Opening this week
By The Associated Press
Blindness
– The blind literally lead the blind – to hell and back – in
this pretentious, preposterous allegory. An unnamed disease
afflicts the unnamed citizens of an unnamed city, all of which is
too precious. The victims are left sightless but they see white
instead of black, a sensation one character
compares to
”
swimming in milk.” Once they’re rounded up by soldiers and
quarantined in a grubby, abandoned mental asylum, their worst
primal instincts emerge: urination and defecation in the hallways,
theft, assaults and, ultimately, rape. The physical and moral
deterioration calls to mind the situation in the Superdome after
Hurricane Katrina, but director Fernando Meirelles, in adapting a
novel by Nobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago, is clearly trying to
suggest that society similarly could collapse anywhere, anytime.
Rather than being thought-provoking, though, the whole dreary
exercise feels like an overlong beat-down
– as if we’re being scolded just for showing up. Even Julianne
Moore can’t liven up this slog, despite a typically strong
performance as the one person who can still see (which is never
explained, probably because it’s an arbitrary plot device). She
pretends she’s blind, though, to stay with her h
usband (Mark Ruffalo), who is an eye doctor. Other victims
include a little boy, a hooker with a heart of gold (Alice Braga)
and an elderly man (Danny Glover), all of whom were the doctor’s
patients, and a bartender (Gael Garcia Bernal) at the hotel where
the prostitute worked. Thriller, R.
Opening this week
By The Associated Press
Blindness – The blind literally lead the blind – to hell and back – in this pretentious, preposterous allegory. An unnamed disease afflicts the unnamed citizens of an unnamed city, all of which is too precious. The victims are left sightless but they see white instead of black, a sensation one character compares to “swimming in milk.” Once they’re rounded up by soldiers and quarantined in a grubby, abandoned mental asylum, their worst primal instincts emerge: urination and defecation in the hallways, theft, assaults and, ultimately, rape. The physical and moral deterioration calls to mind the situation in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina, but director Fernando Meirelles, in adapting a novel by Nobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago, is clearly trying to suggest that society similarly could collapse anywhere, anytime. Rather than being thought-provoking, though, the whole dreary exercise feels like an overlong beat-down – as if we’re being scolded just for showing up. Even Julianne Moore can’t liven up this slog, despite a typically strong performance as the one person who can still see (which is never explained, probably because it’s an arbitrary plot device). She pretends she’s blind, though, to stay with her husband (Mark Ruffalo), who is an eye doctor. Other victims include a little boy, a hooker with a heart of gold (Alice Braga) and an elderly man (Danny Glover), all of whom were the doctor’s patients, and a bartender (Gael Garcia Bernal) at the hotel where the prostitute worked. Thriller, R.
Flash of Genius – It’s the first day of school and Greg Kinnear, as a college engineering professor, writes the word “ethics” on the blackboard for his students to ponder. Obviously, this will be important to this character and to his story. It’s also just one of many examples of director Marc Abraham spelling out for the audience exactly where he’s going with this David-and-Goliath tale of corporate greed that’s based on true events. Kinnear stars as Dr. Robert Kearns, married father of six and inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper in 1960s Detroit. Someone had to figure it out – the guys at Ford had been tinkering with little success – but then when Kearns came along, the company liked his makeshift contraption so much, it stole the thing away from him without giving him credit (or a cent). “Flash of Genius” is the long, arduous story of the legal battles and family sacrifices Kearns made in the name of truth, justice, and all that is right in this world. There’s something quaint about how old-fashioned this little guy’s fight is – and Kinnear is often so aw-shucks in his Midwesternness, it sounds like he’s doing a Jimmy Stewart impression. But we know that he fought and won, and Abraham, a longtime producer directing for the first time from a script by Philip Railsback, does little to boost suspense. Lauren Graham is likable as always but seems miscast as Kearns’ dutiful wife, Phyllis, who finds she can only tolerate his obsession for so long, and Alan Alda has a couple of standout scenes as his no-nonsense lawyer. Drama, PG-13.
