‘Film Focus’ - Concept & Design: Satheesh Balachandran

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Andrei TarkovskyIngmar BergmanKim Ki-DukWong Kar WaiJoel SchumacherTom TykwerSatyajit RayNagesh KukunoorJ.P. DuttaMira NairAparna Sen

Ingrid Bergman, Sophia Loren, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Scarlett Johansson, Monica Bellucci,Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez,Cameron Diaz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lawrence Olivier, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro,Al Pacino, Leonardo Di Caprio, Brad Pitt

filmFOCUSthe art of film

June ’08

Auteur CinemaClassic CinemaHollywood FilmsBollywood FilmsContemporary Cinema

Andrei TarkovskyIngmar BergmanKim Ki-DukWong Kar WaiJoel SchumacherTom TykwerSatyajit RayNagesh KukunoorJ.P. DuttaMira NairAparna Sen

Ingrid Bergman, Sophia Loren, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Scarlett Johansson, Monica Bellucci,Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez,Cameron Diaz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lawrence Olivier, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro,Al Pacino, Leonardo Di Caprio, Brad Pitt

filmFOCUSthe art of film

June ’08

Auteur CinemaClassic CinemaHollywood FilmsBollywood FilmsContemporary Cinema

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‘Statutory Warning’

‘Film Focus’ is not for cine-intellectuals;

This magazine is intended for ordinary film-buffs...

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Hollywood Cinema

The Phantom of the OperaPerfume:The Story of a MurdererThe Butterfly EffectThe Devil Wears PradaBabel, Bee Season,A Good Year

Akeelah and the Bee, BirthThe Black Dahlia, Bright Young ThingsCharlie Wilson’s War, BewitchedCinderella Man,A Lot Like LoveDark Matter, Lost in TranslationDe Ja Vu, Eros, Freedom WritersFur, Hamlet, Jarhead, Lions for LambsLord of War, Made of HonorMatch Point,Tristram Shandy Memoirs of a Geisha, Mona Lisa Smile

Million Dollar Baby, Nim’s IslandThe Prestige, RenaissanceSavage Grace, Sex and the City‘V’ for Vendetta, Peaceful Warrior

Woman On Top, Stranger than Fiction

Offbeat filmsfrom Hollywood

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The Phantom Of The OperaDirector: Joel SchumacherArt Direction: John FennerCostumes:Alexandra Byrne

Cast: Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Miranda Richardson, Minnie Driver, Patrick Wilson.Produced by: Paul Hitchcock,Austin Shaw, Louise Goodsill.

Even before it went into production, manyaspects of the cinematic version of AndrewLloyd Webber’s ‘The Phantom of the

Opera’ (Based on Gaston Leroux’s novel) spelleddoom. Everything, from the troubling rumors of JohnTravolta and Antonio Banderas as the top con-tenders for the coveted role of the title character toKatie Holmes being turned down for the role ofChristine Daae, the female lead in the story, citingher as being, at 26, “too old,” was off-putting. Onceproduction started, the unpromising worsened.Therewere rumors of drastic changes being made to theclassic story (including what seemed an out-of-placeswordfight) and the role of Christine, an educatedsinger/dancer, went to then-17-year-old - 17-year-old!- Emmy Rossum.The only glimmer of hope camefrom the modest budget - believe it or not - an esti-mated $50 million, which could prevent the excessoften associated with the gifted Joel Schumacher.With mediocre expectations, Schumacher’s Phantomis a mixed blessing, as dazzling to the eyes and ears asit is numbing to the heart and mind.This is aSchumacher film, because in the end, surface triumphsover soul.

The Phantom of the Opera opens at the ParisOpera-House in the late nineteenth-century, withthe production of “Hannibal” coming to a halt whenits temperamental star, La Carlotta (MinnieDriver, sporting the worst Italian accent sinceNicholas Cage in ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’),

walks out during a dress rehearsal after threats fromthe mysterious Phantom (Gerard Butler), who hashaunted the opera house for years.The theatre’sinexperienced new managers (Ciarán Hinds andSimon Callow) are at a loss, so they replace herwith the young ingénue Christine, who has been tak-ing singing lessons from this “opera ghost,” all withoutever seeing him, yet believing him to being an “Angelof Music.”

Christine mesmerizes the audience and her new man-agers and quickly dethrones the arrogant diva, captur-ing the heart of her unseen tutor, whose facial defor-mities resulted in him being caged as a freak-showattraction for the first quarter of his life. But she alsofinds herself the object of affection of a childhoodfriend, the theatre’s wealthy patron, VicompteRaoul de Chagny (Patrick Wilson).Torn betweenthe striking Raoul and enigmatic Phantom, Christinesets off a rivalry between the two men for her love.

The Phantom of the Opera is faithful to its Tony-award-winning material, to its advantage and disadvan-tage. Schumacher delivers a perfect visual translationof the staged production to the screen: the Phantom’sLair is given a cavernous shape, the opera house anarchitectural masterpiece, and every nook and crannyof the setting feels like an actual setting rather than a prop in a filmed play.These settings are given amulti-dimensional shape, thanks to production design-er Anthony Pratt.

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The music is still a delight. Every song is arousing piece made up of either hauntinglyrics (Christine sings of the “angel” as being sent by her deceased father) orcheerful fluffiness (one number has the twomanagers singing of the trouble thePhantom is causing). Even if you’ve neverheard the songs or seen the show, you maybe tempted to sing along.

But the show is still better than the movie.Schumacher, who has said in interviews thathe wanted “young, hot” actors in the leadroles, apparently meant this at the expenseof ones with vocal talent or acting ability.The leads eventually squander the film’spotential. Gerard Butler, with dark hair anddeep, forlorn eyes, is a commanding physicalpresence, but his Phantom is no tormentedmadman.Yes, we feel sympathy for him, butin spite of, not because of, his limited actingrange. Butler gives what more or lessamounts to a line-reading. Moreover, hisrock-opera take on the songs are too wail-ing and whiny to be touching, resembling a“Poison” cover than the actual Phantom.

Emmy Rossum and Patrick Wilson have good,solid voices. But as the lead soprano in an opera,Rossum is unable to convince us that shedeserves her high status. Her voice is servicea-ble, but far from operatic. Similarly,Wilson is easyto listen to, but he’s not as ruggedly irresistible ashe should be.What the three leads share in com-mon is they forget that singing is acting carriedout through song.As a result, the film paradesfrom one lavish musical number to another with-out much heart to hold the story together.

The film, much like the play, is about what liesbeneath the surface. Beneath the opera houselays the dark, unsettling Phantom, and beneath hissilky, featureless white mask is a face horriblydeformed.Yet, for all of its references to thedeceptions of appearance, there’s actually nothingunderneath the surface of this film. Everythingwas in place for The Phantom of the Opera to bea landmark musical, comparable to MoulinRouge and Chicago: a great story and wonder-ful songs, all it needed was believable perform-ances. But as it is, Schumacher’s Phantom is still aworthy, watchable adaptation.The film is a treat,whether you’ve seen the show or not.

The Phantom Of The OperaDirector: Joel Schumacher

Cinematography:Editing:Music:

Art Direction: John FennerCostumes:Alexandra Byrne

Cast: Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Miranda Richardson, Minnie Driver, Patrick Wilson.Produced by: Paul Hitchcock,Austin Shaw, Louise Goodsill.

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Perfume:The Story of a MurdererDirector: Tom TykwerWritten by:Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger,Tom Tykwer.Based on: Patrick Süskind’s novel ‘Das Parfum’Cast: Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman,Alan Rickman, Rachel Hurd-Wood, and John Hurt.

Tom Tykwer adapts Patrick Süskind’s bestselling novel about an 18th century French psychopath with a superhuman sense of smell

AGerman director, adapting a German novel set inFrance, with actors speaking English, plus extensivevoice-over and a near-mute protagonist who spends

a lot of his time sniffing. It doesn’t exactly sound like a recipefor cinematic success. Remarkably, Tom Tykwer (‘Run LolaRun’, ‘Heaven’) has pulled it off, creating a film that over-comes its more awkward elements to be a visually impres-sive, highly unusual period thriller.

If you’ve read Patrick Süskind’s 1985 novel, doubtlessyou’ll recollect its opening pages, where the profound stinkof eighteenth century Europe is described and the protago-nist, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born to his fish vendormother, amid the guts and heads of a Paris fish market,“themost putrid spot in all the kingdom”.Tykwer doesn’t immedi-

ately take us to this scenario, but after a short prologueshowing the grown-up Grenouille in chains and on his wayto the scaffold, he unleashes the full glory of a splendidlyyucky cinematic realisation of said birth scene. In the light ofthe usual tone of period dramas, it’s refreshingly foul.The first half of the film is defined by this grot as Jean-Baptiste is sent to an orphanage, where he grows up an oddchild who unnerves the other children - as we’re informed inthe extensive narration provided by John Hurt. If you’re ofthe school of thought that insists a good movie shouldn’t usevoice over, perhaps Perfume isn’t for you, as much of the filmrelies on it, in part due to Grenouille not being much of atalker. Instead, he sniffs his way around the world, his senseof smell so acute he can identify pretty much any creature orsubstance within a large vicinity.

After being sold to a tanner, he growsup into the appropriately wiry BenWinshaw, who gives a gripping per-formance even if his delivery is a taddubious. Grenouille discovers the fullpanoply of scents on his first trip intothe centre of Paris. He’s drawn to aperfumer’s shop, but then lured awayby the scent of a beautiful young girl(Herfurth) selling plums. Shebecomes his first kill, almost by acci-dent, and his lifelong obsession - thescent of her body is the most intoxi-cating he’s experienced.

When happenstance brings him intocontact with the once famous butfaded perfumier Baldini (DustinHoffman), (doing the film’s onlyAmerican accent), Grenouille soimpresses him with his uncanny skills,he takes him on as an apprentice.Thisleads to him travelling to the perfumecapital of Grasse in Provence, wherehe learns other techniques, which hethen starts to exploit in his attemptsto capture the elusive ideal scent of

feminine youth and beauty. So beginshis serial killing, and a new, ongoingmania for another beauty - Laura(Hurd-Wood), the daughter of arich merchant, Richis (Rickman).

In the process, we learn some fasci-nating details about the productionof perfumes - which involve notesand chords, like music.We’re alsointroduced to a fabulous bit of psy-chopathology - Grenouille is halfsuper-canine, half-superhuman nutter,whose powers enable him to manip-ulate people, though he’s entirelywithout moral constraint or pur-pose.As such, he’s a force, a power.The film closes in 1766, and it wouldbe nice to read the culmination ofhis ambitions as in some way havingan influence on French society, thenstarting to ferment and buildtowards revolution. It’s probablyreaching, but either way, the priorscenes of him manipulating a mob inthe most extreme ways are an exam-ple of his remarkable abilities.

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Perfume:The Story of a Murderer

Not only does “Perfume” seem impossible to film, itmust have been almost impossible for Patrick Suskindto write. How do you describe the ineffable enigma of ascent in words? The audio-book, read by Sean Barrett,is the best audio performance one ever heard; he snuf-fles and sniffles his way to greatness and you almostbelieve he is inhaling bliss, or the essence of a stone.

Patrick Suskind’s famous novel involves a twisted littlefoundling whose fish-wife mother casually births himwhile chopping off cod heads. He falls neglected into thestinking charnel house that was Paris 300 years ago, andis nearly thrown out with the refuse. But Grenouillegrows into a grim, taciturn survivor (Ben Whishaw),who possesses two extraordinary qualities: he has themost acute sense of smell in the world, and has absolutely no scent of his own.

This last attribute is ascribed by legend to the spawn ofthe devil, but the movie “Perfume:The Story of aMurderer” makes no mention of this possibility, wiselylimiting itself to vile if unnamed evil. Grenouille grows upas a tanner, voluptuously inhaling the world’s smells, andeventually talks himself into an apprenticeship withBaldini (Dustin Hoffman), a master perfumer, nowpast his prime, whose shop is on an overcrowdedmedieval bridge on the Seine.

Mention of the bridge evokes the genius with whichdirector Tom Tykwer (“Run, Lola, Run”) evokes amedieval world of gross vices, all-pervading stinks andcrude appetites. In this world, perfume is like the pas-sage of an angel - some people think, literally. Grenouilleeffortlessly invents perfect perfumes, but his ambitionruns deeper; he wants to distill the essence of copper,stone and beauty itself. In pursuit of this last ideal hebecomes a gruesome murderer.

Baldini tells him the world center of the perfume art isin Grasse, in Southern France, and so he walks there. Itis in the nature of creatures like Grenouille that theyhave no friends. Indeed he has few conversations, andthey are rudimentary. His life, as it must be, is almostentirely interior, so Twyker provides a narrator (JohnHurt) to establish certain events and facts. Even then,the film is essentially visual, not spoken, and does aremarkable job of establishing Grenouille and his world.We can never really understand him, but we cannot tearour eyes away.

“Perfume” begins in the stink of the gutter and remainsdark and brooding.To rob a person of his scent is cruelenough, but the way it is done in this story is trulymacabre. Still it can be said that Grenouille is driven bythe conditions of his life and the nature of his spirit.Also, of course, that he may indeed be the devil’s spawn.

This is a dark, dark, dark film, focused on an obsession socomplete and lonely it shuts out all other human experi-ence.You may not savor it, but you will not stop watchingit, in horror and fascination. Whishaw succeeds in givingus no hint of his character save a deep savage need.AndDustin Hoffman produces a quirky old master whoselife is also governed by perfume, if more positively.Hoffman reminds us here again, as in “Stranger thanFiction,” what a detailed and fascinating character actorhe is, able to bring to the story of Grenouille preciselywhat humor and humanity it needs, and then tactfullyleaving it at that. Even his exit is nicely timed.

Tom Tykwer is second to none with cinema technique;his adaptation of Perfume is made with technical preci-sion and luscious production values. It is a dense screen-play co-written by Tykwer, producer Bernd Eichinger(‘Downfall’) and Andrew Birkin (‘The Name OfThe Rose’), and we are reminded of the film’s literaryroots by Hurt’s perversely jaunty voice-over narration,which pops in an out at every opportunity. In spite this‘embarrassment of riches’ - Perfume is a seriously ‘wellresourced’ movie - nonetheless it is cold emotionally,keeping us at a distance from the horror unfolding.

Ironically, while the cinema is perceived as the most ‘sen-sual’ art-form, smell might elude it.Tykwer and Co. giveit a red hot go: the sound of sniffing is heightened, thedepiction of Grenouille’s ecstasy when indulging in hisfavourite olfactory pastime are raised to religious rap-ture. But their efforts don’t quite get there, a conun-drum given that smell was so central to the success of this film story.

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Howard’s long-time buddy Tom Hanks(Apollo 13) plays Brown’s divine detec-tive, Professor Robert Langdon.We meet

“symbiologist” Langdon as he gives a lecture inParis on the significance of symbols and meaning.But the French jean-d’armes have other plans forthe good Professor: he is whisked away to thenearby Louvre to help solve a ritualistic murder,only to become a suspect himself.With helpfrom police cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Amelie’sAudrey Tautou) - coincidentally the granddaughter of the murdered man - Langdon stum-bles upon a religious cover up that had beenburied since Christ died on the cross.

Tautou and Hanks share no chemistry in theirscreen union, not even as friends united by acause.Watching them run around after clues,uncovering secrets and piecing together thestory’s underlying puzzle is like watching lab ratson a treadmill - and about as exciting.The usuallygreat British actor Paul Bettany - cast here toplay vicious violent monk Silas - is so bad he’slaughable.The best thing in Howard’s A BeautifulMind - subtle, warm and very believable as trou-bled maths genius John Nash’s ‘imaginary friend’ -

here he lurches from scene to scene with all thesubtlety and cartoon evil of Frankenstein’s mon-ster.And for a story about the repression of a woman throughout the ages,Tautou is in onethankless female role, stuck into scenes like a Paris fashion accessory. (Or a shapeless figurein fuzzy felt scenery).The only person who addsany kind of spark to this otherwise lifeless movieis Ian McKellen (Lord Of The Rings, X-Men 3).Lovely Gandalf defies all by having fun on screenas Langdon’s cheeky friend and mentor, Sir Leigh Teabing.

Howard can protest all he likes at the universalbagging his film ‘The Da Vinci Code’ has copped.But this is not simply a case of the critics beingsnobby, a bad adaptation, nor whether or not youbuy into the validity of Brown’s conspiracy.Frankly, who cares if you believe the ‘theories’ ornot - ‘The Da Vinci Code’ isn’t the problem -Howard is. He has made thriller that isn’tthrilling; a pulp fiction that’s dumb and dull. Hedidn’t commit to the material instead fence sit-ting, hoping to make a film that “won’t offend” orinflame...As a film it just doesn’t deliver and thefans should rightfully be disappointed.

The Da Vinci CodeDirector: Ron HowardCast:Tom Hanks,Audrey Tautou,Jean Reno, Sir Ian McKellen,Alfred Molina.

The Da Vinci Code is one of those giant Hollywood movies that comes withimpossible expectations and more hype than you can poke a stick at. (Think StarWars, Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter...) And why not - like the Rings and Potter,

The Da Vinci Code is the inevitable big budget movie adaptation of a best-selling novel -Dan Brown's best-selling novel, as read by over 50 million people worldwide. So who elsewould you entrust with the adaptation than ‘he of the Oscar pic’, Ron Howard(A Beautiful Mind,Apollo 13).

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The Devil Wears Prada slips over you like a$10,000 negligee and pierces like a shiny new pin. Butthen you expect it to be entertaining when it has the

tectonic might of Hollywood in its wings.The cast is impec-cable.The latest young lady with creamy skin and talent toburn - Anna Hathaway.A supporting cast bejewelled withthe likes of Stanley Tucci - there’s even a handsome Aussie,Simon Baker, looking very smooth.And perched like a dia-mond at the apex of the entire enterprise, Meryl Streep,the mega-star. It is indeed the Devil’s Work - set in the upperechelons of American consumerism. It is a bright and face-tious study of power, fame and luxury.

But is that all it is? The plot, taken from a mediocre bookwhich nonetheless achieved huge sales in the US, is so slen-der as to seem inconsequential - a simple cautionary tale foryoung women seduced by the twin evils of advanced capital-ism, fashion and feminism.

Anne Hathaway plays a likeable young heroine light yearsfrom the brittle wife she gave us in Brokeback Mountain.Wecan tell Andi is intelligent because she arrives, quite by acci-dent, in the perfumed corridors of Runway magazine in plaidskirts, frumpy jumpers and clumpy shoes - clearly a clit-litchic fresh from university and a women-in-media degree.

Like the innocent lamb of every cautionary fairytale,Andidoesn’t realize the danger she is in. She has arrived at theglittering gates of hell for a job interview at one of the mostcoveted titles in the world of glossy magazines.This is theheadquarters of the great Miranda Priestly, the super-editor-in chief of a publishing empire which dominates the globe,or at least New York and Paris.Andi’s extreme good fortuneis reflected back at her by a phalanx of perfectly groomedcareer girls (or clackers as they are nicknamed because ofthe clatter of their high heels). Chief amongst them is thedeliciously patronising Emily, played by Emily Blunt, complete

with posh English accent, product-lavished locks, and ironiceyebrows. She is Miranda’s top personal assistant, and clearlyexpects Andi to last less than a second in her job interview.

Andi is so obviously a dowd that jaws drop when Mirandaactually hires her. Perfectly groomed, obsequious little slave-girls are apparently a dime a dozen, and Miranda is bored byall of them. Chiefly it seems to amuse herself, the divineMiranda decides to try Andi on, just as she would a newglove, embroidered by peasants in Bhutan.

It should come as no surprise that Andi is swiftly seduced bythe devastating Miranda. Streep gives us a flawless performanceas the arch super-bitch that ambition is fabled to make of anywoman who rejects her feminine destiny in favour of power,money and fabulous success. She is a ruthless perfectionist, ahigh priestess of fashion who commands absolute power overall the frock shops of the known world, and the catwalks inParis. Designers adore and fear her. Minions snap to attentionas soon as a whiff of her perfume curls out of the lift.

In no time at all,Andi has no time for her sexy but other-wise perfectly ordinary boyfriend, her friends, and even herfamily. She is permanently connected to her Blackberry andswiftly flowers into a fashionista with the help of her fairygodmother, Nigel, played with relish by Stanly Tucci.This gor-geous gay man with the heart of gold waves his magic wand -or key to the vast wardrobes of Runway magazine - and Andiis transformed, not just by a dress, but by a galaxy of incredi-bly expensive clothes; thigh-high leather boots, Chanel jack-ets, and nine-inch Jimmy Choos.

The Devil Wears Prada doesn’t exaggerate a thing about thefashion world. It is a parody of an industry obsessed by cos-metics, handbags and designer labels.The superb actress,Meryl Streep has appeared on screen ‘at the height of herpowers’ several times already in her career.

The Devil Wears PradaDirector: David FrankelCast: Meryl Streep,Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt,Stanley Tucci,Adrian Grenier,Tracie Thoms,Rich Sommer, Simon Baker, Daniel Sunjata.

The Devil Wears Prada slips over youlike a $10,000 negligee and pierces like a shiny new pin. But then you expect it

to be entertaining when it has the tectonic mightof Hollywood in its wings.

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The Devil Wears PradaFew of her peers have the timing todeliver the nuance and steel of awoman like this.Wielding absolutepower requires keen intelligence as wellas detachment. Miranda is demanding,controlling, and focused on her role asthe ultimate arbiter of taste to theexclusion of all else. Her husband barelygets a look-in, her children are neatlydisposed with a nanny or two. She isfully aware that every colour and cutshe anoints as this season’s ‘in’ thingresonates through the layers of con-sumer society from the ultra-rich to thebadly clad poor. Is she so very differentfrom media moguls and business giantslike Trump, Gates and Murdoch? Wellshe’s a lot better looking for a start. Sheis the doyen of the present tense, thedominatrix of desire, the epitome of‘I want it now’.And in Streep’s hands sheis a brilliant comedic creation.

