl falls asleep on Christmas Eve and dreams an