How To Lose Friends & Alienate People – After “The Devil Wears Prada” detailed an up-and-comer at Vogue magazine, “How to Lose Friends & Alienate People” attempts to do the same with Vanity Fair. Cross your fingers that Hollywood eventually gets to Field & Stream. Based on the memoir by Toby Young, “How to Lose Friends” is about a British journalist named Sidney Young (Simon Pegg) hired from across the pond to come to New York and write celebrity profiles for Sharps magazine – a clear stand-in for Vanity Fair, complete with a doppelganger for Graydon Carter, played by Jeff Bridges. Surrounded by serious, unfunny and superficial colleagues, Sidney is a loutish, uncool party crasher who cheerfully claims “Con Air” is the greatest film ever made. Here, Americans are the straight men, the ones that need to loosen up. Only fellow scribe Alison Olsen (Kirsten Dunst) can stand his boorish behavior, and only just. There is some satire here of the entertainment industry, but where there might be biting observation, there are mostly pratfalls, “limpy pig” dances and full-frontal nudity. Comedy, R.
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist – Someday, Michael Cera will show us what else he can do. He surely must have someone else inside him besides the poignantly verbal but sweetly awkward nerd we’ve come to know and love in such movies as “Superbad” and “Juno,” and the late, great TV series “Arrested Development.” For now, though, Cera is that guy again, but he also shows some potential as a viable romantic lead – albeit an unconventional one. He and Kat Dennings have a lively, easy chemistry with each other as a couple of high school seniors prowling the streets of New York on an all-night quest to find their favorite underground band. Cera’s Nick is an average middle-class New Jersey kid who is obsessed with Tris (Alexis Dziena), the unfaithful ex-girlfriend who dumped him, and the CD mixes he makes for her of his favorite indie rock tunes aren’t winning her back. But they do win the heart of Dennings’ Norah, a classmate of Tris’ who thinks Nick must be the coolest guy in the world, based solely on his musical taste. One night, through a convoluted confluence of events, Nick and Norah find themselves thrown together. The comedy from Peter Sollett (“Raising Victor Vargas”), based on the book by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, is aimed squarely at 20-something hipsters, but it’s a worthy successor to those 1980s John Hughes movies that were sweetly romantic without trying hard to be. Romantic comedy, PG-13.
Rachel Getting Married – The cinematic equivalent of a wedding that just will not end. The movie features a powerful performance from Anne Hathaway, but the story is undone by the self-indulgence of director Jonathan Demme, who loiters interminably on some scenes. Demme’s detours into documentaries serve him well as he crafts a loose, docudrama style that infuses great authenticity into this anguished reunion tale. But Demme did the reflect-real-life thing almost too well. Many moments are genuine to the point where you feel trapped in a room with someone else’s relations in a marathon session of picking and clawing at old wounds. Hathaway stars as a woman out of rehab to come home for the wedding of her sister (Rosemarie DeWitt). While the family tries to leave at rest its ample unspoken heartache, Hathaway’s prodigal daughter dredges everything up, threatening the shaky peace everyone hopes will prevail through the wedding weekend. Hathaway’s a marvel for the depths she explores, but Demme and screenwriter Jenny Lumet overload the story with strife and boring excess. Drama, R.
Religulous – Bill Maher is preaching to the choir with this documentary that dissects organized religion, but he’s doing it in his laceratingly funny, typically sardonic way. The comic has touched on this topic often in his standup act and on his HBO talk show “Real Time With Bill Maher,” but here he goes on a full, focused attack, and pretty much no one emerges unscathed (except those who practice Eastern religions, for some reason). If you’re an atheist or an agnostic, you’ll be completely on board and happy to tag along with Maher as he travels the globe asking people about their faith – everywhere from Jerusalem and the Vatican to a truckers’ chapel in Raleigh, N.C., and a Holy Land theme park in Orlando, Fla. If you’re a true believer, though, you’ll probably be offended. Then again, Maher is surely smart enough to realize that his movie will convert no one, but he seems to get off on the thrill of the challenge nonetheless. “Religulous” comes from director Larry Charles, who teamed up with Sacha Baron Cohen for “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” and it has a structure reminiscent of that 2006 comedy, as well as similarly uproarious laughs. The ones on the receiving end of Maher’s Socratic-style questioning are often humorless – they don’t get that he’s toying with them – which makes the results even more absurdly amusing. Quick cutaways to movie clips that illustrate his points, from “Scarface” to “Superbad,” keep the energy and hilarity high, as do subtitles commenting on the conversations, similar to “The Word” segment on “The Colbert Report.” But Maher undermines his arguments at the end when the tone turns sharply serious: He tries to make a connection between religion and all the wars and violence in the world, and he does it with the same kind of certitude he just got done condemning others for having. Documentary, R.