By the end of the film, little Andi obvious-ly has to learn her lesson. But are wesupposed to hate or revile MirandaPriestly? Not when she’s played byStreep. It is impossible to pity the relent-less Miranda, despite the scene, shock-horror, where she appears with no make-up. Perhaps for a woman in her positionmen really are superfluous. She canalways hire a new relationship or two.Her followers are utterly loyal, and she isrespected as widely as she is feared.Streep gives us a woman addicted topower, a woman who loves her job. Butshe is also a woman getting exactly whatshe wants out of life.

BabelDirector: Alejandro Gonzalez InarrituWriter: Guillermo Arriaga

Three stories set in three continents bound by a fatefulshot fired by a Moroccan boy messing around in themountains. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are only a third of this game of unintended consequences, set bydirector Alejandro González Iñárritu and writerGuillermo Arriaga

Babel is the third part of a trilogy by director Alejandro González-Iñárrituand writer Guillermo Arriaga. It began with Amores Perros, a journeyacross the class divides of Mexico City via three stories springing out of a car

crash, a method subsequently refashioned for 21 Grams, again three stories drawncentrifugally towards a car crash, this time in America, with stars Sean Penn andNaomi Watts keen to pull down awards.

Likewise Babel keeps three stories going at the same time, with past, present and futurerearranged to carefully calibrated effect.And - keeping with the narrative pattern -there is an explosive act that sets the three tales rolling, here the testing of a new rifleby Moroccan brothers Ahmed (Tarchani) and Yussef (Ait El Caidhe).The bulletpenetrates the window of a tour bus and continues into Susan, played by CateBlanchett, who slumps into the arms of her husband Richard, played by a grey andweathered Brad Pitt.

Even before she got shot, Richard and Susan’s holiday was not going well.“Why can’t yourelax? Why are you so stressed?” he asks her (before the shooting, obviously).“You arethe reason I can’t relax,” she replies.“You are the reason I am stressed.” “You are nevergoing to forgive me, are you?” he says, portentously.

Back home, their two children are in the care of Mexican nanny Amelia (Barraza). Herson is getting married and she is keen to get to the wedding but Richard forbids her.Tornbetween loyalties, she decides to take the all-American kids on a road trip across theborder with her nephew Santiago (García Bernal), hoping to catch the weddingbefore driving back the following morning.

So, we have wounded American tourists in Morocco, scared Moroccan boys, a Mexican wed-ding and frightened American kids. Did we mention the deaf Japanese girls’ volleyball team yet?

The most intriguing of Babel’s stories is its most tangential. Chieko (Kikuchi) isindeed a deaf volleyball player. She and her deaf friends hang out in bars, flirt and sufferthe thoughtless rejections of callous teen boys.All liquored up on whisky and ecstasy,Chieko and friends head to a nightclub where she experiences total alienation, unableto hear the beat that others move to, catching a glimpse of the boy she had her eye onmake out with another girl.This Tokyo sequence pops off the screen in a way the oth-ers do not, perhaps because it is not so bound up with America and intimations of USresponsibilities, crimes, whatever.

If that sounds dismissive, you have to understand that - although it arrives on a plinth car-ried by bearers with an alarming resemblance to Oscar - Babel has such a portentous,threatening air that it is like watching the opening scenes of ‘Casualty’ for three hours.

Plots are games of consequences, in which characters make fate by determining thechoices that are made, the consequences that are unleashed. But in Babel so many ofthe choices are blameless, their consequences merely the worst case scenarios ofdefensible behaviour.We discover at the end of the film that the first domino to fall inBabel’s display was down to an act of altruism.

“Bee Season” involves one of those crazy familiesthat cluster around universities:An intellectualhusband who is clueless about human emotions, a

wife who married him because she was afraid to be lovedand he didn't know how to, a son who rebels by being morelike his father than his father is, and a daughter who retreatsinto secret survival strategies.There are many movies aboutfamilies sharing problems; in this one the members are isolat-ed by them.They meet mostly at meals, which the fathercooks and serves with a frightening intensity.

Like many families without centers, this one finds obses-sions to focus on. Saul Naumann (Richard Gere) is aprofessor at Berkeley, specializing in Jewish theologyand the Kabbalah. His wife Miriam (Juliette Binoche),emotionally wounded by the early loss of her own par-ents, slips into the homes of strangers to steal smallglittering things. Their teenage son Aaron (MaxMinghella) watches his father intimidate students withicy theological superiority, and does the one thing bestcalculated to enrage him; he joins the Hare Krishnas.Their daughter Eliza (Flora Cross), who is about 12,seems to be trying to pass as unobserved and ordinary,but her inner life has a fierce complexity.

The father teaches Judaism and follows its forms, but hisspiritual life is academic, not mystical.What no one in thefamily perceives is that Eliza is a genuine mystic, for whomthe Kabbalah is not a theory but a reality. One of thethings that Kabbalah believes is that words not onlyreflect reality, but in a sense create it. God and the nameof God are in this way the same thing.

How could this association enter into the life of a 12-year-oldin a practical way? Eliza finds out when she enters a spellingbee. Because she exists in the same world with words,because words create her world, she doesn't need to “know”how to spell a word. It needs merely to be evoked, and itmaterializes in a kind of vision:“I see the words.” Althoughthis gift gets her into the national finals,“Bee Season” is not amovie about spelling bees. It is a movie about a spiritualchoice that calls everyone’s bluff; it involves the sort of refusal

and rebellion seen in that half-forgotten masterpiece,“TheLoneliness of the Long-Distance Runner” (1962). Eliza is atthe center of the film, and Flora Cross carries its weight in aperformance of quiet compelling wisdom; the foregroundcharacter in the early scenes is Saul, the father.

The members of his family swim in and out of focus. He isproud that Miriam is a scientist, in the sense that “my wife isa scientist,” but does he know what enormous secrets shekeeps from him? He is proud that his son is a gifted musician,and joins him in violin and cello duets. But Eliza is essentiallyinvisible to Saul, because she has no particular accomplish-ments. Only when she wins a spelling bee does he start tofocus on her,“helping” her train, pushing her to the nextlevel, sitting proudly in the audience. He is proud not somuch of her as of himself, for fathering such a prodigy.

The performance by Flora Cross is haunting in its serious-ness. She doesn’t act out; she acts in. She suggests that Elizahas grown up in this family as a wise, often-overlookedobserver, who keeps her own counsel and has her own val-ues, the most important being her autonomy. In her father’smanic kitchen behavior as he prepares and serves unwantedmeals, she sees people-pleasing that exists apart from people

who are pleased. In her fellow contestants in the spellingbees, she sees the same thing:Young people who are devot-ing their lives to mastering useless information for the gloryof themselves and their parents.Yes, it is necessary to beable to spell in an ordinary sort of way, but to be able tospell every word is to aim for perfection, and perfection willdrive you crazy, because our software isn’t designed for it.

Neither prepares us for “Bee Season,” which representsEliza’s decision to insist on herself as a being apart from therequirements of theology and authority, a person who insistson exercising her free will.This is a stick in the eye of herfather.When people say they are “doing God’s will,” actuallythere is egotism in such a statement.What Eliza is doing atthe end of “Bee Season” is Eliza’s will.

Does that make her God? No. It makes her Eliza.

Bee SeasonDirected by: David Siegel &

Scott McGeheeCast: Richard Gere, Juliette Binoche,

Flora Cross, Max Minghella, KateBosworth, Robyn Blair, Justin Alioto.

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Fanny Chanel (Marion Cotillard) is prettily, perfectlyFrench. In Ridley Scott’s labored romantic comedy, she’srather the embodiment of France, or more accurately,

the sensual, intellectual, seductive notion of France - and espe-cially Provence - that pervades the world that is not-France.Fanny, a thoroughly charming and independent-minded caféowner, is precisely the poster girl for this enduring impression.

As lovely as she may be, however, Fanny has her work cutout for her in A Good Year, a movie that begins with thecutesy phrasing,“A few vintages ago.” Yes, you’re in winecountry. For a moment, this situation is quaint and sweet,especially as you watch Albert Finney (as Uncle Henry)play chess with Freddy Highmore (as young Max). Henryowns a vineyard in France, the orphaned Max visits duringthe summers.They share a love for competition, they under-stand one another. Even if Max cheats at chess and pretendshe doesn’t, Henry appreciates his determination to win, andso, just lets him know he knows, and lets the boy figure outwhich path to take.“Wine,” he instructs,“always whispers inyour mouth with completely unabashed honesty every time youtake a sip.” Little boys are another story.

That much is more than apparent in the next sequence.“Many vintages later,” Max has grown up to be a ruthlessLondon stock market trader, played by Russell Crowe (justhow Freddy Highmore is transformed into Crowe is a ques-

tion the movie cannot answer). He’s a master at his craft,charging up his minions (whom he calls “lab rats”) to yell andwave their hands in the air, to buy or sell instantly andunthinkingly. He susses out the situation, they follow his lead,and they all make money. Everyone knows that his methodsaren’t exactly right, but they’re more or less legal and every-one likes to be rich and feel powerful. Happy times.

With that, Max’s life changes. Henry has died and left him theProvençal chateau and vineyard, though he has spoken withHenry for some 10 years.When asked by his assistantGemma (Archie Panjabi) how this has happened, Maxshrugs and looks briefly pensive:“Something to do with mebecoming an asshole,” he says (good of him to explain, as youmay have missed the very insistent representation of same inthe previous scene).Advised that he must clear up the paperwork tout suite, Max heads to France in order to sell theplace and get right back on the job as soon as possible.

Max’s life choices are quickly laid out in the most obviousway.The estate is beautiful, if run down, the locals are appeal-ingly eccentric, and London is conveniently made less attrac-tive, when Max is busted for the latest not-quite-right dealhe made. Gemma tells him to stay put for a while, and so hedoes, wandering through the house, his immediate, materiallinks to the place marked by a tomato stain on his whiteshirt as he strides over the grounds.

While Max is here depicted as a robust, dynamic sort, heis also caught between moments-of time and self.

On one hand, Max’s Treo keeps him in constant touchwith his current life, barking commands to Gemma or hislawyer Charlie (Tom Hollander). On the hand, he’sprone to drop off into nostalgic mushiness whenever heglimpses an aging emblem of his childhood - the waterlessswimming pool, the grown-over tennis court, the outdoortable still adorned with Henry’s cigar in an ashtray.Thislatter inclination is rendered in the most pedestrian way-flashbacks that occur on the site where he gazes - but asthey feature more interactions between Finney andHighmore, they’re more than welcome (you’d be forgivenfor wishing this relationship formed the movie’s core, orat least more of its running time).

As little Max and Henry play tennis, swim, and share life les-sons, big Max contemplates his life now. No surprise, hebegins to wonder how he became an asshole, and findssome help in this investigation from the locals.These includeearthy vigneron Duflot (Didier Bourdon) and his volup-tuous, happy-to-be-house-cleaning wife Ludivine (IsabelleCandelier) - who have a little dog who pees on Max’sshoe. Not for nothing is the dog named Tati, after Jacques,whose 1953 Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday made more originalobservations of French daily details.Tended to by his uncle’semployees, Max begins to see the good life in store for him,

a foreigner with loads of money in the South of France.That said, Crowe brings a welcome energy to his obviousrole. He also proves an able physical comedian, though hissubtle glances and gestures are more effective than thebroad galumphs, as when Max falls face-first into a pile ofmanure at the bottom of the swimming pool.At this point,he meets Fanny. She remembers him from anotherencounter, when he almost ran her over with his speedingcar, while she rode her bicycle to work in town.As shestands over him, refusing to help him up from the poolbottom, he’s smitten. She’s glorious, beautiful, grounded, ina word, as he puts it, “fantastic.” The film plays coy for aminute, interjecting yet another young beauty for Max’sdelectation:Yankee interloper Christie (Abbie Cornish)arrives to claim she’s Henry’s long-lost, unacknowledgeddaughter; she also reads Death in Venice (to show she’sgot sand) and happens to be from Nappa Valley and soknows everything about running a vineyard that Max doesnot (which is, really, everything).

The dilemma for Max is whether he should return to hisfast-paced, brilliant life, but the plot is irrelevant to thefilm’s celebration of France, whether embodied by Fannyor articulated by Duflot, who warns Max against pursuingFanny, because,“It is rumored that she will let no man nearher heart.” That little bit of wisdom is enough to send Maxstraight toward her, and so the film continues to plodalong its well-worn path.

A Good YearDirector: Ridley ScottWriter: Marc Klein, based on the novel by Peter Mayle.Starring: Russell Crowe,Albert Finney, Marion Cotillard,Tom Hollander.

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Director: Doug AtchisonStarring:Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne,Brittany Curran, Curtis Armstrong, Keke Palmer.

This genuinely sweet and determinedly inspirationalfamily film features charming young actress KekePalmer in the title role.“Akeelah and the Bee” is a

genuinely sweet and determinedly inspirational family filmthat features a charming young actress in the title role. It’s asuccessful feel-good movie, but it would make you feel evenbetter if it didn’t push quite so hard for its desired effects.

As the title indicates,“Akeelah” is yet another film - follow-ing Jeff Blitz’s marvelous documentary “Spellbound” andthe underrated drama “Bee Season” - to find high emo-tion in the unlikely world of competitive spelling bees formiddle school kids.

The twist is that in this case the institution is the academi-cally challenged Crenshaw Middle School in South LosAngeles.And the story that writer-director Doug Atchisonwants to tell involves not only spelling but also achieve-ment, empowerment and neighborhood pride.

Because few films want to tell these kinds of stories aboutthat part of the city,“Akeelah” has attracted high-poweredtalent.Together for the first time since “What’s Love Gotto Do With It” are Angela Bassett, who plays Akeelah’smother, and Laurence Fishburne as the coach who men-tors her.Though they don’t have many scenes together,their presence and ability give this film a welcome integrity.

Holding her own with them is 11-year-old Keke Palmer asAkeelah.Already the recipient of a Screen Actors Guild bestleading actress nomination for the TV film “The Wool Cap,”Palmer provides the spirit and intelligence this feature couldnot exist without. She makes Akeelah, an old soul in her kid’sversion of granny glasses, someone whose every moodchange - and there are many - we pay close attention to.

Despite all these good things, “Akeelah” is encumbered byAtchison’s determination to cross every emotional T anddot every narrative I. If Starbucks Entertainment istrumpeting its involvement in this film with ads insisting,“We’re Thinking Outside the Bean,” the film’s difficulty is thatit doesn’t. It sets up obstacles we know will disappear andtelegraphs its plot elements well before they happen.Thisis no more than par for the course with films of this type,but because of the caliber of the cast and the sincerity ofthe message, one wishes it could be otherwise.

Practically the first time we meet Akeelah, she is contemp-tuously tossing away a flier advertising her school’s spellingbee. Unwilling to be stigmatized as a freak or a brainiac, sheprefers to keep her gift for spelling (courtesy of her latefather, a bear for Scrabble) a secret from the world.

As far as her mother, Tanya (Bassett), is concerned, that’sjust as well.With one young daughter already a mother andone son flirting with being a gangbanger (though anotherson is doing well in the Air Force),Tanya just doesn’t wantto be bothered with what she views as the foolishness ofspelling competitions.

Much more interested is the somber Dr. Larabee(Fishburne), a man of self-described “acerbic wit and sourdisposition” who is on sabbatical from his position as chair-man of the UCLA English department and so has a lot oftime on his hands.

A stern type who actually says “I’ll brook no nonsense” with astraight face, the good doctor and Akeelah are not exactlyeach other’s type. He views her as insolent; she sees no rea-son to be interested in the broader cultural education hewants her to master in addition to spelling.

Her brainiac qualms notwithstanding,Akeelah enters theworld of bees (there wouldn’t be a film if she didn’t), andsoon enough she meets two key peers. Javier (J.R.Villarreal) is a gregarious Latino with supportive parents,while the robotic Dylan (Sean Michael Afable) is ahumorless Asian American spelling machine with DarthVader for a father.

It wouldn’t be fair to detail all the ups and downs ofAkeelah’s relationships with these kids and with Dr. Larabee,ever the sad-eyed voice of doom, who tells her that he’s seenspelling bees “chew kids up and spit them out.” Whateverhappened to “Have a nice day”?

While its undeniable earnestness leaves “Akeelah and theBee” open to good-natured teasing, in its own way it raisesimportant points about the nature of education, the impor-tance of community and obstacles to success that kids frompoor neighborhoods face.

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BirthDirector: Jonathan GlazerCast: Nicole Kidman, Danny Huston,Lauren Bacall,Anne Heche, Cameron Bright.

Birth is British director JonathanGlazer’s second feature after emergingfrom music video infamy in 2000 with

his blistering debut Sexy Beast, starringBen Kingsley as a dangerous gangster. Birthcontains an equally mesmerising interloper,but this time it is a ten year-old boy not abad-tempered bagman. It is no less dazzling afilm than Sexy Beast however, yet quite differ-ent, set in snowbound New York’s instead ofsunny Spain.

Giving an excellent performance NicoleKidman plays Anna, an affluent but subduedManhattan society widow about to announceher engagement to Joseph (Danny Huston).Out of the blue a young boy arrives, playedby Godsend’s otherwordly CameronBright. He claims that he is none other than‘Sean’, the reincarnation of Anna’s dead hus-band who died a decade earlier.Understandably her life - and that of thosearound her - is thrown into chaos.

Birth arrives with controversy. At the timeof its premiere at the Venice Film Festivalit made international headlines for the‘taboo’ relationship at the centre of itsstory, between that of an adult woman anda ten year-old boy.The scene they share inthe bath didn’t help either, prompting some

to see the film as a tarted up version ofMary Kay Letourneau story, “theteacher whose notorious seduction of asixth-grader dominated headlines in thelate 1990s”.The ‘offending’ scene in ques-tion however is nothing more than oneshared between a responsible mother anda wayward son, who may or may not beexperiencing a shared delusion or ‘mythi-cal’ reality shift. The sexual tension broughtto the scene sits squarely on the shouldersof the audience who are only too familiarwith the burden of sexualising youth inWestern culture.

Birth is hardly a sensational film.What it is isa modern day Grimm’s fairytale, albeit onewith a bizarre premise. So Anna believes sheis falling in love with Sean all over again, and‘Sean’ maintains that he is indeed her adulthusband in child’s form. Is it all an elaborateprank? Or does this mean Anna actually hasn’t recovered from losing her husband a decade earlier?

The ambiguity surrounding the child’s identityin Birth creates much tension but that is partof the delicious game on offer. Really, it is abeautifully-made dark tale about love, griefand loss, much like a film Stanley Kubrickmight have made were he still alive today.

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The Black DahliaDirector: Brian De PalmaCast: Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson,Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank.

The Black Dahlia is an adaptation of James Ellroy’s awesome crimethriller published in 1987.Veteran Fight Club director DavidFincher was initially attached to the project, the job finally went to

supreme cinema stylist and auteur Brian De Palma, best known for epiccrime movies such as Scarface (1983),The Untouchables (1987),Carlito’s Way (1993).

A real life true crime murder gripped Los Angeles in 1947. ‘Wannabe’Hollywood starlet Elizabeth “betty” Short was found murdered in particu-larly grisly fashion, gutted, disfigured and left in a derelict field for all tosee. Nicknamed The Black Dahlia, Ellroy’s book - and now De Palma’s film- chronicles the quest of two LAPD detectives as they obsessively try tosolve the case. First thrown together as rival Police Club boxers - “Mr.Fire Vs Mr. Ice” - the case of the Black Dahlia transforms into workingpartners: Dwight “Bucky” Bleichart (Josh Hartnett) and Sgt. Lee Blanchard(Aaron Eckhart), both in fine form. Each becomes too obsessed with thecase while one good woman looks on, Kay (Scarlett Johansson), Lee’s“girlfriend” whom is left in Bucky’s care for most of the movie, and andone not-so good, suspect society dame Madeline Linscombe (HilarySwank) with whom Bucky forms a risky alliance.

Adapting any of Ellroy’s books is a challenge for any filmmaker, even for a veteran like De Palma.The king of hard-boiled, seedy noir landscapes,Ellroy creates not only a language all of his own, but just as unique anddensely layered emotional and psychological states for his characters.(Their internal monologues are addictive!) Accordingly The Black Dahliafilm has been deemed a disappointment by some critics, and an exercisein ‘style over substance’, with a much too convoluted ending. De Palmaand writer Josh Friedman have also made some departures from the orig-inal story in their script that many will surely find ‘criminal’.

Such is the dangerous territory of adaptations though - and for sure DePalma’s style is very seductive with the ending perhaps an attempt toserve the impossibly dense layers of Ellroy’s tome. Perhaps De Palma’sfilm version strays way too far from Ellroy’s story, but by golly it’s a fabu-lous film on so many levels, one that reminds us why film is so great as a medium, and likewise film noir as a genre.

To a card-carrying fan of Ellroy’s books - espeiclally The Black Dahlia - LA Confidential is the best film adaptation of one of his books to date,striking a perfect balance between the demands of the film medium andserving the book’s story. (It was so visceral, cinematic, tough and thrilling,just like an Ellroy novel). But De Palma’s The Black Dahlia smokes andsmoulders in a way film noir hasn’t for quite some time. It’s thrilling,intriguing, cinematic and beautifully acted.

The Black DahliaDirector: Brian De PalmaCast: Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson,Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank.

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Bright Young Things

Cast: Emily Mortimer, Stephen Campbell Moore, Dan Ackroyd, Jim Broadbent,Simon Callow, Jim Carter, Stockard Channing, Richard E Grant, Guy Henry,James McAvoy, Julia McKenzie, John Mills,Alec Newman, Bill Paterson, Michael Sheen,Imelda Staunton, David Tennant, Harriet Walter, Fenella Woolgar and Peter O’Toole.

