NOW PLAYING
Capsule reviews of first-run films now showing at Calgary theatres
The Adventures of Tintin ½ out of five
The popular kids’ comic about an adventurous journalist named Tintin comes to the big screen under the careful direction of Steven Spielberg. Spectacular visuals highlight a very fun ride.
Albert Nobbs
Glenn Close stars as Albert Nobbs, an odd little man with a big secret, and an even bigger wad of cash hidden beneath the floorboards. When a young woman shows up at the guest house where he works, he falls in love — and risks losing it all. Steeped in a sense of melodrama, Close and co-star Janet Mcteer save the movie with little moments of human humour, but overall, this Rodrigo Garcia movie fails to make a dramatic impression.
Alvin and the Chipmunks:
Chip-wrecked ½
The mischievous critters are grounded for causing a ruckus while aboard a cruise ship. Alvin suggests they “turn punishment into funishment,” but very little funishment transpires.
The Artist
An enchanting fable about the early days of Hollywood. Jean Dujardin plays an idol of silent films whose career collapses with the talkies, even as a spunky ingenue (Berenice Bejo) begins her rise.
Back to the Sea (not reviewed)
This animated tale tells the story of Kenny, a flying fish who dreams of leading his family to Barbados from their home in New York City’s harbour.
Beauty and the Beast 3-D
The 1991 Disney classic, the first animated film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, returns in 3-D. It’s technically adept and richer.
Big Miracle
A family film based on the 1988 incident when three whales were trapped beneath Alaskan ice and in danger of dying. It’s a story of pluck and animal-love, but it has a surprisingly astute view of how such incidents are used to pro- mote the careers of the reporters, politicians, oil companies and everyone else who jumps in to help.
Cafe de Flore
The latest from Quebec writer/ director Jean-marc Vallee is a masterpiece, combining two twisty narratives set 40 years apart on separate continents.
Chronicle
A miserable teenager and his two friends gain the power of telekinesis after falling down a rabbit hole. The awkward script, unremarkable acting, questionable direction and other problems with Chronicle are slightly redeemed by top-notch special effects. This one’s only for audiences willing to suspend their disbelief and don’t mind the shakiness of hand-held-camera work.
Contraband
Mark Wahlberg stars in this complex but unremarkable thriller as a smuggler who has to take on one more job to rescue his brother-in-law from a drug lord. The film manages to generate some tension despite several large plot holes.
A Dangerous Method
David Cronenberg’s look at the split between Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) makes for stilted drama, especially considering the hysteria of Keira Knightley as a masochistic patient who becomes Jung’s mistress.
The Descendants
George Clooney, who has never been better, plays a Hawaiian businessman whose wife is in a coma in this tragicomedy from Alexander Payne.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Despite grand ambitions of memorializing the events of Sept. 11, this treacly movie from Stephen Daldry feels cheap and exploitative, as it tells the story of a boy trying to cope with the grief of losing his father in the World Trade Center. Tom Hanks plays the doomed dad with folksy charm; Sandra Bullock is great in her few scenes, but Thomas Horn proves a little tough to embrace as the angry and resentful son.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ½
Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig star in this U.S. version of the Swedish bestseller from Stieg Larsson. An elegant balance between light and dark, the film benefits from David Fincher’s ascetic treatment.
Man on a Ledge A loopy drama about an escaped convict (Sam Worthington) who tries to prove his innocence by going out on a window ledge as his accomplices plan a complicated robbery. It makes about as much sense as that, and Worthington doesn’t have the charisma to make us care.
The Grey ½ A surprisingly philosophical adventure film about a group of oil workers, led by Liam Neeson, who are trapped in the cold Alaska snows and threatened by a pack of vicious wolves. As they muse about their fates, the movie takes on an existential depth, sometimes at the expense of the mounting tension.
Haywire ½ Steven Soderbergh’s thriller is a laughably complicated story about a black-ops agent (MMA fighter Gina Carano) who sets out to find why she was betrayed by her bosses. It’s an intimate superheroine film, enlivened by an all-star supporting cast (Michael Fassbender, Ewan Mcgregor, etc.) and swift, devastating action.
Hugo ½ Martin Scorsese’s film is an astonishing love letter to cinema. It’s about a young boy (Asa Butterfield) who lives in a Paris train station in 1930 and falls in with a sour toymaker (Ben Kingsley).
The Iron Lady ½ The story of Margaret Thatcher gets a rather fragmented treatment in this problematic film from director Phyllida Lloyd. Yet, despite a script that gets bogged down in flashbacks and exposition, the performance from Meryl Streep is flawless — and redefines the very boundaries of the dramatic arts. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol Tom Cruise takes on the role of super-spy Ethan Hunt one more time in this action thriller based on the old TV series. Pulling together a group of disavowed agents to stop a nuclear terrorist, Cruise’s Hunt does everything an action hero is supposed to do.
Monsieur Lazhar Philippe Falardeau’s Oscar-nominated feature tells the story of an Algerian man who takes over an elementary-school class grieving the loss of their teacher. Subtle, sincere and beautifully acted, this story of scars and healing proves you can bring an audience to tears with the gentlest caress. My Week With Marilyn ½ Michelle Williams delivers the essence of Marilyn Monroe in this romantic reminiscence of the time the actress made The Prince and the Showgirl with Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) in 1956.
One for the Money At best, One for the Money would make a decent madefor-tv movie. This misguided clunker starring a miscast Katherine Heigl betrays its source material, the bestselling series of books by Janet Evanovich: Instead of a tough and goofy heroine, we get a smart woman acting dumb. Even the plot sags in the middle.
Pink Ribbons, Inc Lea Pool’s documentary is an expose of the links between corporations, some of which make products that could actually add to the risks of cancer, and the culture of Pink Ribbons that has taken over the public face of cancer research. The film substitutes anger for the warm and fuzzy comfort of pink.
Red Tails Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard bring their A-game, but the movie that seeks to honour the Tuskegee airmen during the Second World War fails them with bad direction and oversimplified race relations.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Robert Downey Jr.’s manic performance remains the best reason to see Sherlock Holmes. In the sequel, Holmes and Dr. Watson track the genius Moriarty (Jared Harris) across Europe. Surviving Progress ½ Adapted from Ronald Wright’s book A Short History of Progress, by Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks, this is a thought-provoking look at how badly we have mucked things up in the name of progress. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy With Gary Oldman as George Smiley, Tinker Tailor is a precise assembly of creative gears, and actor-cogs working in mechanical harmony under sprung tension. More than just another spy movie, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a classic timepiece.
Underworld: Awakening
Kate Beckinsale returns to play the vampiress, Selene, in another instalment of this vampire series. The world has changed. Humanity is now waging a war against vampire and werewolf alike.
War Horse ½ A sentimental epic from Steven Spielberg about a horse that is sold to the English army at the start of the First World War. We follow his adventures through trenches, even as his heartsick owner (Jeremy Irvine) pines for him. The Woman In Black ½ Daniel Radcliffe stars in this unabashedly old-fashioned hauntedhouse film as a lawyer in Victorian England sent to investigate the death of a woman in a creepy mansion. The story, based on a book-turned-play, is a collection of tropes from many Gothic ghost stories, but they’re effectively put together, and Radcliffe shows signs of maturing past his Harry Potter persona.