Playing Oct. 3 – Oct. 9
Pinnacle staff report
Appaloosa – Two friends are hired to sherriff a western town, but things are complicated when a widow shows up in town. Drama, R.
Beverly Hills Chihuahua – Warning: This film contains talking animals – and their not animated. In the film from Raja Gosnell, a shi-shi Beverly Hills Chihuahua gets parted from her owner while on vacation from Mexico. Voiced by Drew Barrymore, Chloe runs into a motley crew of Mexican dogs as she tries to find her way back home across the border. Comedy, PG.
Eagle Eye – When Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) and Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan) receive mysterious phone calls, they have to stick together to protect their families and to stay alive. Each phone call pushes the pair to put themselves in even more dangerous situations and makes them watned fugitives. Action, PG-13.
House Bunny – Shelly (Anna Faris) is a past her prime Playboy bunny who has just been kicked out of the mansion. She takes on employment as a house mom for a group of misfit sorority girls instead of finding a real job and place to live. Soon she finds she has more to offer the girls than she thought, and they have more to offer her. Also starring Colin Hanks, Emma Stone, Kat Dennings and Julia Lea Wolov. Comedy, PG-13.
Igor – Igor is a hunchbacked assistant to an evil scientist, but what he really wants is to be a scientist himself. Do that, he will have to overcome all the other evil scientists in the community. Characters voiced by John Cusack, John Cleese, Steve Buscemi and Sean Hayes. Animated, PG.
Lakeview Terrace – In this drama, a Los Angeles Police Department officer (Samuel L. Jackson) tries to force an interracial couple who just moved in to leave the neighborhood. Instead of taking the harrassment from the self-appointed neighborhood watchman, they fight back. Also starring Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington. Thriller, PG-13.
My Best Friend’s Girl – Dustin (Jason Biggs) thinks he’s found the perfect girl in Alexis (Kate Hudson) but she dumps him before their relationship really starts. Dustin hires his best friend Tank (Dane Cook) who has a knack for treating girls badly to drive them back into the arms of ex-boyfriends. But Tank starts to fall for Alexis before too long and struggles to stay away from his best friend’s girl. Comedy, R.
Nights in Rodanthe – Adrienne Willis (Diane Lane) is married to Jack (Christopher Meloni) with a couple of kids at home. But when she becomes overwhelmed, she heads to a tiny coastal town to take care of her friend’s bed and breakfast for the weekend. There she meets Paul Flanner (Richard Gere), a doctor who is trying to reunite with his estranged son. Based on the book by Nicholas Sparks. Drama, PG-13.
Righteous Kill – Years ago two detectives (Al Pacino and Robert De Niro) put a man behind bars for murder. Now they have a new murder to solve that bears some similarities to the long solved case. They must discover if they have a serial killer on their hands and if they put the wrong man behind bars all those years ago. Crime drama, R.
Tropic Thunder – Ben Stiller directed and wrote this film, with Justin Theroux, about a group of actors who head into the jungle to get into character for a movie. When they are captured by rebels, they don’t realize it’s not just a movie anymore. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, and Steve Coogan and Stiller. Comedy, R.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona – In this Woody Allen film, two friends visit Spain on a summer holiday where they fall for the same painter. Little do they know his ex-wife is about to return. The film stars Allen’s protege Scarlett Johansson as well as Rebecca Hall, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz.
The Women – Based on a 1939 film by George Cukor, this updated version has a wealthy New York woman leaving her cheating husband to bond with other society women. The film stars Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Bette Midler and plenty of other well-known females. Comedy, PG-13.