Sex, drugs, dancing and jazz: Stephen Fry’s directorial debut is an adaptation of ‘Vile Bodies’,Evelyn Waugh’s inter-war satire on hedonistic young aristocrats

In interviews to promote Bright Young Things,Stephen Fry drew parallels between his film andTrainspotting: both are literary adaptations which

observe social cliques intent on pursuing personalpleasure, whatever the cost. Certainly the writer-director gives his first feature a rapid tempo, which is at odds with traditional notions of heritage cinema.The cast hurtle through a series of extravagant partiesand soirees, the quick-fire editing and loud jazz convey-ing the sense of lives played out at a heady pace amidstthe glare of photographers’ flashlights.

The central character here is Adam (CampbellMoore), a penniless novelist who finds hismanuscript confiscated by prudish customs

officers. Forced to postpone his wedding to hissocialite girlfriend Nina (Mortimer), he works as agossip columnist for newspaper tycoon LordMonomark (Aykroyd), reporting on the party-goingactivities of himself and his privileged friends.Willhe be able though to improve his financial situationto the extent that he can wed Nina, or will he loseher to his wealthy rival Ginger (Tennant)?

Fry has chosen to stretch the time-span of EvelynWaugh’s novel ‘Vile Bodies’ to encompass adecade’s worth of events, winding up at Dunkirkand London during the Blitz in 1940.Although thefilm grows bleaker in its second half - witness theconsignment of Agatha (Woolgar) to a mentalinstitution, and the forced departure to the conti-nent of the gay Miles (Sheen) - Fry shies awayfrom Waugh’s apocalyptic resolution, and ensuresthat his protagonists have learnt a moral lessonfrom their escapades.

The parallels with today’s celebrity-obsessed socie-ty are impossible to miss, yet one watches thesecharacters with merely a moderately amuseddetachment.The procession of cameos from theseasoned supporting cast proves distracting - lookthere’s Jim Broadbent as a drunken Major, oh andisn’t that Peter O’Toole as a barmy father-in-law?There’s no real spark between the leading lovers(Mortimer’s Nina is more irritating than captivat-ing), and the best performance comes from JamesMcAvoy (Deathwatch), who in just a handful ofscenes brings a much-needed depth of feeling to histragic characterisation.

Our young hero,Adam (STEPHEN CAMP-BELL MOORE), needs to get enoughmoney to marry the beautiful Nina

(EMILY MORTIMER - Young Adam, 51st State,Love’s Labour’s Lost, Elizabeth). His friends -eccentric, wild, louche and entirely shocking tothe older generation, seem one by one to self-destruct, to crash and burn in their endless searchfor newer and faster sensations.

Their world is that of the very young, wild, party-loving creatures new to gramophone records andthe telephone - this is a self-consciously moderngeneration that cannot keep still for a second.They are known to the press, who follow theirevery move, as the Bright Young Things.

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Charlie Wilsons WarDirector: Mike NicholsCast:Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

There’s a funny thing that happens in Hollywoodwhen there’s a war on. They tend to make a lot ofmovies about war. Perhaps it’s because of the very

specific nature of America’s War on Terror. But inamongst the ‘Lions for Lambs’, ‘United 93’s and ‘Roads toGuantanamo’, - there haven’t been many War on TerrorComedies… at least not yet.

Welcome to ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’, a fictional version ofa true-life womanising borderline-alcoholic Texan con-gressmen (Tom Hanks) who along with a socialite JuliaRoberts and a socially retarded CIA agent (played byPhillip Seymour Hoffman) funded a covert war inAfghanistan in the 1980’s. Driving out a soviet invasion,and accidentally giving rise to the Taliban.

If you were ever a fan of the TV show, ‘The West Wing’with its ADHD-paced scripts full of big words and char-acters much smarter than you, (let us face it) or anyplausible human being, you’ll love this. ‘Charlie WilsonsWar’ is written by the creator Aaron Sorkin.And the funof this movie really is the script.The actors seem to havea ball while delivering quick, deadpan dialogue to eachother - particularly Tom Hanks who has totally found hiscalling playing a a seedy old man with plastic hair.But…Charlie isn’t without flaws.

Right throughout this movie, we can sense the truly terri-ble direction of Charlie Wilsons War (by veteran MikeNichols (Closer, Primary Colors, Postcards from theEdge, Silkwood, Catch-22,Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,The Graduate), who in his old age appears to have for-gotten how to make a movie.)

CasanovaDirector: Lasse HallstromCast: Heath Ledger, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons, Oliver Platt.

Since the silent days of cinema there have been over halfa dozen or so movies made about legendary real-lifeheart-throb and adventurer Casanova, with a couple

of mini-series thrown in. Now comes another big screenversion of his life via Hollywood, Casanova. It starsAustralian actor and 2006 Oscar nominee Heath Ledger(Brokeback Mountain) in the lead “ladies’ man” role, directedby Swedish filmmaker Lasse Holstrom (Chocolat,What'sEating Gilbert Grape?).

Ledger pops on the powder and the big Amadaeus wig tofrock-coat up as Giacomo Casanova, the 18th centurylothario.We meet him as he is exiting a nun's bedchambers,pursued for the umpteenth time by the Catholic Church,furious at his ‘lascivious’ and ‘debauched’ ways. His onlyoption is to settle down and marry, lest he be run out ofVenice. Sienna Miller (Alfie) plays Francesca, the womanwho steals Casanova’s heart. Only she won’t be won over byhis dubious ways until he proves he is a man worthy of herlove and progressive view on love and marriage. Casanova isforced therefore to don disguise after disguise in a Chinesebox of deception to keep - (a) his sorry white bum in Italy,and (b) the hope of marrying the woman of his dreams alive.

Make no mistake this light n’ fluffy romp is a Disney moviepure and simple but it is also a lot of fun and less daggy thanyou might think, aimed at a decidedly younger audience.Casanova the film possesses a wicked and playful sense ofhumour, especially whenever Jeremy Irons appears as thecorrupt Bishop Pucci, pursuing the well-meaning but patholog-ical liar, Casanova.

It may not be as sophisticated a comedy as last year’s StageBeauty (a film that also combined romance with cross-dressing and gender wars), but it's still very enjoyable.Holstrom has come a long way since making Abba:TheMovie in 1976, and clearly so has Ledger since 80s Oz TVseries, Sweat.

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BewitchedDirector: Nora Ephron

Cast: Nicole Kidman,Will Ferrell, Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine.

The latest TV show to be turned into a movie by Hollywood is Bewitched, the beloved 1960s series that made Elizabeth

Montgomery a household name, playing suburbanwitch Samantha Stevens.

Samantha has been renamed and revamped for thismovie. Nicole Kidman, who we last saw in Birth, getsto pop on the pointy hat and play single girl Isobel, thegood witch of the West Coast.

Witch Isobel Bigelow (Kidman) wants the quiet lifeand suburban bliss. Despite her father Nigel’s protests(Michael Caine), Isobel moves to a ‘picket fence’neighbourhood near Hollywood and waits to meetthe perfect man. He turns out to be more imperfect,however. Will Ferrell plays hack actor Jack Wyatt,who just happens to be in talks to revive the TVseries Bewitched. Jack talent-spots Isobel for theshow and she talent-spots him as a potential beau. Itall goes downhill from there.

In spite of its post-modern plot, Bewitched isn’t verygood. In fact, it’s a downright mess.The co-writers

and director - serial ‘chick flick’ offenders, sistersDelia ‘Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants’ Ephronand Nora ‘Sleepless In Seattle’ Ephron - got this oneso wrong. Isobel is such a poorly drawn, limp charac-ter she kind of dishonours the memory ofMontgomery’s Samantha Stevens, who was, after all,such a powerful female TV figure.And Kidman is asvisibly uncomfortable in the part as she was as playingthe lead in the recent Stepford Wives remake.And asshe should be; Isobel is a flake.

Screen veterans Michael Caine and Shirley Maclainedon’t fare much better, utterly wasted in their supportroles, and while Will Ferrell gives it his best shot with a few good scenes (no doubt improvised), Bewitched isa pretty messy affair and worse, a wasted opportunity.

Like Josie And The Pussycats (a very underrated TVshow-to-film adaptation), Bewitched had ‘mediaindustry satire’ written all over it. And it could havebeen a magical romantic comedy, not unlike JamesMangold’s - again - underrated Kate and Leopold(2001) with Hugh Jackman and Meg Ryan. Insteadit’s all smoke and mirrors.

Cinderella Man

Director: Clint EastwoodCast: Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger, and Paul Giamatti.

The last great Hollywood boxing movie wasMillion Dollar Baby, directed by the legendaryClint Eastwood, who, at the ripe old age of

75, cleaned up at the 2004 Oscars with his mightymovie. Rightly so - it’s a riveting drama about per-sonal struggle and the sport of champions, boxing.

American director Ron Howard (Splash,Apollo 13) isno doubt hoping Clint’s lightning will strike his latestfilm at the looming 2006 Academy Awards. It too isabout an underdog in the ring, only this one is basedon someone’s real-life story, James J. Braddock.Cinderella Man possesses all the hallmarks of an“Oscar pic” and it reunites the director withAustralian actor Russell Crowe (Gladiator), who wasnominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for theirlast collaboration,A Beautiful Mind (2001).

Cinderella Man is set in New York during the years ofthe Great Depression.Russell Crowe plays boxerBraddock, a working class hero who fights his way backinto the ring after injury and disqualification. Battling con-troversy, and with a wife (played by Renee Zellwegger)and a young family to support, the odds are stackedagainst him.Braddock and his feisty manager Joe Gould(American Splendour’s Paul Giamatti) cook up a schemeto pit him against the reigning world heavyweight champMax Baer (Craig Bierko), a proven killer in the ring.

The title Cinderella Man implies fairytale and that’sjust what this film is. Only it’s a hellishly simplistic,over-sentimentalised fairytale that feels more like aHallmark greeting card than the powerful, multi-lay-ered drama it should have been.The good stuff:Crowe’s brute performance is fantastic to watch withthe scenes shared by he and Giamatti terrific. (That’swhen this film lifts out of an otherwise dreary, pre-dictable Hollywood feel good funk). Plus there is also alot of attention to detail spent on the period (1930s)and the ‘sweet science’ of boxing.

And the bad stuff? Everyone in this pic is so squeakyclean and noble it makes our flesh crawl. It comes asno surprise as this is the kind of formula Howard’smovies possess. He has surely become the newSpielberg, ironically at a time when that director ismaking tougher, more uncompromising movies (seethe dark War Of The Worlds). Howard also gaveA Beautiful Mind the same of treatment, transform-ing an otherwise tough and complicated real-lifestory into an over-simplified feel good fairytale.

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The majority of romantic comedies feature a cou-

ple who spend the entire film overcoming a

series of obstacles before love finally prevails

and they end up together. A Lot Like Love adopts a

different approach. Before the blunt Emily (Amanda

Peet) and more bashful Oliver (Ashton Kutcher)

have even exchanged a word, they are joining the mile

high club in the tight confines of an airplane toilet.

Having begun with a bang rather than a whisper, they

then spend the next seven years endeavouring to figure

out exactly what kind of relationship they do have.

In a genre bound by formula, anything that is remote-

ly unconventional is refreshing. Indeed, for the most

part A Lot Like Love has an engaging spark and

welcome absence of saccharine-filled exchanges. Peet

imbues Emily, a jagged contradiction of vulnerability

and self-assurance, with a desirability coupled with an

abrasive edge. Her erratic manner is disarming, but

appealing to the easy going Oliver. Kutcher provides

him with a winning smile, a ready willingness towards

self-ridicule, but little in the way of emotional depth.

It's yet to be determined whether Kutcher can, or is

required to, offer a performance of nuance and sub-

stance. Certainly neither were in evidence here, but

nor were they demanded. More important is charm

and Kutcher has that in spades.

When Emily and Oliver meet at the baggage claim

following their mid-air sexual collision, Emily warns

him against trying to make anything more of the inci-

dent by declaring, “Don't ruin it.” But in life as in

romantic comedies human nature isn’t so easily dis-

couraged. Otherwise it would have been a really

short film. Instead, the two begin a series of fleeting

encounters interrupted by years apart. One of the

film’s more irksome elements, along with too many

expedient coincidences, is its slightly repetitive

nature.Their relationship seems doomed by bad tim-

ing and a ready willingness to walk away for no con-

vincing reason.This pattern, headed up by timeline

chapters like ‘7 years ago’, is duplicated until events

finally arrive in the present.

When they first meet, Oliver is fresh out of college

with big dreams and “all his ducks in a line”. In the

face of Emily's cynicism, he bets her $50 that within

six years he will be wealthy and happily married. His

pursuit of that goal runs parallel with her struggles as

an actress and a photographer.As their fortunes fluc-

tuate, so does their respective power in their inter-

mittent relationship.

Colin Patrick Lynch’s script has enough barbed wit

to keep things bubbling and British director Nigel

Cole (Calendar Girls) does his best to instill a degree

of restraint, but even he can’t resist what’s become de

rigueur for such fare: the wince-inducing serenade. In

this case it’s Oliver rendition of Bon Jovi’s “I’ll Be

There For You” sung in the courtyard of Emily's apart-

ment.At such moments, Cole would have better

served to heed Emily’s advice:“Don't ruin it.”

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Dark MatterDirector: Chen Shi-ZhengScreen Writer: Billy Shebar Cast: Liu Ye,Aidan Quinn, Meryl Streep,Blair Brown, Bill Irwin.

To set the scene: Liu Xing (Liu Ye) stands infront of Hubble University’s panel giving histheory on an expansion to his professor’s

model of the origin of the universe. Jacob Reiser(Aidan Quinn) is Xing’s professor and on thepanel as well. Reiser is quick to squash the dreamsof his once favorite student because he has realizedthat his student is starting to surpass him. He saysthat he is over his head and in uncharted waters.Another one of the men on the panel leans overand says to Reiser,“Maybe we are over are heads.”

“Dark Matter” is the story of Liu Xing, who is anoverly bright student from Beijing who has been giventhe opportunity to work in America under his cosmol-ogist hero, Jacob Reiser.The university is also a stomp-ing ground to Joanna Silver (Meryl Streep), whotasks herself with bringing over Chinese students tohopefully make breakthroughs in science. Joanna takes aliking to Xing when he explains to her his breakthroughtheory of dark matter in space. Soon Xing’s work sur-passes anything is hero Reiser has ever done and there-fore, out of jealousy, Reiser decides to stop Xing from

progressing further.This sends Xing into a downwardspiral, culminating in an extreme cinematic resolution.

“Dark Matter,” directed by Chen Shi-Sheng,displays how treading in foreign territory, bothgeographically and cosmically, can be the biggestobstacle you may ever face. Meryl Streep wasabsolutely amazing in the film as Joanna and shehad this great odd chemistry with Liu Ye’s charac-ter. Unfortunately, the tone shifted and the filmjust went downhill, finishing with one of the mostridiculous endings. It was definitely up there withfilm school cliche type of endings that was justuncalled for with the rest of the film, the seemingneed to add edginess for edginess’s sake.Supposedly this is based on a true story but thencinematically the transition can be rough.The end-ing was the biggest mistake the director couldhave made with this film.

This is a great film, to a point. Unfortunately the end-ing doesn’t deliver, making the entire feature an exer-cise is wasted potential. But maybe that’s the point.

Lost in Translation is hands down the film we’vebeen waiting for Bill Murray to make his entire career.Best known as a comedic actor in movies like

Groundhog Day (1993),Tootsie (1982) and Ghostbusters(1984), more recently it has been younger direc-tors like Tim Burton,Wes Anderson and nowSophia Coppola who have for the first time con-sistently tapped Murray as a dramatic acting forceto be reckoned with.

In Anderson’s Rushmore (1999) the true melan-cholia behind Bill Murray’s comedy was revealed inHerman J. Blume, the jaded dad and unwittingmentor to the equally morose little bloke MaxFischer, played by Coppola’s cousin JasonSchwartzman. In 1994 Tim Burton allowed Murrayto cross-dress and still remain dignified in EdWood, a serious film about a seriously bad film-maker.And John McNaughton cast his lead rolesagainst type in Mad Dog and Glory (1993), cannilyallowing Murray to play gangster to De Niro’sguileless victim.And boy did Murray do a meanjob. Not really funny, he was kind of frightening -this from the ‘funny man’ who made his nameuttering hilarious lowbrow lines like “I smellvarmint poontang” as the inbred greenskeeperCarl Spackler in Caddyshack (1980).

Lost In Translation is Sophia Coppola’s second featurefilm after The Virgin Suicides (1999), her ethereal yet ulti-mately superficial and unsatisfying adaptation of JeffreyEugenides novel of teen woe. Coppola says she wrote the

lead role in Lost In Translation specifically for Murray, seeinghim - as did old pal Harold Ramis with Groundhog Day -spectacularly well-suited to a romantic lead. Murray doeswhat he always does best in Lost In Translation, bringing hisown unique comic sensibility to the mix, but in a way neverquite realised before on film.While retaining his hyper-lacon-ic brand of ‘funny’, he is also allowed to ‘go slow’, meting outa performance as alluring as it is amusing as Bob Harris, asomewhat burnt out A-list Hollywood star who travels toTokyo to make a Scotch commercial.

Lost In Translation is a love story, pure and simple, an inti-mate and uncompromising film that takes its cues from quietart house contemplations as it does urban landscape photog-raphy. Scarlett Johansson (Ghost World) is equally as great asMurray in her performance as Charlotte, a young womanequally disconnected from her new marriage as Harris isfrom his one of twenty-odd years. Both characters occupyvery different ends of the life spectrum yet somehow theyfind a deep, unspoken connection as they keep bumping intoeach other in the hotel they happen to share, unable to sleepand searching for something - or someone - who might makethem feel better again.

The union between Murray and Johanssen’s charactersmight seem unlikely. She turned 18 during the productionand Murray is pushing 54, yet Lost In Translation is hardlythe horrible older man/ younger woman romance that wasAutumn in New York.The relationship these two charac-ters embark upon is as graceful and understated as theexquisite Zen temples Charlotte takes to wanderingthrough to fill her bored days.

It is clear from Coppola’s second film that her directing tal-ent has evolved, Lost In Translation being a film as emotional-ly evocative and involving as The Virgin Suicides was not, andone that you might expect be written by someone far older

than her 34 years. It is about transience, chance encounters,random connection and a couple of people who don’t quiteknow what to do with their chance or each other.A deli-cious premise for a movie love story to be sure, and one ofthose movie experiences that reminds us just why it is wekeep going back for more.

Lost In TranslationDirector: Sofia CoppolaCast: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi,Anna Faris.

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From the Producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates Of The Caribbean, Black Hawk Down,The Rock), Déjà Vu is the latest high-tech thriller

from the big end of town. It is helmed by none other than the king of ‘high concept’, Tony Scott (Days Of Thunder, Man On Fire, Domino).

Déjà Vu marks Scott and Bruckheimer’s sixth partnership as producer/director since kicking off in 1986 with Top Gun.

Déjà Vu is also the third ‘creative’ union between actor Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott, having previously collaborated on

Crimson Tide (1995) and Man On Fire (2004).

Déjà VuDirector: Tony ScottCast: Denzel Washington,Val Kilmer, James Caviezel.

If you like your blockbusters big, brash and full of it, then Déjà Vu is themovie for you! From the producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates OfThe Caribbean, Black Hawk Down,The Rock), it is the latest high-

tech thriller from the big end of town. It is helmed by none other than theking of ‘high concept’,Tony Scott (Days Of Thunder, Man On Fire,Domino). Déjà Vu marks Scott and Bruckheimer’s sixth partnership as producer/director since kicking off in 1986 with Top Gun.

Déjà Vu is also the third ‘creative’ union between actor DenzelWashington and director Scott, having previously collaborated onCrimson Tide (1995) and Man On Fire (2004).Washington plays heroDoug Carlin, an ATF agent investigating a murder after a massive bombexplodes on a New Orleans ferry. Recruited by a secret task force headedup by Agent Andrew Pyrzwarra (Val Kilmer), Carlin gets pulled into aneven bigger mystery: a computer program that is able go back in time tosurveil crimes before they happen. Becoming obsessed with the murder heis investigating - and the woman at the heart of it, Claire (Paula Patton) -Carlin travels back three days in this virtual time machine in an attemptsave this beautiful murder victim from her killer (The Passion of theChrist’s Jim Caviezel).

The worst thing that can be said about Déjà Vu is that it makes absolutelyno sense. Poke around its time-space theories, hold it up to the light - anyway you look at it this ‘time wrinkle’ malarky - shorthanded for us dumbmovie folk - it’s full of holes - black ones. It would be grossly naive toexpect anything more from a cheesy Bruckheimer blockbuster, but seri-ously, two hours is a long time to spend with a movie that you know is justpulling your leg.And the acting, well, it’s take the money and run time:Denzel all but walks through his role and Val Kilmer has seen better days.

Watching Déjà Vu, you can’t help but feel like you’ve seen it all before, asit’s not much more than a big screen version of Bruckheimer’s small screenhit, CSI, only with more bells and whistles.While it does whistle a lot ofDixie - mostly out of tune - at least Déjà Vu is nowhere near as offensiveas Tony Scott’s movie Man On Fire.

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“The Hand”Director: Wong Kar-WaiWriter:Wong Kar-WaiCast: Gong Li, Chang Chen.

“Equilibrium”Director: Steven SoderberghWriter: Steven Soderbergh Cast: Robert Downey Jr.,Alan Arkin, Ele Keats.

“The Dangerous Thread of Things”Director: Michelangelo AntonioniWriters: Michelangelo Antonioni,Tonino Guerra Cast: Christopher Buchholz, Regina Nemni, Luisa Ranieri.

Eros

Anthologies are tricky business.To gather the visionsof disparate film-makers into a single thematic wholetakes far more bravery and commitment than a fea-

ture helmed by a lone director. It becomes especially per-ilous when one of the filmmakers is the legendaryMichelangelo Antonioni and the others are acknowl-edged disciples of his work. Eros, a three-part explorationof the carnal links between men and women, sets out to payhomage to the Italian master while including a piece of hisown in the process. It’s an uneasy mixture, as the twoyounger filmmakers (Wong Kar-Wai and StevenSoderbergh) approach their assignments with much morevibrancy than Antonioni does his. Is it fitting to see the torchpassed to a newer generation? Or does the act of overshad-owing a film-maker at the end of his life usurp the very pur-pose for which this exercise is intended? Eros is haunted byquestions like these, drawing us away from the images on-screen and into the space behind the camera.

In Wong’s case, at least, he comes dangerously close totrumping the entire affair. His “The Hand” (the piece thatstarts the film) is a subtly powerful meditation on desireand longing, setting a pace that the other two directorsnever match. In terms of dramatic structure, it’s the mostorganized and straightforward, telling the tale of a success-ful tailor (Chang Chen) who pines for a beautiful call girl(Gong Li) on his list of customers. Shot in opaque tones ofblue and gray, it frames the relations between the two inunspoken intimacy.The tailor’s hands know every inch ofher flesh; every curve and blemish has been measured pre-cisely, even though their connection is supposedly only pro-fessional. Her lovers and patrons come and go, growingscarcer as the years pass by, but the devotion - and eroti-cized longing - of this quiet little man becomes the silentredemption of her life.Wong invests the story with deepemotional reservoirs, keying in to both the alienation of hiscentral characters and the irresistible pull that binds themboth together.The results are sublime.

Sadly, once “The Hand” ends, the film has nowhere to gobut down. Soderbergh’s piece,“Equilibrium,” providessome variety by opting for a lighter comic tone, but feelsdesperately at sea in the wake of its predecessor. Shot in abrisk noirish black and white, it recounts the psychologicalwoes of a 1950s adman (Robert Downey Jr.) strugglingwith the ramifications of an intensely erotic dream.Soderbergh establishes a nice rapport between Downeyand Alan Arkin, who plays his shrink, but the attempt to

create an atmosphere of bemused enigma feels more fum-bling than compelling. It’s a joke without a punch line, fillingthe time with semi-clever dialogue that meanders through asparse 26 minutes. Soderbergh reduces to irrelevance thesense of unfulfilled need that the material is presumablyintended to evoke, leaving the audience frustrated ratherthan intrigued. Downey and Arkin are well-suited to thearch tone, but after the near-brilliance of Wong’s sequence,this one feels like an unbecoming fall to earth.

Between those two extremes is the film’s finale:Antonioni’s “The Dangerous Thread of Things.”Considering the director’s reputation, and the fact that hewas in his 90s when filming began, it’s impossible to gaugethe piece on its merits alone.The wistful, almost narrative-free portrayal of a disintegrating couple (ChristopherBuchholz and Regina Nemni) and the woman whocomes between them (Luisa Ranieri) has all of the trade-marks of Antonioni’s earlier works.The sense of alienationand regret is there, as well as more technical elements likethe long, gorgeously flowing camera shots and the sight ofhuman bodies framed by an impossibly beautiful landscape.

As evocative as it is, however, it can’t help but feel like asketch of his earlier work, a nostalgic look back thatreminds us less of its own power than the slow diminishingof a brilliant cinematic light. It simply doesn’t linger in themind with the strength of Wong’s piece, forcing it to com-pete for attention with a sequence supposedly trying tocomplement it.Taken by itself, all it can do is point to thepast - a fading coda of a career in its final stages.

That Antonioni can continue to make films at his age isremarkable; perhaps it asks too much, then, to compare hisbrief rumination here to the works of his prime.Theremainder of Eros clings to his closing piece like one of itssignature lovers, alternating between adulation and uninten-tional dismissal. Cinephiles will appreciate the richness ondisplay, and the film remains a fascinating study, though onenot entirely sure of itself. Is it a referendum on Antonioni?Or a true collaboration of which he is merely a single part?Eros leaves plenty of similarly shaky questions in its wake,nagging at its finer elements and diminishing its net effect. Itworks best in the abstract: a haunting collection of notesthat can’t - and maybe shouldn’t - be tied together.

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Freedom WritersDirector: Richard LaGraveneseCast: Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn.Screenplay: Richard LaGraveneseBook As Source Material: ‘Freedom Writers’Producer: Stacey Sher

As a cinematic subspecies, films aboutteachers working with throwaway kidstend to follow a predictable arc involv-

ing conflict and resolution, smooth beats andbitter tears. Sometimes, as with “DangerousMinds,” the 1995 film in which Michelle Pfeifferuses her cheekbones to disarm high schooltoughs, the results are visible. Sometimes, aswith the egregiously offensive “187” (1997),wherein Samuel L. Jackson makes like CharlesBronson with some bad students, it’s an argu-ment for universal home schooling.

“Freedom Writers,” a true story about awhite teacher trying to make a difference ina room crammed with black, Latino andAsian high school freshmen, has the makingsof another groaner. One worrisome sign is

Hilary Swank, the two-time Academy Awardwinner with the avid smile who recentlyvamped across screens as a femme fatale inBrian De Palma’s period thriller “The BlackDahlia.” Ms. Swank is an appealing actressof, at least to date, fairly restricted range.In her finest roles - a transgender man in“Boys Don’t Cry,” a boxer in “Million DollarBaby” - she plays women whose hard-angledlimbs and squared jaws never fully obscurea desperate, at times almost embarrassinglynaked neediness.

In “Freedom Writers” Ms. Swank uses that needi-ness to fine effect in a film with a strong emo-tional tug and smartly laid foundation. She playsErin Gruwell, who in 1994 was a 23-year-old stu-dent teacher assigned to teach freshman English

at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California.Twenty-two miles from downtown Los Angeles,this ethnically diverse port city, birthplace ofboth Bo Derek and Snoop Dogg, is south ofCompton, right at the edge of Orange County. In1992 the Rodney King riots that rocked LosAngeles spilled into Long Beach; recently the citymade news for an alleged hate crime involvingblack teenagers charged with severely beatingthree white women.

By the time Erin steps into her classroom, ascant two years after the riots, the climateinside is at once frosty and scorching. Turnedout in a cherry-red suit and black pumps,her strand of pearls gleaming as bright asher teeth, Erin cuts an unavoidably awkward,borderline goofy figure.

The students are understandably skeptical, excruciatingly contemp-tuous. From where they sit, slumped and hunched, some withtheir backs literally turned away from the front of the room, Erin

looks like the stranger she is. She’s an interloper, a do-gooder, a visitorfrom another planet called Newport Beach, and the class sees throughher as if she were glass because the writer and director RichardLaGravenese makes sure that we do too.

Funny how point of view works. If so many films about so-called trou-bled teenagers come off as little more than exploitation, it’s oftenbecause the filmmakers are not really interested in them, just their dys-function. “Freedom Writers,” by contrast, isn’t only about an amazinglydedicated young teacher who took on two extra jobs to buy supplies forher students (to supplement, as Mr. LaGravenese carefully points out, a$27,000 salary); it’s also, emphatically, about some extraordinary youngpeople. In this respect Mr. LaGravenese, whose diverse writing creditsinclude “The Ref” and “The Bridges of Madison County,” appears to havetaken his egalitarian cue from the real Erin Gruwell, who shares authorcredit with her students in their 1999 book, “The Freedom WritersDiary,” a collection of their journal entries.

Mr. LaGravenese keeps faith with the multiple perspectives in the book,which includes Ms. Gruwell’s voice and those of her students, whose first-person narratives pay witness to the effects of brutalizing violence, danger-ous tribal allegiances and institutional neglect.The film pops in on Erin andher increasingly troubled relationship with her husband, Scott (PatrickDempsey), and there’s a really lovely scene between the two that findsthem talking ruefully over a bottle of wine about the divide between fanta-sy and reality in marriage, a divide one partner tries to bridge and theother walks away from. But while we keep time with Erin, we also listen tothe teenagers, several of whom tell their stories in voice-over.

Among the most important of those stories is that of Eva (the newcomerApril Lee Hernandez), whose voice is among the first we hear in the film.Through quick flashbacks and snapshot scenes of the present, Eva’s younglife unfolds with crushing predictability. From her front steps, this 9-year-oldwatches as her cousin is gunned down in a drive-by shooting. Later herfather is arrested; she’s initiated into a gang. One day, while walking with afriend under the glorious California sun, a couple of guys pull up in a carand start firing in their direction. Eva dodges bullets and embraces violencebecause she knows nothing else; she hates everyone, including her whiteteacher, because no one has ever given her a reason not to.

In time Eva stops hating Erin, though the bullets keep coming. It’s a hardjourney for both women, one that includes other students, most of whomare played by actors who look too old for their roles and are nonethelessvery affecting. None of these actors are outstanding, but two are memo-rable: the singer Mario, who plays an angry drug dealer,Andre, and anothernewcomer, Jason Finn, whose big, soft, moon face swells with fury and vul-nerability as a homeless teenager named Marcus.

Mr. LaGravenese isn’t a natural-born filmmaker, but he’s a smart screen-writer whose commitment to characters like Marcus makes up for therough patches in his directing. Like Ms. Swank, who shares the screen com-fortably with her younger co-stars, he gives credit where credit is due.

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Nicole Kidman plays Diane Arbus, the well-to-do Manhattan wife who becomes one of thetwentieth century’s most revered photogra-

phers in Secretary director Steven Shainberg’s “imagi-nary portrait” of an artist

Even before the credits have rolled, it’s evident thatSteven Shainberg’s film is not a traditional ‘biopic’. “This isa film about Diane Arbus,” reads an antiquated-lookingtitle-card, “but it is not a historical biography.” Despiteusing Patricia Bosworth’s book ‘Diane Arbus:A Biography’as a source, Shainberg and writer Erin Cressida Wilson,reunited after their highly successful 2003 film Secretary,take a leap into the unknown with this unusual attempt toexpress their subject’s inner life.

After a brief flash-forward, as Diane (Kidman) is about totake on her first photographic study at a naturist camp,the film rewinds three months. It’s 1958 in New York Cityand Diane (pronounced ‘Dee-Ann’) is hosting a party. Herhusband Allan (Burrell) is a photographer, who has recent-ly been shooting campaigns for the latest furs at Russek’s,the exclusive Fifth Avenue department store owned by

Diane’s father (Yulin).A devoted wife and mother-of-two,Diane is also her husband’s assistant - but it soonbecomes clear that she has long since repressed anydreams of her own artistic expression.

What - or rather who - brings Diane out of her domes-ticated shell is the subject of Fur. It is her mysterious(fictional) new neighbour, Lionel Sweeney (Downey Jr)who helps launch Diane into a wider world.Afflictedwith a rare condition that causes hair to sprout all overhis face and body - as a teenager shaving proved point-less because “it grew back so quickly, it was hardlyworth the effort” - it’s no surprise that Lionel used toeke out a living as a circus freak.

Now making money by spinning wigs from his excess hair,Lionel hangs out with other ‘outsiders’ - from dwarves toa dominatrix - who accept him for who he is. But once hereveals the full extent of his condition to Diane, she doesnot back away; rather she finds genuine friendship withLionel, at the expense of her life with Allan (who evengrows a beard at one point in a desperate hope of winningher round) and her children.

Fur:An Imaginary Portrait of Diane ArbusDirector: Steven Shainberg

Cast: Nicole Kidman

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Director: Franco ZeffirelliCast: Mel Gibson, Glenn Close,Alan Bates, Paul Scofield

HamletA Franco Zeffirelli Film

The greatest dis-service Franco Zeffirelli didMel Gibson was to tell interviewers he wasinspired to cast “Hamlet” after seeing

“Lethal Weapon.” There, as a grief-stricken copwho does a mean Three Stooges impression, Mr.Gibson puts a gun to his head and comes close tosuicide.The scene, when you think about it, is “to beor not to be” with a vengeance, but it doesn’t leaddirectly to Shakespeare. It leads to jokes about“Lethal Bodkin” or “Mad Hamlet, the Road Warrior.”

The greatest service Zeffirelli did the actor, though,was to make that cockeyed connection. Mel Gibson’sHamlet is strong, intelligent and safely beyond ridicule.He is a visceral Hamlet, tortured by his own thoughtsand passions, confused by his recognition of evil, aHamlet whose emotions are raw, yet who retains thedesperate wit to act mad. He is by far the best part ofZeffirelli’s sometimes slick but always lucid and beauti-fully cinematic version of the play.

At the start, the windswept medieval castle on a cliffjutting out to the sea suggests a classical “Hamlet.”But this naturalistic, emotionally-charged interpreta-tion, the same approach that made Zeffirelli’s 1968“Romeo and Juliet” so popular and artistically suc-cessful, is not for philosophers or purists.

The screenplay, by Franco Zeffirelli andChristopher De Vore, freely plucks lines from onescene and drops them in another; the words areShakespeare’s, though they are not necessarily hereas Shakespeare put them.

The actors work so hard to give thelanguage clear and natural readingsthat they sacrifice much of its poet-

ic sound. But this tinkering is in the causeof creating a drama that speaks easily anddirectly to our own age.

For one early, painful moment, this methodlooks very inauspicious.The film invents ascene in the crypt of the castle, as the oldKing Hamlet is about to be sealed in hiscoffin. Glenn Close, as Gertrude, snifflesloudly over her husband’s body. AlanBates, as the new king, Claudius, casts aleering look across the coffin atGertrude. Campiness threatens until ahooded figure turns to face the king andwe first glimpse Hamlet’s face. He bitterlycalls his uncle and new stepfather “a littlemore than kin, and less than kind,” andfrom that moment the film is controlled byhis dignified yet explosive presence.

Mel Gibson is comfortable with the lan-guage and facile with his character’s ever-changing demeanor. Hamlet is visiblychanged to his core when his father’s ghostappears on a dark battlement demandingvengeance for his murder by Claudius.Gibson’s Hamlet is less in love with hismother than he is furious at her betrayal oflove, justice and her son. He is most effec-tive when he cries fiercely,“frailty thy nameis woman,” and extraordinarily convincingwhen he denies his love for Ophelia andcries,“No more marriage!”

If anyone is incestuous in this mother-sonaffair, it is Gertrude. She is girlishly infatu-ated and sexually hungry with Claudius,and far too attentive in the kisses shebestows on her son. Ms. Close makes hertroubled without being monstrous.Yetthere is too much posturing in her per-formance.When the Player Queen arrives,in the play that mocks the story ofClaudius and Gertrude, the actor whoportrays her does a wickedly accurateimpression of Ms. Close, her chin juttingout, her nose in the air.

The other actors are more subdued,including Alan Bates, who stops leering

and gives a solid performance. HelenaBonham-Carter is a wan Ophelia.AsPolonius, Ian Holm has the impossibleline,“to thine own self be true,” and hecannot conceal the strain of trying tomake it sound fresh. But one of the film’sbest scenes includes him, when Hamlet isacting mad, with one boot off and hisshirt-tail out, calling Polonius a fishmonger.

If it takes a while to forget Mel Gibsonand believe in the character, that is partlythe unavoidable curse of a movie starHamlet and partly because Zeffirelli’s cam-era lingers far too lovingly on Mr. Gibson’sattractive face.And though Hamlet’s solilo-quies are obviously set pieces, Zeffirelli cutsin and out of them so abruptly that theyseem more like star turns than they should.

But Gibson never plays them that way.There is evidence of a deeply troubled soulbut no trace of “Lethal Weapon” hysteriawhen he looks out a window of the castleand says,“O that this too sullied fleshwould melt.” He reserves his tears for thescene in Gertrude’s bedroom, when hemistakenly kills Polonius and confronts hismother with her betrayal. By this scene,when the depth of Hamlet’s sorrow andconfusion surface in recriminations andpleas to abandon Claudius, Gibson’s moviestar persona has been left far behind.

Despite Zeffirelli’s lavish attention toGibson’s face, more often he creates afluid and atmospheric style that keepsthe camera moving but does not callattention to it. The film is richly pho-tographed and elaborately produced.Glenn Close’s costumes alone canattract attention, with their flowing veilsand elegant jewels. But the visual beautyis always a backdrop to the drama, notan end in itself. As the ghost, PaulScofield appears like an actor fromanother, more classical realm. It is great-ly to Gibson’s credit that his more natu-ral, less mellifluous reading seems anequally respectable artistic choice. MelGibson may not be a Hamlet for theages, but he is a serious and compellingHamlet for today.

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JarheadDirector: Sam MendesCast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, ChrisCooper, Jamie Foxx.

Jarhead is the latest movie to put DonnieDarko star Jake Gyllenhaal front and cen-

tre. Swapping his cowboy hat from BrokebackMountain for a combat helmet in Jarhead,Gyllenhaal plays Swoff, US Marine, a 20 year-old soldier about to go off to the Gulf War.(“Jarhead is the nickname Marines have forthemselves, referring to their regulation buzzcut and/or the empty head space they haveto get into in order to be psychologically‘moulded’ for combat”). Swoff and his unitare primed for battle but become so boredwith the lack of conflict in Operation DesertShield they are driven to distraction.

Based on the memoirs of real-life MarineAnthony Swofford, Jarhead is a war film with-out a war, a hard type of movie to make suc-cessfully, if you think about it. For the mostpart, director Sam Mendes (AmericanBeauty) gets it right, although in places thefilm feels a little too controlled for the out-of-control story on hand. (Swofford’s bookwas a far more debauched affair). But theportrayal of the relentless boredom suffered

by the young soldiers, trained for action, notin-action is perhaps the film’s biggest achieve-ment, perfectly capturing the crushing ennuithat went with that first US conflict in theMiddle East.The performances in Jarhead arealso excellent, especially Jamie Foxx’s asSwoff’s C.O., Staff Sgt. Sykes, and PeterSarsgaard (Boys Don’ Cry, Kinsey) as Swoff’sunit buddy Troy. Cinematographer RogerDeakins brings a superb eye to the desertterrain, especially when the boys sit watchingthe gushing oil wells Saddam lit up as hisparting gift to Kuwait, making a perfect visualback drop for the hell they endure.

If anything, Jarhead is most let down by its“apolitical” stance, a deliberate line taken bythe film-makers.While Jarhead is clearly sym-pathetic towards the young soldiers, it alsofeels a little too sympathetic towards theGulf War effort, clearly as pointless as thesoldiers waiting for a war that never comes.(That is the only thing in this movie thatnever gets said). It must have been difficult tomake a flagrantly anti-war film about the Gulf,just as thousands of young US soldiers werebeing shipped off the current war in Iraq.

As they say, the best war movies are anti-war movies, but Jarhead may not be quiteanti-war enough to qualify as great.Verygood will just have to do.

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Lions for LambsDirector: Robert RedfordCast: Tom Cruise, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep.

“Do you want to win the War on Terror?” There it is people,the quintessential Yes or No question of our times. So saysTom Cruise, as a smarmy Republican senator in Lions for

Lambs. But is it so clear cut. Could it be that such a question is - justperhaps - the beginnings of the most complex, detailed, nuanced discus-sion of our time. And one that may well have no correct answer and amillion wrong ones. Either way, the consequences of such a discussionwill inevitably reverberate throughout history. And that is the kind ofterritory that Lions for Lambs is trying to tap into.

Produced by Cruise and directed by Redford, Lions for Lambs is the latestin the recent string of Hollywood-goes-Seriously-Political films (MichealClayton, Mighty Heart, etc) and in simple terms this is how the plot lays out.

It’s essentially three stories that overlap. First up, Meryl Streep is a skitish TVjournalist who’s somehow been given an hour-long interview with Cruises’aforementioned Senator.The senator has a plan, he says. One that will finallyend the War on Terror.

Second story:The Cruise Plan in Action.Two Marines are on a mission totake back the Afghan highlands.

Thirdly, and most interestingly, is the story of Political Science ProfessorRobert Redford trying to convince his brightest student not to give up onDemocracy, no matter how bad it is.

Yes, this movie can be outright didactic,Yes, it can get a bit lost at time. But,in spite of all of that Lions for Lambs holds us the whole way through.Thekey, is to think of it as a kind of cinematic conversation.A conversationbetween the characters on the screen, obviously, but also between you andthe events on the screen. See, this isnt a ‘statement’ about American poli-tics, as so many angry bloggers have accused it. Instead the film is simplyinitiating and engaging you in a debate exporing how America have gottento where it is now? How their democratic process has become so compro-mised? Is it irretreivable? We’re talking big, sprawling complex questions andwe get back a huge array of answers. It reflects ideas from both the farright and left and everywhere in between - Hell, at one point, someoneeven suggests reinstating the draft!

But the thing that makes it so watchable is simply how well-argued all ofthese ideas are. Unlike recent pseudo-political Hollywood flicks like THEKINGDOM (same writer, interestingly) and BOBBY, this movie comes off asdownright erudite as a clever examination of the world.And this is wherethe movie really pushes past those failings mentioned earlier.

So can we agree that it works as prime ‘post-movie conversation fodder’but how is it as a film? Well, the performances are great. Redford has themost amazing speeches. Cruise, casting himself as a untrustworthy, self-right-eous politician is genius casting, and it also demonstrates a clear sense ofhow he’s perceived in the public and for that.

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Lord of WarDirector: Andrew NiccolCast: Nicholas Cage, Ethan Hawke, Jared Leto, Bridget Moynahan, Ian Holm, Sammi Rotibi.

It has been a little while since we’ve seen Nicolas Cage do what he does best on the bigscreen in a role worthy of his talent, but latest movie Lord of War, might just break thisdry spell.

Woven together from “five real-life characters” and “years” of research, Lord of War is anambitious film that drops the bomb on the secret world of international arms dealing. It iswritten and directed by Andrew Niccol, screenwriter of The Truman Show (1998) andwriter/director of detached sci-fi, Gattaca (1997).

Yuri Orlov (Nicholas Cage) is a con man. Everything about him is a fake, perfectly qualify-ing him for his move from small-time gun-runner in suburban Coney Island to big-timeinternational arms dealer.The only relationship he can really hold down is with hisyounger brother and business partner,Vitaly (Fight Club’s Jared Leto).When Vitaly’s drugaddiction comes between the brothers,Yuri goes it alone.The world becomes his oysteruntil, as he tells us through laconic voice-over, he encounters annoying Interpol agent JackValentine (Gattaca’s Ethan Hawke), and aggressive East African warlord, Baptiste Sr. (Oz’sEamonn Walker), a ‘client’ who won’t take no for an answer. Ian Holm (Lord of The Rings)and Bridget Moynahan (Sex & The City) round out the solid cast as Yuri’s ‘business’ rivaland ‘head-in-the-sand’ wife respectively.

Lord of War isn’t your average big budget American movie. It’s one of those surprising gemsthat pretends to be a regular action movie but is actually something far more intelligent.Though not quite as emotionally engaging or chaotic as David O. Russell’s Gulf War satireGulf War Three Kings (1999), Lord of War is still an at times jaw-dropping critique ofAmerican foreign policy, a massive comment on the nation’s giant crush on guns.

Niccol employs Goodfellas (1990) swirling cinematic style to tell the story, combining voice-over with action and drama.Although at times over narrated (ie. too much information, notenough action), and some very obvious pop songs selection in its soundtrack, Lord of War isstill a cut above. It is a big budget political film that is entertaining and very relevant.And aslaconic “loner” Yuri, Nicholas Cage keeps the film on track with a rockin’ good central per-formance he was born to play.

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Director: Paul WeilandCast: Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monaghan,Hannah Beau Garrett.

The romantic comedy “Made of Honor”adds tart satirical flavors to a cotton-candy formula without sabotaging the

sugar rush. Directed by Paul Weiland (“CitySlickers II”), it begins on a nasty note whenTom (Patrick Dempsey), the putative Mr. Rightin this taming-of-the-rogue fable, is introducedas a college boy wearing a hideous BillClinton mask and drunkenly bellowing for hisMonica at a Halloween bacchanal.

The movie then skips ahead 10 years to dis-cover this obnoxious Lothario living high inNew York City off the millions he has madefrom his invention of the paper-cup sleeve.When the latest bimbo to grace his bed won-ders the morning after their hookup if shewill see him that evening, he snaps:“I don’t doback-to-backs.Two nights in a row; I don’t dothat.” He also lives by the 24-hour rule:Never call a date until a full day has passed.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, asthey say.Tom’s wealthy father (SydneyPollack) has been married and divorced somany times that he can’t recall whether hisnew wife is his sixth or his seventh. He isshown dressed up and heading toward thealtar while frantically negotiating a pre-nup bycellphone with his bride-to-be, who circlesthe block in a limousine with her lawyer.

The only sign that Tom has a heart is his strict-ly platonic friendship with Hannah (MichelleMonaghan), a fresh-faced director of acquisi-tions at the Metropolitan Museum of Artwhom he has known since college.The twoare such good pals that when Hannah tells himshe has to go to Scotland for six weeks, hewhines,“How can I live without you?”

Hannah returns from Scotland aglow overher engagement to Colin (Kevin McKidd),

a rich, handsome aristocrat with a broguewho galloped to her rescue when he spiedher stranded in her car at a cattle crossing.Suddenly Tom realizes Hannah is the love ofhis life. But what can he do? He decides heshould keep his mouth shut and strategize.When Hannah asks him to be maid of honorat her wedding in one of Colin’s several cas-tles (his family has one for each season),Tomagrees in the hope that he can demonstratehow much he loves her and win her back.That many assume his role means Tom mustbe gay makes for some wan humor.

“Made of Honor” scrambles the plotlines of“My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “Sweet HomeAlabama” and changes the locales. It has gor-geous picture-postcard views of Manhattanand the Scottish countryside. It also ups thefantasy quotient. Nowadays it’s not enough forthe designated princess in a romantic comedyto have one Prince Charming. She must havetwo to choose from.

Monaghan is an endearing screen presence,but her character has no personality.Themovie can’t begin to explain the unlikelyfriendship of Tom and Hannah, for there is norhyme or reason to it. If she were as brightas she is supposed to be, she wouldn’t toler-ate his churlish treatment of other women.But she doesn’t seem to notice.

Dempsey, who at 42 is too old for his role,does his best to infuse Tom with someboyish charm. Monaghan’s aura of funda-mental niceness is the main reason that“Made of Honor” retains enough sweet-ness to satisfy the cotton-candy addicts.For true believers in fairy tales, no roman-tic fantasy is too extravagant if the heroineis a sweetheart.The rest of us can sit thereand roll our eyes.

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Since premiering at the Venice Film Festival, WoodyAllen’s latest film Match Point has gainied a lot ofattention, being hailed by many as a ‘return to form’ for

the septuagenarian filmmaker.

It is also the first film that Allen - a director so identifiedwith his native New York City - has made abroad. MatchPoint is set and filmed entirely in London with a predomi-nantly UK cast. It includes a mixture of older and youngeractors, all equally adept at handling Allen’s dialogue and dra-matic script; Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Velvet Goldmine, Bend ItLike Beckham), Emily Mortimer (Lovely & Amazing), BrianCox (The Bourne Identity), Penelope Wilton (Shaun Of TheDead) and Matthew Goode (Imagine Me and You).The soleAmerican to appear is young star Scarlett Johanssen (LostIn Translation, Girl With A Pearl Earring). It should appeal to

audiences young and old, and Woody fans old and new.Myers plays Chris Wilton, a young ex-pro tennis player who movesto London and takes a job as a tennis coach at a posh private clubhoping to make it big.As luck would have it, he strikes gold quickly,befriending one of his pupils Tom (Goode), an incredibly wealthybusinessman from old money.Tom’s family welcomes Chris withopen arms, and he dutifully marries Tom’s sister Chloe (Mortimer).But always with his eyes on the prize,Chris embarks on an affairwith Tom’s fiancé,Nola (Johansson), a young American actressstruggling to find her way in her new London life, as is Chris.Theiraffair is short-lived, but when by chance they meet again it is rekin-dled with a passion.The affair is doomed to fail.Things eventuallydo go pear-shaped and the consequences prove fatal.

Match Point begins with a quote about the nature of luck,where Wilton, the professional tennis player, points out

his philosophy for life; he’d “rather be lucky than good”.Ergo the film is a dark exploration of luck and morality,with ambition and infidelity thrown in for good measure.These are all themes Allen has visited before in his films,but perhaps never so single-mindedly.The main charac-ters - namely Chris and Nola, seemingly both as attrac-tive and flawed as each other - are sorely tested as theygrapple with morals, ethics and passions. Like Allen’s sub-lime 1990 film Crimes and Misdemeanours - probably hislast great film - Match Point is intensely compelling and attimes terrifying, unfolding in ‘real time’, making it all themore intense experience. (Perhaps Match Point is theclosest thing Woody Allen has made to a Hitchcockfilm?!) Unlike Crimes though, there is only incidentalhumour to alleviate the film’s growing tension andinevitable grim outcome. Match Point is a well-observed,

detailed portrait of the ‘haves’ and what one who ‘havesnot’ might do to have it all.Allen’s insights into sexual politics and relationships in hisfilms are not very profound or progressive, compassionateeven, (in fact they can often downright off-putting andarcane). But it is entertaining - he certainly knows how tomake films about such things. On that point, Match Point is areturn to form for the director, the furthest thing away fromthe rehashed comedy he’s been serving up for years.And it’sa relief to be able to say that.

Allen hails Match Point as his best film. But it is not quite upthere with Crimes and Misdemeanours, Broadway Danny Rose(1984), Hannah & Her Sisters (1986) or Annie Hall (1977). Butit is certainly the best film he’s made in at least ten years, onethat will keep people talking for days afterwards.

Match PointDirector: Woody AllenCast: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers,Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode.

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Director: Mark S.WatersCast: Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams,Daniel Franzese, Jonathan Bennett, Lizzy Caplan,Lacey Chabert.

Five years ago,American comedian Tina Feywas made the very first female head writer onthe legendary network TV comedy program,

Saturday Night Live.Along with Jimmy Fallon, shehas pushed the envelope on the ‘weekend update’segment, making it more ‘hit’ than ‘miss’ than it hadbeen in recent times on the program.

Now Tina Fey also has a shot at pushing the enve-lope of the regular American teen movie withMean Girls, her first ever screenplay.Adaptingsociology book ‘Queen Bees and Wannabes’ byRosalind Wiseman (a self-help guide for parentson how to navigate their teen daughters throughthe American high school system relativelyunscathed), Fey tips her hat to a couple of theclassic teen films from recent times, MichaelLehman’s perverse little comedy Heathers (1989)and Amy Heckerling’s sweet take on Beverly-Hillsteen narcissism, Clueless (1995).

So Mean Girls becomes a tale of revenge after itdoes the requisite mapping of the school caf, intro-ducing all the different characters, sub-cultures andoutcasts. Lindsay Lohan (Freaky Friday) is Cady,Mean Girls’ star, a teenager who goes a savageeducation when she is dropped smack bang intothe middle of the high school system after beinghome-schooled for most of her life.After beingrecruited by the Gay Guy and the Goth Chick, sheenters into a plot to bring down the meanest,bitchiest and most superficial girls in the school,The Plastics.This proves not as easy as it firstappears as the naïve Cady finds out.

In spite of Fey’s best efforts (both as a the writerand co-star of the piece), Mean Girls isn’t a patchon Heathers or Clueless, but it is very good funnonethless, possessing some nice comic touches.

Mea

n G

irls

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maIt’s a recognized fact that many epic love

stories of literature and cinema transpirearound or during a war. Consider, for

example, Casablanca (World War II), Gonewith the Wind (the American Civil War), Dr.Zhivago (the Russian Revolution), and PearlHarbor. Memoirs of a Geisha falls into thiscategory.At its heart, this is a romance thattranspires against the background of an ever-changing Japan during the 1930s and 1940s.Although the film is less concerned with thewar than with the impact it has upon thecharacters, much of the final act could nothave occurred without the influence of thepostwar American occupation of Japan.

Memoirs of a Geisha spent a lot of time indevelopment hell before finally getting the greenlight.At one time, Steven Spielberg was set todirect (he remains on board as a producer).Several other names came and went, until theproducers settled on Rob Marshall (Chicago).But, because Marshall was under contract toMiramax, some horse trading had to be donebefore he was free to make the movie.The filmis an adaptation of the immensely popularArthur Golden novel, and is about as faithful asa two-plus hour movie could be.

There’s no doubting that Memoirs of a Geishais a lush motion picture, and it has much torecommend it, but this will not go down asone of the great screen romances of the2000s.The love story, although competentlytold, never soars and, while satisfying, it does-n’t cause the heart either to break or takeflight. One could argue that the movie is moreabout the lead character than her relationshipwith a man, but, by the way the story is told,it’s clear that Marshall and his screenwriterswant the romance to be a key element.

The film opens with Chiyo (SuzukaOhgo as a child, Ziyi Zhang as anadult) being taken from the small fish-

ing village of Yoroido and sold to the propri-etress of a Kyoto geisha house.At first,Chiyo’s lone goal is to find her sister, Satsu,from whom she has been separated, but, aftera brief reunion, they are parted forever.Chiyo’s plans to become a geisha - a “movingwork of art” who sells her skills, not her body- are dashed when she runs afoul ofHatsumomo (Gong Li), the house’s most con-sistent earner. For her infractions, she isdenied the chance to attend the geisha schooland must perform menial chores. But otherssee something in her.The Chairman (KenWatanabe) recognizes her as a girl of amazingcharacter and offers her a simple kindness.

Chiyo vows to become a geishaand make him her patron.A cele-brated geisha, Mameha (Michelle

Yeoh), takes Chiyo under her wing.WhenChiyo is ready to make her debut, she isgiven a “geisha name” - Sayuri - and intro-duced into society, where she must com-pete with Hatsumomo for the best clients.

The need for the film to be commercial-ly viable is a drawback.Admittedly, thepurist approach - all Japanese actorsspeaking in subtitled dialogue - whilearguably the best way to presentMemoirs of a Geisha, would have result-ed in a box-office disaster. So, to broadenthe film’s appeal,“name” Asian actorswere chosen and the movie was made inEnglish.Three of the major actresses -Ziyi Zhang (Chinese), Gong Li (Chinese),and Michelle Yeoh (Malaysian) - are notJapanese.Their ethnicity isn’t really anissue, since most Westerners won’tknow the difference. However, the deci-sion for all the dialogue to be in Englishis more problematic. Zhang and Gongare not adept at this language, and theirdelivery and cadence is frequently off.Both are excellent actresses, but theydon’t shine here, except in instanceswhen scenes rely on the non-verbalaspects of their performances. MichelleYeoh is more comfortable with English,and this makes her a standout.

To Marshall’s credit, he assembled asmany Japanese actors as possible.YoukiKudoh (Snow Falling on Cedars) is solidas Pumpkin, Sayuri’s sometimes-friend,sometimes-rival. Kaori Momoi plays thecrotchety landlady of the geisha house.Kôji Yakusho gives a passionate perform-ance as the scarred Nobu.And KenWatanabe (The Last Samurai) exudesnobility as the Chairman.The only non-Asian to have a speaking role of any sig-nificance is Paul Adelstein, and his partrequires less than 15 minutes of screentime. Like The Joy Luck Club, this is a rar-ity - a motion picture made in the UnitedStates with an almost all-Asian cast.

For those who follow Asian cinema,there’s a note of irony surrounding GongLi’s appearance in this film.The actressfirst gained the international spotlight forher work in the superb Raise the RedLantern, in which she played an innocentpreyed upon by older, more cunningwomen. In Memoirs of a Geisha, thetables are turned. In this instance, it’sGong who’s the seasoned, nastierwoman.The actress playing her victim,Ziyi Zhang, is the woman who took upwith Gong’s ex-lover, Zhang Yimou, afterZhang and Gong underwent a traumaticand public breakup in 1995.

It’s not surprising how sumptuous themovie looks, or how rich it is inatmosphere. During the early scenes,as Sayuri and her sister are taken fromtheir homes and separated, the film’stone and mood are perfect. It’sCharles Dickens filtered throughJapan. Later scenes are equally welldeveloped. Marshall’s primary aimseems to have been to make Memoirsof a Geisha look right.The World WarII era Japan’s detail appears to be onthe mark. John Williams’ score, whichhas a suitably Japanese flavor, comple-ments the visual elements.

Emotionally, although Memoirs of aGeisha is not inert, it lacks the abilityto wrench the viewer.There are timeswhen it feels muted.The story offersinsight into what geishas were in the“old” Japan (“not courtesans, notwives”) and the “new” one (“anyonecan buy a kimono and call herself ageisha”) and, by extension, the kind ofseismic shift undergone by Japaneseculture after the war.The central lovestory is more complex in the book,but Marshall distills it to its essenceso the resolution is defined for cine-ma-goers. Memoirs of a Geisha isworthwhile on many levels, although itlacks the depth of feeling that wouldhave elevated it from a good movie toa romance for the ages.

Memoirs of a GeishaDirector: Rob MarshallProducers: Lucy Fisher, Steven Spielberg, Douglas Wick.Screenplay: Robin Swicord and Doug Wright, based on the novel by ‘Arthur Golden’Cinematography: Dion BeebeMusic: John WilliamsCast: Ziyi Zhang, Ken Watanabe, Michelle Yeoh, Kôji Yakusho, Kaori Momoi,Youki Kudoh,Gong Li, Kenneth Tsang, Suzuka Ohgo.

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Million Dollar BabyDirector: Clint Eastwood

Cast: Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman.

As an actor and director, Clint Eastwood has, for the mostpart, made films which examine ‘ordinary’ men battlinggiant human flaws - think Unforgiven,Tightrope, Dirty

Harry and especially his last brilliant film, Mystic River. He shifts side-ways slightly with Million Dollar Baby, making room for a wonderfulstrong female character struggling with insecurities of her own. But

this doesn’t mean Clint has taken his eye off the ball.True to his most recent form as a filmmaker,

Million Dollar Baby is one great movie.

Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry) plays Maggie Fitzgerald, a youngdreamer who wants to crash the traditionally male-dominated worldof boxing, to slug her way out of an impoverished life.Veteran boxingcoach and gym owner Frankie Dunn (Eastwood), will have none of it.Boxing and girls just don’t go together as far as he is concerned - it’snothing more a cheap gimmick in a world that has gone to the dogs.Frankie is battling an estrangement with his own daughter so getting

this up close and personal with a young woman around her age is sure to prove far too painful.

Of course, Maggie persists and Frankie relents. She has tons of heart,some raw talent, and as his long time friend Scrap (Morgan Freeman)

tells him in no uncertain terms, Frankie is getting way too old tothrow away another sure-fire bet.

Million Dollar Baby is based on a short story by ex-boxing “cut man”F.X. O’Toole, and as he did with Mystic River (2004) and Unforgiven

(1992) - also literary adaptations - Eastwood and his regular collabora-tors turn the original author’s words into a wonderful cinematic expe-rience. Million Dollar Baby is a distant cousin to great boxing films like

John Huston’s Fat City (1972) and more recently, Karyn Kusama’sGirlfight (2000), where boxing represents a way out for those with

nothing, out to make something of themselves. But no-one can prepare us for where this film eventually goes.

Million Dollar Baby is a gentle, gritty, slow-burn of a drama: an excitingboxing movie that shifts into a surprising and intense look at family

and the ties that bind, in the way only a Clint movie can.

It’s a beauty.

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Mona Lisa SmileDirector: Mike NewellStarring: Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal,Dominic West, Marcia Gay Harden.

Julia Roberts takes on the Robin Williams role in this engaging female vari-ation on Dead Poets Society. Mona Lisa Smile is set in Wellesley,“the

most conservative college in the nation” in the 1950’s.The privileged studentsare taught invaluable rules of etiquette and propriety, like how to cross anduncross their legs, as a means to attract a suitable husband.Wellesley openlyprepares its pupils not for careers but for lives of domesticity and sub-servience.Thrust into this staid arena, as Wellesley’s new history of artteacher, is the free-thinking and liberal Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts).

Written by two men, Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, and directed byMike Newell, best known for his hilarious depiction of upper class antics inFour Weddings And A Funeral, Mona Lisa Smile takes a pointed stance on thestifling morals and expectations imposed on the country’s elite young womenin mid-century America.

Inspiring teachers and their impact on their students is a well that has beendipped into many times before in movies like Mr Holland’s Opus andDangerous Minds, but it’s the gentrified setting of Dead Poets Society thatdraws the obvious comparisons here. Newell has assembled a masterful cast,especially to portray the students who range from the bitterly cruel Betty(Kirsten Dunst) to the stubbornly grounded Joan (Julia Stiles) to the promis-cuous Giselle (Maggie Gyllenhaal).

Smart but inexperienced,Watson is initially unsettled when faced with a classfull of bright and well prepared pupils, but her trepidation proves unfoundedwhen she discovers that away from the security of the syllabus, the girls areless assured.Along with expanding their minds, she encourages them notaccept the defined roles that have been mapped out for them. Her “subver-sive” teaching methods cause her problems with the faculty, but endear herto her students who come to embrace her as a liberating and inspiring figure.

Inevitably in a film involving Roberts, there’s a romantic element.As Watsonadapts to her new life, she is torn between an old flame (John Slattery), theWellesley womaniser Dunbar (Dominic West) and her fierce independence.Roberts does a wonderful job of capturing the vivacity and integrity ofWatson succeeding, as she did in Erin Brockovich, in being able to transcendher looks and add substance to that smile.

Unlike the film’s namesake, there is nothing enigmatic about Mona Lisa Smile.Many of its characters lack subtlety, particularly the unctuous Dunbar, and thestory travels down an all to predictable path, but it does offer some fine per-formances and an evocative glimpse into an unfamiliar world.

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Nim’s IslandDirector: Mark LevinCast: Jodie Foster,Abigail Breslin, Gerard Butler.

If “Nim’s Island” were anything but a children’s movie, thecasting genius who suggested Jodie Foster as a potential loveinterest for Gerard Butler would be looking for a new occu-

pation. But miscasting isn’t the only problem with this sweetadaptation of Wendy Orr’s novel, a comedy-adventure thatnever quite finds its tone.

The island in question lies deep in the South Pacific (beautifullyplayed by the Gold Coast of Australia) and is home to Nim(Abigail Breslin) and her father, Jack (Butler). Motherless andnear-fatherless (Jack spends his days studying plankton), Nimamuses herself with a stable of performing pets and the literaryadventures of an Indiana Jones-style hero named Alex Rover.When Jack is trapped by a storm at sea, and Nim sends an e-mailmessage to Rover for help, she’s unaware that the recipient is hisagoraphobic creator, Alexandra (Foster).

Playing yet another tightly wound woman, Foster makes a slap-stick meal of rushing to Nim’s aid.Yet this is a story about hidingfrom the world - whether on a remote island or inside your head- and the film’s sensitive notes are too often jarred by itsattempts to score cheap comic points from sea lion flatulenceand obese Australian tourists.The message that lifelong connec-tions can be forged through books is a lovely one; too bad it’sobscured by flying lizards.

Directed by Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett;Written byMark Levin, Ms. Flackett, Paula Mazur and Joseph Kwong,Based on the novel by Wendy Orr; Director of photography:Stuart Dryburgh; Edited by Stuart Levy; Production Designer:Barry Robison; Produced by Paula Mazur.

Nim’s IslandDirected by Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett;Written by Mark Levin, Ms. Flackett, Paula Mazur and Joseph Kwong, Based on the novel by Wendy Orr; Director of photography: Stuart Dryburgh;Edited by Stuart Levy; Production Designer: Barry Robison; Produced by Paula Mazur.

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Ocean’s 12Director: Steven SoderberghCast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts,Andy Garcia, Bernie Mac,Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Casey Affleck, Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Matt Damon - alltogether again in one movie. It could only mean one thing: thesequel to Ocean’s 11, Steven Soderbegh’s 2001 remake of the

classic 1960 Brat Pack movie, is out.And to state the bleeding obvi-ous, what else would it be called other than Ocean’s 12?

Three years post-casino heist and Danny Ocean (George Clooney) isliving the highlife. He and ex-wife Tess (Julia Roberts) are back togeth-er and everything is going according to plan.That is, until TerryBenedict (Andy Garcia), the high rolling casino owner Danny and histen ‘crim’ buddies ripped off $160 million bucks, shows up, muscle intow, demanding his money back.With interest of course.And hewon’t take no for an answer.

The hoods get back together, go to Europe, where the film threatensto turn into The Italian Job, another 60s heist film remade earlier.As a fan of British cinema, Soderbergh shows his hand early, employingthe same kinds of cross-cutting techniques, time lapses and hand-heldflash that characterised his hero Richard Lester’s films, by whomSoderbergh is by admission so influenced.

But be warned. Ocean’s 12 is no patch on his previous movies - forexcellence see The Limey (1999), Out Of Sight (1998) and his othervery brave remake, Solaris (2002). Nor is it the wonderful piece ofpop entertainment that was Ocean’s 11.The attempts at playfulness -which absolutely made Ocean’s 11 - fall completely flat here, the plotis way too convoluted, and there are actually way too many charac-ters to keep up with. Plus, most of the cast looked like they wereonly on set in between shifts at a card table themselves. Nice work ifyou can get it, but please?! Do we have to see the film that goes withit as well? Way too indulgent.

Catherine Zeta-Jones is really this film’s only saving grace. Her per-formance as Isabel, Brad Pitt’s ex-girlfriend-come-Interpol agent, isawesome. But this film isn’t. Julia Roberts is backed into a horribleself-parodying corner that rivals Full Frontal (2002) - Soderbergh’slast attempt at experimentation - for sheer indulgence.As taut andterrific affair as Ocean’s 11 was, Ocean’s 12 isn’t. Soderbergh hasmade a vanity project for its all-star cast, ironically in keeping with thetradition set up by the 1960 original. But the reason Ocean’s 11 wassuch a breath of fresh air was because it defied that conceit.Returning to it hasn’t worked.

It is disappointing Soderbergh’s heart wasn’t in Ocean’s 12 - it’s prettyclear from watching this movie that it wasn’t - because we all knowwhat he can do when he cares. He is still one of America’s most tal-ented and interesting directors, but!

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RenaissanceDirector: Christian Volckman

Aneo-noir set in mid-21st centuryParis. Computer-generated, mono-chrome vision of the future featuring

the voices of Daniel Craig, JonathanPryce and Catherine McCormack.Astunning exercise in high-tech film-making,Renaissance uses motion capture andstrong design to create a striking, starklyblack-and-white vision of a future Paris.

It’s 2054, and good-time girl Bislane(McCormack) is surprised to see her scien-tist younger sister Ilona (Garai) in herfavourite nightclub. Ilona has been meeting alocal dealer. Immediately afterwards, Ilona iskidnapped.Tough cop Captain Karas(Craig) is specifically requested for the jobby Dellenbach (Pryce), the head ofAvalon, Ilona’s corporate employer.

With a frustrating lack of evidence or clues,Karas’s investigation moves slowly, but hegradually pieces together a case involvingdubious research into the degenerative, pre-mature aging disease progeria. Dr JonasMuller (Holm), an Avalon employee, con-ducted research into the disease back in2006; Ilona herself was working on progeriaresearch for Avalon.

Meanwhile, Karas and Bislane begin an intenserelationship. Karas’s investigations bring himinto contact with Farfella (Malikyan), anArab gang lord and a childhood friend of thecop.Will Karas be able to make the connec-tions between Muller’s work and the kidnap-ping? And just what is Avalon up to?

It’s pretty obvious the giant corporation isthe bad guy here, much like the TyrellCorporation in Blade Runner,Renaissance’s most obvious forebear andstrongest influence.Avalon has huge animatedbillboards throughout Paris, advertising beautyproducts and assuring the populace “We’reon your side, for life”.You know you can’ttrust a corporate boss who says theirresearch is merely about “making life betterfor everyone”. But Renaissance doesn’t justrecall Blade Runner: this is a remarkable

hybrid of different cultural forebears. In themix, alongside Ridley Scott’s hugely influen-tial film, are traces of the classics Akira andGhost In The Shell (which itself is influ-enced by Blade Runner), the traditions ofFrancophone bande designee (comic books),and French noir films like La Balance andLe Samourai, with their edgy, seedy worldof gangs, informants and trench-coats.Thevisual style is also reminiscent of the neo-noirUS comic book writer/artist Frank Millercreated for his ‘Sin City’ books.There’s evena dash of The Matrix, perhaps inevitably, inthis high tech world.

Also apparent is the legacy of Fritz Lang’sMetropolis, in the film’s astonishing versionof Paris, where landmarks such as the EiffelTower, Notre Dame and the SacreCoeur are intact, but the city has beenextrapolated around them, with soaringapartment blocks, high tech offices, raisedwalk-ways, glass-roofed sublevels, and theSeine itself, seemingly eaten into the ground.It’s both futuristic and retro, the whole boltedtogether by the sort of ironwork that makesup the Eiffel Tower.

The architectural design is by AlfredFrazzani, but he’s just one of the talentedteam that’s brought this unique world tolife.The original visual concept is creditedto Marc Miance, while the film is the fea-ture debut of director ChristianVolckman. The picture reportedly costonly $18 million, which is a pittance givenits epic scale. Not only are its environ-ments huge and elaborate, the whole ispopulated by myriad characters, oddly life-like thanks to their generation throughmotion capture techniques. Not only dothey move well, the characters are alsohighly expressive, an achievement consider-ing this is not just animation, but extremelystylised animation, all realised in crisp blackand white, with no tonal middle-ground.

The story itself is clichéd, with the maverickcop hero even throwing down his badge at onepoint, but it’s intriguing enough to carry the filmalong (towards the end it loses the momentuma bit).And while the drama plays out, theimages provide a consistent visual treat.

RenaissanceDirector: Christian Volckman

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Savage GraceDirector: Tom KalinCast: Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane, Eddie Redmayne,Hugh Dancy, Elena Anaya, Unax Ugalde.

“Savage Grace,” Tom Kalin’s long-awaited second feature(after “Swoon”), swoons through a number of lovely, storiedplaces on its way to a sad and sordid end. Narrated by Tony

Baekeland (played in young adulthood by Eddie Redmayne), it begins inthe post-World War II Manhattan of late-night dinners at the Stork Cluband moves on to Paris in the ‘50s and then to Spain (Cadaqués andMajorca, to be precise) in the late 1960s and London after that.Writtenby Howard A. Rodman, “Savage Grace” follows the true, appalling story ofTony and his parents, played by Stephen Dillane and Julianne Moore.Brooks Baekeland, heir to a plastics fortune (his grandfather inventedBakelite), is frustrated by his own lack of ambition and less than kind tohis wife, Barbara. For her part, Barbara is impulsive and also somewhatpretentious, striving to jam herself into social niches where she won’tcomfortably fit. Greeting a literary scholar who has come for lunch, sheasks: “Was Proust truly a homosexual? Qu’est-ce que tu penses?” Thatline, like so many others in Rodman’s script, is written and delivered withan arch, brittle self-consciousness that becomes oppressive over time.While it’s likely that the diction and phrasing of the dialogue approxi-mates the idioms of rich expatriates during the decades in question, thecharacters still seem vague, stilted and unreal.

‘Savage Grace,’ based on the award winning book, tells the incredible truestory of Barbara Daly, who married above her class to Brooks Baekeland,the dashing heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. Beautiful, red-headed andcharismatic, Barbara is still no match for her well-bred husband.The birthof the couple’s only child,Tony, rocks the uneasy balance in this marriage ofextremes.Tony is a failure in his father’s eyes.As he matures and becomesincreasingly close to his lonely mother, the seeds for a tragedy of spectacu-lar decadence are sown. Spanning 1946 to 1972, the film unfolds in six acts.The Baekelands’ pursuit of social distinction and the glittering ‘good life’propels them across the globe.We follow their heady rise and tragic fallagainst the backdrop of New York, Paris, Cadaques, Mallorca and London.

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But with the girlish excitementfilling the cinema, it seemedunlikely anyone would heed her

plea. Just in case none of us remember,the producers of the much-awaitedfilm version of the hit TV seriesremind fans with a quick recap at thestart of the film where the four char-acters were at the point we left themwhen the series ended.

Three years on, the two Ls are stillcarrying the storyline along: labelsand love. In the first half-hour we’rebombarded by so much brand place-ment that one might as well be wit-nessing an extended Vogue photoshoot brought to life.

While love scenes between the happycharacters brought not so much as amurmur from the audience, aVivienne Westwood dress and aLouis Vuitton handbag provoked coosof heartfelt admiration.The triumphof capitalism is as unabashed as italways was but given, if possible, agreater ironic twist.

In 20 years, Carrie Bradshaw, thelovelorn journalist, has come a longway: she is engaged to a billionaire,who can offer her a walk-inwardrobe and more Manolos thanshe can ever dream of - but theconsumer Cinderella has a crashheading her way.

And as the film progresses, the seem-ingly adult and perfect lives of the fourforty-somethings start to show cracks.Miranda’s husband Steve commits anact she may never be able to forgivehim for while Samantha’s ego threatensto derail her relationship with SmithJerrod. Just Charlotte seems to haveescaped the New York clique’s curse.

It is only in the last 10 minutes that wefind out whether the fairy-tale has thehappy ending the audience so desper-ately seemed to crave. But one thing’sfor sure: fans of the series will lap thisfilm up. It was coarse, sentimental, andoutrageously materialistic - just as wehoped and expected it would be.

The Life Before Her EyesDirected by Vadim Perelman; written by Emil Stern, basedon the book by Laura Kasischke; director of photography: PawelEdelman; edited by David Baxter; music by James Horner; pro-duced by Perelman,Aimee Peyronnet and Anthony Katagas.Cast: Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood, Eva Amurri,Gabrielle Brennan, Brett Cullen, Jack Gilpin and Oscar Isaac.

“The Life Before Her Eyes,” from directorVadim Perelman (“The House of Sand andFog”), is adapted from a well-regarded novel by

Laura Kasischke.The movie has its good points too,notably an eerily mesmerizing performance by Evan RachelWood. But there’s an air-tight quality to the movie, an off-kilter contemporary gothic complete with weird nuns,writhing Pentecostals and a disaffected high school kidwith a semi-automatic weapon, that makes it feel like aformal exercise.Though atmospheric and occasionally sus-penseful, its gimmickry keeps it from being transcendent.

High school best friends Diana (Wood) and Maureen (EvaAmurri) pop into the bathroom before class one day andsuddenly hear gunfire and screaming outside the door.Moments later, the gunman, a fellow classmate, bursts inand demands that the girls choose which one of them willget to live.The friends cry, plead for their lives, hesitate,and the next thing we know, a 40-year-old Diana (UmaThurman) is waking up from another restless night.

Maureen, you assume, is long dead.

An anxious suburban housewife, Diana is nothing like thespirited high school girl we’ve seen in previous scenes.Married to a college professor, whom she appears to havemet and fallen in love with while still in high school, andmother to a mischievous 8-year-old named Emma(Gabrielle Brennan), Diana is edgy, insecure, disorientedand increasingly nervous despite having clicked into aseemingly idyllic life. She lives in a sprawling old houseand teaches art history at a community college but anightmarish pall hangs over her life.

As the movie cuts between Diana as a rebellious teenag-er and Diana as a timid adult, the sense that somethingis not quite right with her grows. Clearly suffering fromsome kind of survivor’s guilt, she seems unable to sepa-rate her past from her present, both of which have thequality of dreams thanks to Pawel Edelman’s eerily beau-tiful camera work.The restlessness of her youth seemsto have turned into a constant searching in adulthood,and it’s a recurring motif in the adult Diana’s life thatshe always seems to be looking for someone - herdaughter, her student, her husband.

Beautifully constructed and shot, the movie builds towardits unexpected, if not exactly mind-blowing conclusion,but though it hints at some interesting thematic elements,Perelman doesn’t delve into them very deeply.You get thefeeling that somewhere in the source material, there areall sorts of meditations on women’s assigned roles in life.But Perelman doesn’t quite get close enough to his char-acters for their predicaments to fully resonate.

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Woman On Top

Director: Fina TorresCast: Penélope Cruz, Murilo Benicio, Harold Perrineau,Mark Feuerstein, John deLancie.

Sultry Spanish senorita Penelope Cruz stars inher first English language role in Fina Torres’s spicycomedy Woman On Top.This sexy romantic fable

about the magic of food and love shows chef IsabellaOliveira (Cruz) as the talk of the Brazilian port city ofBahia. Her magical culinary skills light up the seafoodrestaurant owned by her husband Toninho (Benicio).But his sheer frustration of her constant dominationleads to a dalliance.

And when she finds him in flagrante, she flees toSan Francisco to room with cross-dressing bestpal Monica (Perrineau). Starting from scratch,Isabella earns fame and fortune as a TV chef onPassion Food Live, under the wing of station pro-ducer Cliff Lloyd (Feuerstein) who has a soft spotfor his new star.

But Isabella just can’t get over Toninho and when herhusband turns up, desperate to win her back, the tem-perature soon reaches boiling point.

Cruz looks ravishing and her energy and enthusiasmatones for her occasional problems delivering her linesin English.

Benicio and Feuerstein vie as the two men in Isabella’slife and both spark potent screen chemistry with theirleading lady. Meanwhile, Perrineau lords it as the flam-boyant comedy side-kick, squeezing into increasinglycolourful outfits in search of her own Mr Right.

But the screenplay’s reliance on a magical sea goddessto untangle Isabella’s knotty affairs of the heart isdeeply unsatisfying. Likewise, the decision to pair up allthe leading actors before the end - even finding aboyfriend for Monica - is one contrivance too far.

Gripes aside,Woman On Top is a light and sensualcocktail of romance and laughter, set alight by Cruz’sscreen magnetism. Drink it up while she’s hot.

Woman On Top

Director: Fina TorresCast: Penélope Cruz, Murilo Benicio, Harold Perrineau,Mark Feuerstein, John deLancie.

Woman On Top is a light and sensual cocktail of romanceand laughter, set alight by Penelope Cruz’s screen magnet-ism. Drink it up while she’s hot.

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Stranger Than Fiction

Director: Marc ForsterCast:Will Ferrell, Dustin Hoffman, Maggie Gyllenhaal,Queen Latifah.

Stranger Than Fiction is a ‘movie marriage’ made in heaven.The betrothed are talented young writer Zach Helm - oneto watch - and director Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball,

Neverland). It is Helm’s first screenplay and Forster’s first come-dy after what seems a career cemented in the "sad" (especially ifyou add Stay (2005) to the list).Alchemy was at work as StrangerThan Fiction makes you fall in love with film all over again...

In Melinda & Melinda (2004) we caught a glimpse of the dramaticactor trapped inside Will Ferrell’s comedian body. He always hadthis ‘every man’ role in him: Harold Crick, a forlorn tax man withnot much of a life.Trapped in a routine, bland existence, one dayhe is hauled out of his fog by two key events. Firstly - and inexpli-cably - a voice inside his head (not his own, female in fact); andsecondly, a meeting with a woman he could fall in love with,‘boho’ baker Ana (Maggie Gyllenhaal), whom he is sent to audit.

Harold worries he is losing it.Turns out however that thevoice inside Harold’s head - narrating every detail of his mun-dane life - belongs to ‘real-life’ author, Karen Eiffel (EmmaThompson), in the last desperate and depressed throes of fin-

ishing her Great American Novel, of which it seems Harold isthe subject. She is trying to kill off her leading man which hasfatal implications for Harold.Trying to solve this mystery, heconsults Literature Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman inanother eccentric role as in I Heart Huckabees). If he doesn’the faces a certain death - ‘death by narration’.

While it all sounds very high concept and madcap, the oppositeis true for this film. Helm and Forster take great pains to makethe plot very plausible, never once explaining why this ‘magicalintersection’ came about - a bold move. It just ‘is’, in the mostexistential sense. (The film itself is very existential in tone).Dustin Hoffman and Maggie Gyllenhaal give their all in plum sup-

port roles - only Queen Latifah is a bit short changed as minderPenny, sent by the publisher to keep her Karen to deadline.

Comparisons to the aforementioned I Heart Huckabeesplus Charlie Kaufman movies - Adaptation, Being JohnMalkovich, take your pick... - are fair here. ScreenwriterHelm also has a mighty strong voice-as-writer, and the giftof imagination, self-reflexivity and insight into modernmelancholy blighting the today’s ‘every man’.While funny,Stranger Than Fiction is equally sad, if not more so. It is acontemplative film about the act of writing, the life of anartist, and filled with moving ideas about finding joy andnot wasting the life one has in this world.

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The Butterfly EffectCast:Ashton Kutcher,Amy Smart, Melora Walters, Elden Henson,William Lee Scott, Eric Stoltz.

According to the concept of chaos theory, a rather vague and ill-defined phenomenon which became popular in the 1980s, theworld is an utterly confounding place. If a butterfly flaps its

wings in China, its most famous maxim goes, it could cause a hurricaneon the other side of the world. Of course, nobody has actually provedthis, but it has been food and drink to many radical scientists andthinkers, as well as providing entertainment for countless psychedelicdrug-takers along the way. Such is the basis for The Butterfly Effect,created, we are worryingly informed, by the writers of FinalDestination 2.

The film stars Ashton Kutcher, who is almost famous over herefor being the younger lover (and soon to be husband) of DemiMoore. He also hosts the MTV Candid Camera-style showPunk’d, in which celebrities find themselves in all sorts of picklesonly to discover Ashton is at the centre of it all. Kutcher’s mostfamous big screen role to date is that of the perpetual stonerJesse in Dude,Where’s My Car?

Kutcher plays Evan Treborn, who at the opening of the film is resi-dent in a psychiatric hospital. Evan is a troubled young man and welearn that a dark event in his past has altered his short-term memory.Through a series of flashbacks we learn that Evan and a group of child-hood friends committed a terrible, if accidental, crime, and the conse-quences have had damaging effects on all of them. Evan’s only solace isa daily diary he keeps of everything that has happened to him since,and through some mysterious power, he is literally able to jump backinto his past and change events when he reads out pages from hisdiary and concentrates really hard.

Confused? You’re likely to be, especially as the film consists of sceneafter scene in which Evan goes back in time and tries to change thepattern of his current life.Along the way we have plenty of disturbingscenes involving babies being blown up, a dog being burned alive in abag, and a strange (if not welcome) appearance by Eric Stoltz as apaedophile father of one of Evan’s friends.

The film-makers’ earnest attempts to blow your mind will more thanlikely result in you scratching your head, or praying that the next jumpback in time will be the last - at nearly two hours it’s far too long. Ifyou really don’t want to mess yourself up and see how all this shouldbe done properly, then it’s advisable to side-step the cinema, take a tripto the video store and rent Jacob’s Ladder instead.

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The PianistDirector: Roman Polanski

Polish director Roman Polanski sur-vived the bombing of Warsaw, Nazioccupation and life on the streets of the

Crakow ghetto during WW2, and somehowhe always knew that if he lived throughit he would tell the tale. Lucky for usPolanski became one of the world’s most tal-ented film-makers. In WladyslawSzpilman’s autobiographical novel ‘ThePianist’, another tale of European Holocaustsurvival, Polanksi found his perfect conduitand with it he has made perhaps his mostpersonal work yet seen.

Polanski helped shape American film in the‘easy riders, raging bulls’ period (1968 - 1975)with stunning films like Rosemary’s Baby(1968) and Chinatown (1974), although morerecently in European exile, his output has beenless satisfying and consistent. For four decadeshe staved off putting his own story to film,instead preferring to mesh it with someoneelse’s memoirs. It has been worth the wait.Thisis Polanksi’s best film since Frantic (1988) andone of his best films, period.

Szpilman wrote ‘The Pianist’ based on hissurvival experiences in 1946 straight after

World War Two. He was 25 years of age anda celebrated Polish musician when the Nazi’smarched into Warsaw in 1939. He spent thenext six years evading deportation and cap-ture as those around him were sent to thegas chambers at Auschwitz. Great youngAmerican actor Adrien Brody (Summerof Sam) portays this projection of Szpilmanalmost too well. Haunted, gaunt and emotion-ally crushed, it is almost as if Brody becomesthe man himself, spending much of the filmwordless, in solitude and paralysed by fear.Through his eyes we witness images that nohuman should ever have to see, in life or onfilm, such is the depth of Polanski’s recreationof war torn Warsaw. The Pianist presentsus starkly with the architecture of humandestruction, a holocaust in every sense, ofboth a mind and a city.

Inside the awesome cinema space in ThePianist we see why Polanksi is consideredone of the world’s best film-makers. It isboth complex in its simplicity, and devas-tating in its restraint. And moving (very),quiet and non-hysterical.

And the answer to the question “Whyanother Holocaust movie?” Amongother reasons, simply because RomanPolanski made it.

The PianistA Roman Polanski Film

Evidently, as things like yoga, alternativemedicine, and meditation becomemore accepted by the mainstream, it

creates a market of films for the new-ageyniche.And that is likely just the audience forPeaceful Warrior, a feel-good, anything’s-possible film version of Dan Millman’s auto-biographical-motivational-self help bestseller,modestly titled Way of the Peaceful Warrior:A Book that Changes Lives.

Scott Mechlowicz plays Dan (which, sure; ifan actor is playing you, you definitely want itto be the guy who is a dead ringer for BradPitt, only 20 years younger), a hotshot gym-

nast at Berkeley who is unhappy, despitebeing a star athlete with great grades and anendless stream of eager co-eds. One mid-dle-of-the-night, Dan happens upon a full-service gas station manned by the gruff-voiced, mysterious Socrates (Nick Nolte), aman who speaks only in platitudes and rid-dles and seems capable of the impossible.

Socrates takes Dan under his wing, showinghim “how to be a warrior” without anyirony whatsoever and teaching him to stopover-thinking life, to live in the moment andappreciate everything that is around him.The instruction, of course, involves

a lot of breaking Dan down in order tobuild him up and showing him the way totrue happiness through menial tasks likescrubbing toilets and fixing engines and it’sall very wax on/wax off. It also raises thequestion: Just how many times is it possible,in a single story, for an arrogant young buckto spurn the teachings of his mentor, onlyto come crawling back after having Learneda Lesson? (Answer:Very, very many.)

Taken strictly within the InspirationalSports Drama genre, Peaceful Warrior isridiculously cheesy. But on the other hand,it’s not really fair to judge the characters

for speaking in motivational clichés whenthey are literally personifications of a self-help book; in that sense, they do manage toretain enough normalcy to be endearing.There is, however, no excuse for the over-wrought and aggressive score, which literal-ly refuses to let a moment pass withoutthe dun-dun of momentousness or the tin-kle-tink of inspiration, and comes to a headin an awesome evil twin scene.

Considering how it could have over-shotinspiration, as so many movies do, and head-ed straight into ham-fisted, eye-rolling cheese,Peaceful Warrior manages to be an alrightmovie that additionally has a message meantto… well, change lives, if the book is to bebelieved.There are parts that are likely

impossible to translate to screen withoutlooking silly - a montage of all the wonderand beauty happening, right at this verymoment, comes to mind, and possibly theaforementioned evil-twinness - but they arenot the bulk of the film.And thoughMechlowicz is not the name in the cast, hepretty much carries the movie and is equallyenjoyable as the cocky jackass and theenlightened zen master; between this andMean Creek, he’s becoming a name to watch.

On the other hand, it’s deeply unsettling toconsider Warrior within the context ofdirector Victor Salva’s other works, theJeepers Creepers films and Powder - allyoung men endlessly being menaced ormentored - considering the man is a con-

victed child molester. It’s one thing to payfor your crimes and move on, but it’sanother entirely to move on to makingfilms that read like a therapy outlet andfeature, of all things, a gratuitous showerscene. It’s just... not right.

And really, even if you are willing and ableto set aside disturbing sub-text, you are leftwith a movie for a highly specific audience.It’s if you want to be uplifted by the mes-sage in your movies, and you’re not onlyaccepting of a little acu-pressure or newage wisdom in your lives, but want the req-uisite motivational sports training montageto actually be set to it.And are able to doall of the above without dissolving into a fitof giggles at the over-use of slo-mo.

Peaceful WarriorDirector: Victor SalvaProducer: Mark Amin, Robin Schorr,David Welch, Cami Winikoff.Screenplay: Kevin BernhardtCast: Nick Nolte, Scott Mechlowicz,Amy Smart,Agnes Bruckner,AshtonHolmes, Paul Wesley.

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The Prestige

Director: Christopher NolanCast: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine,David Bowie, Scarlett Johansson.

The Prestige is a fantastic new feature byChristopher Nolan, the talented writer/directorof Memento (2000) and Batman Returns

(2005). Judging by this his fifth feature, it is very safe tosay that Nolan is shaping up as one of the best of thenew breed studio directors. Co-written for the screen byNolan and his brother Jonathan (they also co-wroteMemento), The Prestige is an adaptation ofChristopher Priest’s 1995 novel set in turn-of-20th-century England, and more importantly, in the very techni-cal and intriguing world of Theatre Magicians.

Hugh Jackman (X-Men 2) invests a great performancein “The Great Danton” aka Robert Angiers, anincredibly ambitious American magician who wants to bethe best in the world. Equally as impressive in his ‘bad guy’role is Christian Bale (Batman Returns), playingAlfred Bordern, once Danton’s assistant, soon tobecome his most fearsome rival. Both are mentored by“trick designer” Cutter, Michael Caine, in a command-ing role he was born to play. Locked in a fatal rivalry,

Magic Men Angiers and Bordern battle over every-thing: women (including assistant Olivia, ScarlettJohansson), venues and, and to come up with thegreatest disappearing trick of them all, which involves aneccentric David Bowie playing real-life inventorNikola Tesla.

There’s not a daggy David Copperfield in sight - nor aSiegfried & Roy for that matter.The Prestige is a seriousfilm about the days when magic was taken seriously, at itsheight a much-craved pop entertainment supported bymass audiences - the cinema of its day you could say.Andwho better to bring us this story of illusion and intriguethan one of the best illusionists of the moment,Christopher Nolan; Film too is a medium all aboutsleight-of-hand and ‘smoke and mirrors’, where we mustsuspend our disbelief for it to work at its best.Structuring his film like the best magic tricks, Nolanmakes us believe his characters (and even more key, careabout them), with the ‘big reveal’ or ‘the prestige’ as itwere, at the end paying off handsomely.

The Prestige is filled with beautiful images, a lovelysense of history, an appreciation for the art ofmagic, and excellent performances from a committedcast. It is an incredibly satisfying movie about just how farpeople will go to fulfill an obsession.

Two For The Money

Director: D.J. CarusoCast: Al Pacino, MatthewMcConaughey, Rene Russo.

This has been the decade of gam-bling with the massive surge inpopularity of poker, spreadbet-

ting and online bookies willing to acceptbets on just about anything. So whatbetter time for a big Hollywood film toembrace this contemporary craze: thethinking being that surely there must beenough punters out there who want tospend their hard-earned cash on seeinga version of their own story up on thebig screen. Right?

Wrong. Two for the Money is amelancholy mess of a film, and evenastute investors would be better offspending their ticket money by stickinga pin in a racecard. Even if they lost,they’d be guaranteed more enjoyment.It’s the latest in an uneasy trend of filmwhich claims to be ‘inspired by trueevents’, a moniker that is usually thesign of a desperate producer trying to

add some kudos to his work. It’s alsothe latest in a worrying series of AlPacino duds - who can honestlyremember seeing People I Know,

The Recruit.All films he has made inthe last five years, and all films whichsank without a trace. One of theworld’s leading actors seems destinedto spend his dotage in material that isway below his considerable talent.

Matthew McConaughey stars asBrandon Lang, a former collegefootball star whose career ends whenhis ligaments are torn during aChampionship match. Being a Vegasresident, Brandon naturally turnstowards the city’s employment main-stay and is soon working as a tipsterfor a pricey phone-betting advisoryservice. He turns out to be a natural,and his ability to pick winners sooncomes to the attention of WalterAbrams (Pacino), a hotshot NewYorker who specializes in selling bet-ting advice to the wealthy.

Hotfooting it to New York, Brandonbecomes the star of the show as hisability to pick football winners makeshimself and his clients millions of dol-lars. But inevitably he becomes seducedby the lifestyle, the women (not leastWalter’s wife Toni, played by ReneRusso and the real-life wife of directorD.J. Caruso), and by his own innateability to pick. He loses more and moreuntil the final game of the season, theSuperbowl, offers him one final chanceat redemption.

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Geoff, 24 Hour Party People). Coogan plays not one but three roles: the titularTristram Shandy, 18th century gent in tights,Tristram’s progressive fatherWalter,and a fairly repellant version of his real life self,“Steve Coogan”. (He’s reminiscentof the obnoxious self he played in Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee & Cigarettes, oppositea gormless Alfred Molina). For this Coogan must be admired, as should Brydon,equally genius and generous in his comedy, playing a passive-aggressive second bananato Coogan’s handsome, egotistical and kind of cringe-worthy figure.

What is this film about? Actually it is one big fat digression, and actually… kind ofhard to put in to words. Sterne’s novel was a book about the process of writ-ing, and so too Winterbottom’s film is about the process of filmmaking. Hekind of abandons any semblance of a straightforward film adaptation early on

Tristram Shandy:A Cock and Bull StoryDirector: Michael WinterbottomCast: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Keeley Hawes, Shirley Henderson,Dylan Moran, Stephen Fry, Gillian Anderson.

Tristram Shandy:A Cock And Bull Story isanother post-modern, crazy adaptation of amuch-loved novel, that flouts convention, does

away with the rule book and subverts the well-wornform. A Cock And Bull Story is the film version (sortof), of The Life & Opinions Of Tristram Shandy,Gentleman, by 18th century pastor LaurenceSterne, published over nine volumes in the mid-1700s.

Who else would one charge to do the impossible - makean “unfilmable” book into a film - but one of modern cin-ema’s most fearless directors, Michael Winterbottom.

As we’ve seen from his previous, ambitious and fantasticfare - including 9 Songs (2004), Wonderland (1999),Code 46 (2003) and the sublime 24 Hour PartyPeople (2002) - Winterbottom likes a challenge. But healso likes a laugh, clearly, if this film and its stellar funny-bone cast is anything to go by.

Two of Britain’s best current comedians/comic actorsface off in A Cock And Bull Story, undermining, com-peting and generally psyching each other out and wear-ing each other down - such are the states of their fragileegos. Steve Coogan is one, announcing he has the leadrole in the film after a lengthy comic preamble to estab-lish this fact, with his co-star Rob Brydon (Marion &

and jumps fence, and preferring to look at the machinations of a film produc-tion struggling to come to terms with adapting a book, much the same wayCharlie Kaufman’s “Charlie Kaufman” did as a screenwriter in the filmversion of Adaptation (2002). It’s like a snake swallowing its tail…

Not that Winterbottom hasn’t been there before. He turned the conceptof the biopic on its ear with 24 Hour Party People (2002), his superbexercise in faux-realism where Coogan also played someone from real life,legendary Manchester rock entrepreneur Tony Wilson. (Wilson makesan appearance in A Cock And Bull Story as himself, interviewingCoogan for the behind-the-scenes DVD doco for A Cock And Bull Story.Who can keep up!). Here again Winterbottom and his writer FrankCotrell-Boyce seamlessly blend the fiction and the pretendy-real togeth-er, with both the costume drama and the mockumentary stories runningparallel to each other, in order to reflect each other.

All this might just sound like cock and bull - a load of old codswallop, anexercise in post-modern smart-arsery even… But it’s not. It’s actually a mov-ing story of redemption, book-ended by some of the funniest improvisationyou’re likely to see on film.

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V For Vendetta

Director: James McTeigueCast: Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea.

VFor Vendetta was one of the seminal graph-ic novels of the 1980s. Co-written by AlanMoore and David Lloyd, it was an un-

apologetic attack on the conservatism of “Thatcher’sbloody Britain”, a tract against tyranny and totalitari-anism.A product of its time perhaps it could beconsidered even more relevant to ‘now’ than whenit was written. (Certainly it might be seen as ‘sedi-tious’). Dark and powerful, V For Vendetta wasripe for a big budget movie adaptation.

Australian James McTeigue was given the job bythe Brothers Wachowski, Larry and Andy, forwhom he’d worked as first assistant director on theMatrix movies. Burnt out by making their hugelyambitious and successful trilogy, the Wachowski’ssettled for adapting the screenplay and producingthe film, giving former commercials makerMcTeigue the chance of a lifetime, to direct it.

Hauling the story out of 1980s Britain, theWachowski’s push V For Vendetta into the “nearfuture”.Actor Hugo Weaving - another key col-laborator from the Matrix movies - plays the enig-matic vigilante ‘V’, an unhinged fella who spends hisdays hidden beneath a big black hat and cape, hisidentity concealed by a Guy Fawkes mask.Inspired by Fawkes’ historic 17th century plot toblow up the Houses of Parliament, V sets out todestroy Britain’s current oppressive regime bydoing something similar.With good reason: havingbeen disfigured by biological experiments carriedout on him against his will by a government lab, Vwants revenge.Along the way he also rescues ayoung woman from the clutches of the

“Fingermen” (government thugs).Phantom Of The Opera-style, Evey (NataliePortman) becomes seduced by V’s cause andeventually becomes his reluctant accomplice,although she finds his methods more than ques-tionable.While V could be seen as a violent ter-rorist, he could just as easily be construed as arighteous revolutionary.

Sounds great doesn’t it? Sounds like it could be justa little bit dangerous or different, a ‘blockbusterwith brains’ even, like Fight Club (1997), Brazil(1985) or Three Kings (1999), three big budgetstudio films also loaded with “seditious”, subversiveand confronting ideas about world politics,rebelling the status quo…

Somehow McTeigue and Co. achieve theunthinkable but, and kill the very ideas that madethe graphic novel great.Which is ironic given thatV constantly tells us “you can’t kill an idea”,the one thing a tyrant can’t take away from anindividual is their ideas.

This inescapably political story has been trans-formed into a benign event, its images and wordsstripped of their meaning and power.This is admaking, not filmmaking.The story, setting andideas are poorly set up, the actors and actionpoorly directed, and the film badly edited. Attimes it makes no sense. Weaving’s voicebehind the mask is all wrong… No wonderAlan Moore took his name off it.

Worse still, it’s a wasted opportunity. Co-writer ofthe comic David Lloyd said that he wrote V ForVendetta “for people who don’t turn off thenews”.The filmmakers have pitched this film at anaudience who they think have turned it off, anddon’t want to know the news even exists.

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BollywoodCinema

Offbeat filmsfrom Bollywood

tAAre zameeN Par

Bombay to Bangkok, Chameli

Cheeni Kum, Hello, Guru

Jodhaa Akbar, Metro,

Laaga Chunari Mein Daag

Mangal Pandey, 68 Pages

Omkara, Phir Milenge

Sarkar Raj,Taxi - 9211

Darna Zaroori Hai

Traffic Signal, Umrao Jaan

Bheja Fry, Rang De Basanti

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68 PagesDirector: Sridhar RangayanScript: Sridhar Rangayan and Vivek AnandCinematography: Subhransu DasEditor: Praveen AngreSound: Santosh SawantBackground Score:Aashish RegoProduction:The Hamsafar Trust

The film is produced by The Humsafar Trust, (since 1994 this malesexual health agency has provided diagnostic, counselling and treat-ment facilities to people from the gay and transgender communities)in association with Solaris Pictures. Director Sridhar Rangayan,a graduate of IIT-Mumbai, has directed/scripted award winning films,among them the notable Gulabi Aaina, a film on Indian trans-sexu-als and Yours Emotionally! a queer journey through India.

The film depicts individual sto-ries of pain recorded inHIV/AIDS counsellor Mansi’s

diary. After a broken love affair, thecareer-minded Mansi joins a commu-nity health centre where her clientsinclude gay and trans-gendered men.She also works alongside sex work-ers and IDU users at a leading psy-chiatrist’s clinic and the local munici-pal hospital. Based on reflections of

true-life incidents and characters,the film’s concept was born withinthese communities with the help ofNGOs working with them.

Mansi’s recorded stories deal withfive HIV positive persons from dif-ferent high risk groups, gay, trans-gender, sex worker and drug user,whose lives change dramaticallywhen they learn of their status.

The 90-minute film’s cast includesMouli Ganguly, Joy Sengupta,Zafar Karachiwala, JayatiBhatia, Uday Sonawane andAbhay Kulkarni. Co-scripted byVivek Anand and SridharRangayan, its cinematography isby Shubransu Das and music byxen@bob - the fusing of twomusic groups Nexus and Bandof Boys.

Hello… is a tale about the events that happen one night at a call center.Told through the views of theprotagonist, Shyam, it is a story of almost lost love, thwarted ambitions, absence of family affection,pressures of a patriarchal set up, and the work environment of a globalized office. Shyam is losing his

girl friend because his career is going nowhere as he trudges his way around in a call center. His girl friend,Priyanka, is also an agent like him at the call center who is about to be snatched by an NRI technogeek.There is also the aspiring model, Esha, who is hoping for the break that seems to be always already eludingher and the man about town, Vroom, who is into well, things.The housewife, Radhika, who is constantly atthe receiving end of her mother-in-law and a beleaguered grandfather, Military Uncle, who has been barredfrom interacting with his grandchild make up the rest of the call agents who see their worlds crumblingaround them, as the decisions of right sizing are conveyed by Bakshi, the boss. It is a night when dreamswill finally crumble. Or will it? For there is that call from God. Narrated as a tale within a tale, as a beauti-ful woman meets the auteur narrator and promises him a story on the condition that he has to narrate it fur-ther, Hello, based on Chetan Bhagat’s one night @ the call center, is the one remarkable story fromTales from a Thousand and One globalizing, urban, Indian Nights.

HelloDirector: Atul AgnihotriProduction: Reel Life Productions Screenplay:Atul Agnihotri, Chetan Bhagat.Cinematographer: Sanjay F. GuptaEditor: Umesh GuptaLyricist: Jalees SherwaniMusic Director: Sulaiman Merchant, Salim Merchant, Sajid-Wajid.Sound Designer: Jitendra ChaudhariCast: Isha Koppikar, Gul Panag, Dalip Tahil, Suresh Menon, Sharat Saxena,Sohail Khan, Sharman Joshi,Amrita Arora.

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Taare Zameen ParProduced & Directed by: Aamir KhanWriter & Creative Director: Amole GupteConcept, Research & Editing: Deepa BhatiaLyrics: Prasoon JoshiMusic: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Indian cinema was always colourful, vibrantand full of life, but it sadly lacked soul. AamirKhan’s Taare Zameen Par changes the

face of Indian cinema as we know it, infusing lifeinto it and giving it its soul.This star twinklesand catches your attention and amazement, tug-ging at your heart throughout its two-and-a-half-hour plus playing time, bringing the shadesof a child’s imagination in blazing colour ontothe screen canvas, and making us realize thattruly every child is special, all we have to do ishelp them attain their true potential.

Yes,Aamir Khan’s directorial debut is special, aheart-warming tale of a small child who has learn-ing difficulties and is largely mis-understood by hisparents. Darsheel Safary as Ishaan Awasthi issimply marvellous, making you believe that he isIshaan and not just an actor enacting a role.

When the parents see Ishaan’s academic per-formance deteriorate, they send him to aboarding school for disciplinary measure.Finding himself away from his doting mother

and lovable family, Ishaan gets grief-stricken andlonely. Failing to understand why he has beenremoved from the shade of his mother and fam-ily, his otherwise vivid imagination withers andlife turns into a morose black-and-white pat-tern. But a saviour in the form of Arts teacherRam Shankar Nikumbh enters his life, andthe colours creep back in slowly, as Nikumbhworks hard on reviving the child’s spirit, peelingaway the layers that have clouded the taara.Aamir Khan as Nikumbh is outstanding, play-ing a man who has been through life trying tohelp children find themselves and their true call-ing, and in the process finding his own true self.

Inclusion, empathy and emotional bonding withcaring is what this film beautifully propagates,telling an entertaining story that at the same timemakes you sit up and take notice of what we mustdo for our next generation.The film also encour-ages every individual to repose faith in himselfagainst all odds, advocating the concept of multipleintelligences. In an age of competitive fervour, thisfilm takes the solid stand of individualistic

innate skills to shine with support andencouragement, making it topical consider-ing the academic pressure tragedies thatone finds on front pages today.

Taking his time to set up the story, thedirector extracts a most believable andgenuine performance from Darsheel, andthe deft helming ensures that the effortsdon’t show. Even the other children slipinto their characters comfortably, becom-

ing the characters to the finest of details.Worthy of mention are SachetEngineer as Yohaan Awasthi, Ishaan’sbright elder brother, and Tanay Chedaas Rajan Damodaran.While the veter-an actor himself is bound to give a greatperformance which he does, what trulyamazes one is the genuinely fine perform-ances by Tisca Chopra as Ishaan’smother and Vipin Sharma as the father.Both don’t look like actors at all but are

truly the characters in every sense, andevery mother in India will identify withTisca’s Maya Awasthi.

This one is from the heart, uplifting andinspiring cinema that is a must-see forevery parent and to-be parent, withlots to offer for kids also, who will nolonger hesitate to follow their truecalling. Aamir Khan, the film-maker,has arrived !

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Traffic Signal

Director: Madhur Bhandarkar

Cast: Kunal Khemu, Neetu Chandra,

Ranvir Shorey, Konkona Sen Sharma.Madhur Bhandarkar has a penchant for stories

that expose different aspects of modern society.And he imbues his movies with an element of real-

ism.After the hard-hitting ‘Page 3’ and ‘Corporate’, theunconventional film-maker completes his trilogy with‘Traffic Signal’, which attempts to take you into the worldof people making a living on traffic signals.The characters inthe film are straight out of life: beggars, petty sellers, goons,prostitutes, drug addicts, gays and pedophiles etc.

One by one, the film takes a peek into the lives of thesecharacters. But the story lacks a common thread. Insteadof a linear plot, the story keeps shifting tracks for mostpart of the film.The assorted and disjointed sub-plotsonly make the first half of the movie a collage with littlemeaning.The movie picks up in the second half, after amurder.And the conclusion to the story is very uncon-ventional by Bollywood standards.

Yet ‘Traffic Signal’ keeps the audience interest alive formost part of its running time.And the credit should gojointly to Bhandarkar and the actors for portraying thecharacters with conviction.

And some of the characters are indeed interesting.Thereis Silsila (Kunal Khemu), the manager of Kelkar Margsignal who collects hafta from those ‘working’ at the sig-nal.There is Rani (Neetu Chandra), who sells tradi-tional clothes at the signal.There is Noorie (KonkonaSen Sharma), a prostitute who solicits customers atnight.There is Dominic (Ranvir Shorey), a drug addicttelling his sad stories to everyone.And there is Haji(Sudhir Mishra), a local Mafioso to whom all the moneycollectors from signals give their share.

At many instances it appears that Madhur wanted toshock his audience by bringing forth certain aspects oflives of these people which laymen may never haveknown. For instance, the man who begs during day goesto see a movie in a posh multiplex at night. Or begger-boys buying fairness cream from their day’s labour. Or agay who offers his services to those willing to take.

The film also has emotional moments like the death ofthe drug addict (Ranvir) whom the prostitute(Konkona) loves. Or the killing of Manoj Joshi thatactually sets the story in motion until its abrupt climax.

The end doesn’t show the protagonist thrashing thebad guys. Bhandarkar gives a very realistic conclusionto the story.

‘Traffic Signal’ is entertaining in parts only.There aremoments when the film looks completely pointless. Itlooks like a mere exposé of the lives of people living ontraffic signal.And it gives no message.

What saves the film is performances by the actors. KunalKhemu is brilliant as a shabbily dressed, beedi-smokinggoonda with a golden heart. Konkona Sen impresses verymuch in a role that she was hesitant to take in the firstplace. Ranvir Shorey is simply superb. He has a naturalflair for acting. Neetu Chandra is effective. SudhirMishra, with his stoic presence and piercing gaze, perfectlysuits the role of a local gangster.

Madhur Bhandarkar puts a strong element of realism inthe film.The dialogues are in street lingo, with some foullanguage thrown in.The ambience looks very authentic andhardly seems like a set created by Nitin Desai.Cinematography is appealing to the eye.Among the film’ssongs, ‘Yehi Zindagi’ is the only one that stands out.

In a nutshell, ‘Traffic Signal’ is not a bad film. Only it hasno point to drive home.

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Umrao JaanDirector: J.P. DuttaCast: Aishwarya Rai,Abhishek Bachchan,Shabana Azmi, Sunil Shetty & Divya Dutta.

Umrao Jaan is based on the Urdu Novel‘Umrao Jan Ada’ by Mirza Hadi Ruswa.The story tells of an 8 year old girl calledAmiran, who is kidnapped from her home inFaizabad by Dilawar Khan who wantedrevenge upon Amiran’s father for imprisoninghim. He then does not kill her, but sells her toa brothel in Lucknow run by Khannum Jaan(Shabana Azmi). She is fortunate enough tohave surrogate parents who care for her.Amiran then is taught in the art of aCourtesan - dancing and seduction.

Amiran turns into an elegant beauty by thename of Umrao Jaan (Aishwarya Rai). Herbeauty and poetry catchs the eye of NawabSultan (Abhishek Bachchan) which begins apassionate love affair. But when his father findsout he disowns Nawab Sultan, pennylessNawab goes to his uncle in Grahi to regain hisfortune and Umrao prays everyday for hisreturn. In the mean time Faiz Ali (SunilShetty), a bandit, falls for Umrao and wantsher at all costs.The rest of the story tracksUmrao Jaan’s life, loves and losses...

Sarkar RajDirector: Ram Gopal VarmaCast: Amitabh Bachchan,Abhishek Bachchan,Aishwarya Rai,Govind Namdeo,Tanisha Mukherjee.

First things first:A huge round of applauseto Ram Gopal Varma.The directorhas redeemed himself after the failures

of Nishabdh and Aag.This here is vintageRamu at his best, no doubt about it. Just goesto show that one should stick to what one isbest at.And no one uncovers the under-bellyof crime and politics as succinctly as RGV.

SARKAR RAJ is a thriller to the core. Itmay have the background of power politicsbut when it’s time to reveal his cards, Ramupulls out his ‘Aces’, one after another to dishout a gripping fare.The final ‘Ace’ he deliversat Sarkar’s house is mind numbing! To revealmore would be a crime. Just goes to showthat it’s not only the ones bred in the citywho are power hungry, but also those in faroff villages! Hence, he does full justice to thetagline: ‘Power cannot be given. It has tobe taken’.And on this line rests the plot ofSARKAR RAJ, a sequel to SARKAR! Yes,it also takes a fresh look at the tradition ver-sus modernity debate.

Anita Rajan (Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan) isthe CEO of Sheppard Power Plant.This

international company wants to set up apower plant in rural Maharashtra. Only theNagres can help.A meeting is facilitated byGovind Namdeo (Hassan Qazi) an aspir-ing politician. Sarkar (Amitabh Bachchan)sees no sense in this project and dismisses itoutright. But Shankar Nagre (AbhishekBachchan) thinks otherwise. He feels thatthis power plant will be a huge benefit for thevillagers in the interiors of Maharashtra.Afterconvincing his father, Sarkar, he mobilizes sup-port from the villagers and goes about thebusiness with Anita. But things are not as easyas they seem. Shankar meets with obstacles,one after another and as the plot unfolds, yourealise how the characters are used as a pawnfor a completely different game!

The background score by Debashish Mishrais commendable. Even when there are no dia-logues being spoken, Mishra creates themood, which speaks a thousand words withhis music, as the cameraman, Amit Roy,takes astute angles.The sepia tone throughoutthe film maintains the mood of this excitingfare.The dialogues, the one-liners, are awe-some. RGV is the real star of the film.

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8people living within Mumbai, all connected. Rahul (Sharman Joshi) is working at acall centre He silently loves his boss, Neha (Kangna Ranaut).A smart young womanwho has made it up the ranks in a very short time.And hard work is not her only

secret, but her affair with her boss, Ranjeet (Kay Kay Menon). Ranjeet is married toShikha (Shilpa Shetty).They decided Shikha she should stay back at home and take careof the house and the kid. So Ranjeet ventured out on his quest for money and success andforgot his family somewhere on the way.

Neglected by an indifferent husband and bogged down by family chores, Shikha is soon attract-ed to a maverick in Akash (Shiney Ahuja).Akash is a struggling theatre artist and Akash andShikha’s love blossoms. Shikha’s sister and Neha’s room-mate, Shruti (Konkona SenSharma) works in at Radio Mirchi. In her 30s and still a virgin, she is desperate to get mar-ried. She is dreamy-eyed about her RJ, Wishy K. Her boss hooks her up with Wishy K.Whileshe also meets Debu (Irfan Khan) through a matrimonial site. She hates him. But Debu, anordinary man, is ready to marry her. Her affair with Wishy K blossoms. Amol (Dharmendra)is a 70 year old man who’s returned to India after 40 years to spend last few years of his lifewith his first love, Vaijanti.This a movie which looks at 8 people’s life, in a metro.

Sadly despite the movie’s merits, the film gets bogged down by the fact it has a significant por-tion of the film copied directly from a previous film - A Hollywood classic called “TheApartment” (1960) with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. In Life In a Metro, theKay Kay Menon, Shilpa Shetty, Sharman Joshi and Kangna Ranaut stories were all ripped offfrom Apartment. Life In A Metro ripped off almost completely the story-line and dia-logue. Even some of the jokes were taken directly from the Apartment but Sharman Joshiis no Jack Lemmon.

Leaving the unoriginality of some of the movie behind, it has several points that make thismovie a nice one.The Konkona Sen Sharma and Irfan Khan story-line is the highlight of themovie. Debu (Irfan Khan) is 35, has been looking for a wife for a long time and is a bit weird.Shruti (Konkona Sen Sharma) is 30 and desperate to get married.Although she meetsDebu, she doesn’t like him - instead she dreams of an ideal man such as her boss Wishy K.

There are several strong scenes between Kay Kay Menon and Shilpa Shetty. Some oftheir scenes are the most believable and intense; Anurag Basu does a superb job extract-ing these performances from them.Anurag Basu were able to excellently direct/weave all thefilm’s stories together. Often these multiple story-line movies can fall flat due to the assem-bly of the stories together - either feeling rushed or too choppy. But in this film, the storiesjust seemed to inter-link and relate to each other with very much ease. Anurag Basu alsoexcels in the technical aspects of the film and manages to nicely balance all the story-lines(which is a huge achievement!).

Life in a... MetroDirector: Anurag BasuCast: Shiney Ahuja, Shilpa Shetty, Kay Kay Menon,Konkona Sen Sharma, Irfan Khan, Sharman Joshi,Kangna Ranaut & Dharmendra.

Sadly despite the movies merits, the film gets bogged down by

the fact it has a significant portion of the film copied directly

from a previous film - A Hollywood classic called “The

Apartment” (1960) with Jack Lemmon and Shirley

MacLaine. In Life In a Metro, the Kay Kay Menon, Shilpa

Shetty, Sharman Joshi and Kangna Ranaut stories were all

ripped off from The Apartment. Life In A Metro ripped off

almost completely the story-line and dialogue. Even some of

the jokes were taken directly from the The Apartment but

Sharman Joshi is no Jack Lemmon.

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It’s painful watching great opportunities beingthrown away.“Mangal Pandey”, with its stel-lar cast, crew, budget, and platform had just

about everything going for it - almost.Many may blame the hype preceding the film forwhy it disappoints.With Aamir Khan returning tothe screen after four long years,“Dil ChahtaHai” and “Lagaan” behind him, over-hyping“Mangal Pandey” was inevitable, and rightfullyso. Of course Khan nails his part in the movie toperfection, explosive to say the least as the hot-headed, bhaang loving Mangal. But gone are thedays when a talented star alone could rescue afilm despite its short-comings.

Mind you, putting together the story of MangalPandey poses no easy task and the dedication ofdirector Ketan Mehta and his crew towardscreating a polished entertainment package, stands

tall through every frame of the film. Nitin Desai’sproduction design and Himman Dhamija’ssplendid cinematography re-create the aura of the1800’s with innovative artistry.Yet, the narrativefails to grip the viewer, unable to create the kindof fervor in the audience the way “The Legendof Bhagat Singh” and “Lagaan” did.The mainculprits - writer Faroukh Dhondy (“Kisna”)and editor Sreekar Prasad (“Terrorist”,“Asoka”,“Kannathil Muthamittal”) .

The exposition patiently stretched for the first 70minutes of the film,“Mangal Pandey” really kickstarts just a reel before the intermission.The pacingis poor and the storytelling lacks cohesiveness andflow, the narrative spilling all over the place. OncePandey’s goal is finally identified, the story thickens,performances impress, as does the exploration of theEast India Company’s political games.Yet, every sooften Dhondy’s amateurish writing, cliche dialogues,and random, cheesy one-liners such as “put thegenie back in the bottle” steals the seriousness outof the situation and the viewers’ interpretation of it.

After introducing a plethora of charactersthrough his elongated exposition, barely a hand-ful are awarded any development by the end. Forexample, the much-hyped Jwala (AmishaPatel) serves no purpose in the narrative toinfluence the course of events that may affectthe protagonist, Mangal.Yet we see so much ofher through the film. Ditto for Heera (RaniMukherjee) whose liaison with Mangal createsno dramatic impact whatsover because Dhondyand Mehta decide to rush through what couldhave been a very intriguing aspect of Mangal’slife.That said, Rani Mukherjee does work hernatural charm in the little that she has to do.Toby Stephens makes a brave effort as Capt.William Gordon pulling off some very difficultHindi dialogues, effectively portraying his charac-ter’s dilemma, having to split his loyalty betweenfriendship and nation.The other British charac-

ters suffer however, slotted into caricature,stereotypical representations.

A.R. Rahman’s songs though pleasing to the earwith their rustic nature, only jar the narrative fur-ther as Mehta and Prasad uninspiringly place themin unwarranted situations.The score too suffers asimilar spate due to ineffective usage. Mehta’s useof Om Puri’s monotone voice-over treads onthe verge of annoyance, repeatedly translatingEnglish dialogues when simple Hindi subtitleswould have been more suitable to this cause.

“Mangal Pandey”, with its talented team andintriguing story could have worked quite somemagic, had it only been for a taut, cohesivescreenplay and sensible editing. Despite the epiccanvas and colossal production value, “MangalPandey” fails to make its mark as the classic itwas expected to be.The film warrants a viewingcertainly thanks to Aamir Khan, but it’s notone that will stay with you once you head backinto the real world.

Mangal PandeyDirector: Ketan MehtaProducer: Bobby Bedi, Deepa Sahi.Cinematography: Himman DhamijaEditing: Sreekar PrasadMusic:A.R. RahmanLyrics: Javed AkhtarCast:Aamir Khan,Toby Stephens, Rani Mukherjee,Amisha Patel.

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A shutosh Gowariker’s Jodhaa Akbar is the un-toldlove story of the greatest Mughal emperor who ruledHindustan (now India), Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar,

and a fiery young Rajput princess, Jodhaa.

Set in the sixteenth century, this epic romance begins as a mar-riage of alliance between two cultures and religions, for politicalgain, with the Hindu King Bharmal of Amer giving his daugh-ter’s hand to a Muslim Emperor, Akbar.When Akbar acceptsthe marriage proposal, little does he know that in his efforts tostrengthen his relations with the Rajput, he would in turn beembarking on a new journey, the journey of true love?

From the battlefield where the young Jalaluddin was crowned,through the conquests that won him the title of Akbar theGreat (‘Akbar’ in Arabic means great), to winning the love of thebeautiful Jodhaa, Jodhaa Akbar traces the impressive graph ofthe emperor and his romance with a defiant princess.

Jodhaa Akbar - its finally arrived! Prepare yourself for a verylong 3.5 hour grand cinematic experience. It has action, espi-

onage, deception, romance, sensuality, grand sets and costumesto die for. But please keep your historically accurate mind athome.This is a movie which on the outside has historical reallife events that happened to Akbar, but most of the inner work-ings of the court and the Jodhaa Akbar relationship has beenbased largely on the imagination of Ashutosh Gowariker.

You forget the actors and believe the characters - you forgetthat its Hrithik Roshan playing Akbar and Aishwarya

Rai playing Jodhaa.Their performances are so convincing youeasy forget it’s them and can easily believe they are in fact Akbar& Jodhaa.This especially applies to Hrithik as Akbar who gives a commanding and balanced performance for Akbar.

Cinematography/Visuals - whether it was the grand setsor the grand battle scenes, there is no other word to

describe the cinematography other than grand and breathtaking.You can watch this movie in the cinema for at least the visuals.

Sets - they look like they were real, straight from the Mughalages. Colourful, fine delicate detailing, extremely large -

exactly why everyone loves Mughal architecture, and unbeliev-able to think someone created them recently.

There is a controversy about who Jodhaa Bai was and whather real name was.Ashutosh Gowariker, when making the

film, took the name and story of the Princess that the commonman knows about. No one said a thing about Mughal-E-Azamand Jodhaa's status and name in that.

Jodhaa AkbarDirector: Ashutosh GowarikerCast: Hrithik Roshan & Aishwarya Rai.

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GuruDirector: Mani RatnamMusic: A.R. RahmanLyrics: GulzarCast: Abhishek Bachchan,Aishwarya Rai, R.Madhavan, Mithun Chakraborty,Vidya Balan, Mallika Sherawat.

Gurukant Desai (Abhishek Bachchan) is setto rock you with his controlled performancethat makes you want to hug the gujjubhai, who

puts his foot in every door and bribes his way throughothers that refused to open, to race his way to the top.

Guru, a period flick, is the story of a simple but ambi-tious villager, Gurukant Desai. He dreams big and tofulfill his dreams arrives in Bombay (1958). He is mar-ried to Sujata (Aishwarya Rai). He also has some-thing else; two shirts and Rs.15,000 to start his busi-ness, along with the Rs 25,000 he got as dowry! Butsoon he realizes that the business world is ruled by ahandful of rich and influential people and for him tomake his foray here, he has to “force” his way.

So it’s both black and white sides to him now. His fairside wins him admirers, at the same time as his grey sideearns him a few detractors. Nanaji (MithunChakraborty) who runs a newspaper Swatantra andShyam Saxena (Madhavan, the honest reporter) are

two of them who stand up to fight Guru’s unjust ways.The movie begins with an older Abhishek, whose make-over is a little comical.At times it reminds us of SRK’solder avatar in Veer Zara.Why can’t our make-overmatch that of our Hollywood counterparts? Look atRussell Crowe aging in A Beautiful Mind. It’s simplyamazing. If we can get in foreign stunt directors andfight masters, Mani Ratnam could have done well torope in a Hollywood ‘magician’ to do the trick for ABJr.Apart from this, the movie rolls on without a glitch.

A very young Guru, just out of school, goes to Turkeyin search of work and in seven years there, he makesan impact with the English bosses who promote himwith a hefty hike in salary. He spurns the offer andreturns to his village to do bijness instead of workingfor the goras. “Sab kuch pehle se hi likha hai,” hetells his friend who berates him for thinking big. Hisfather too, is not kicked, but Guru is adamant andmakes his way to Bombay.There are obvious referencesto the late Dhirubhai Ambani.

The way the story unravels keeps the audience to theirseat. Guru simply refuses to hear a “no’ and supposedlyhas an answer to every problem which sees his meteoricrise, until Mithunda (Nanaji) decides to expose him.

In the end, it’s Guru’s gujju brain that wins him theday and the inquiry commission instituted to delveinto his supposed many frauds can prove just two.It’s the junta that stands behind him who he hashelped make big bucks.

Aishwarya Rai emotes well as the wife who standsby her husband through thick and thin.The chemistrybetween the off-screen couple sets alight the screen.Mithunda impresses with his mature performanceplaying his age, but one wonders what Vidya Balan isdoing sitting in a wheelchair. Clearly, the actress is farmore talented. However, Mani Ratnam has done afab job with the story-line.The acclaimed director hascaught the audience pulse with Guru, which is norun-of-the-mill Bollywood flick.

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Nagesh Kukunoor of ‘Hyderabad Blues’, ‘Iqbal’and the more recent ‘Dor’ fame, is back with amovie titled ‘Bombay to Bangkok’.Akin to his

other movies, Nagesh has written and directed this moviestarring Shreyas Talpade and Lina Christianson in thelead. Nagesh Kukunoor films guarantee quality cinema, doesit live up to the expectations?

Shankar (Shreyas Talpade) a cook from Dharavi is in desper-ate need of money, to fly to Dubai and make his fortune, stealsmoney from the local Don.To escape from the clutches of theDon he joins a team of Doctors heading for relief work toBangkok. In this chaos, he hides his money bag in one of the med-icine boxes which was being shipped to Bangkok. He is forced tostay in the camp for a few days, until he got hold of his bag.

Meanwhile, he bumps into a beauty named Jasmine (LinaChristianson) at a massage parlor. But all is not ‘happy-happy’ as she is all Thai and he cannot understand a singleword she utters.With the help of a sardar named Raz, hemanages to take the help of Jasmine in traveling to Bangkokin search of the bag.Will he escape the clutches of the Donand gets hold of his money once again?

Bombay to Bangkok indeed marks a huge fall in qualityfrom Kukunoor’s earlier works, and his fans are definitely

bound to be disappointed. Bombay to Bangkok is no rollick-ing ride.Although some credits could be given to Nagesh forhis direction, he fails as a writer.The story just gets dull andboring with each reel.The repetitive dream sequence ofShreyas annoys with time.With such sequences the moviedrags on too long and gets extremely difficult to sit through.It gets from barely watchable to being unbearably tediousand preposterous.Also, the climax of the movie is arid.

On the whole, the movie with a weak plotline fails to enter-tain and is tiresome to sit through.The movie in fact isdevoid of moments that would at least make us chuckle.Instead we are served with lame slapstick humour.Also, thefilm requires some trimming. Cinematography by SudeepChatterjee is poor.The beauty of Thailand is hardly coveredin the shots. Music is yet another let down.The track ‘SameSame But Different’ is good.

Despite a poorly written character, Shreyas Talpadedelivers a brilliant performance.With his diverse expressionand fun performance, he wins the heart of the viewers.Lina Christianson is all beauty and no talent; Lacksexpressions - a woody performance. Vijay Maurya, thedon and rap star, is excellent. Raz alias Rachinder Singhis also good. Naseeruddin Shah appears only in onescene which was just not necessary.

Shankar, a petty thief, in desperate need of money, steals from the local

Don and escapes his way into a team of Doctors heading for relief work to

Bangkok, but loses the all important money bag in the chaos. In Bangkok his

world turns upside down at a bar where he bumps into lovely Jasmine.The hitch is

she is all Thai and he can’t converse with her at all.A ray of hope comes his way the

next day when Jasmine turns up desperately in need of a doctor! Shankar posing as

a doctor along with the goofy Sardar buddy Rachinder, jumps into this whirlpool,

while Jasmine soon gets pulled into his bumbling adventures, while running away from

the Don & his henchmen. Hop onto this hilarious comedy of errors with Shankar as

he discovers love and life on a rollicking ride from Bombay to Bangkok...

Bombay to Bangkok

Director: Nagesh Kukunoor

Producer: Subhash Ghai

Cinematography: Sudeep Chatterjee

Editing: Sanjib Datta

Lyrics: Mir Ali Husain

Cast: Shreyas Talpade, Lena,Vijay Maurya,

Rajeshwari Sachdeo,Vikram Inamdar,Yatin Karekar.

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ChameliDirector: Sudhir Mishra

Cast: Rahul Bose, Kareena Kapoor.

There are some films where the central performance carries the narrative forward in waysthat are so unpredictable, exciting, enchanting and life-giving that you wonder which isgreater: the actor or the vehicle!

Kareena Kapoor as “Chameli” in Sudhir Mishra’s richly textured tale of a prostitute’s night-outwith the un-likeliest of male companions is as delicately perched on the slim and sensitive plot as a dewdrop trembling on a wind-swept leaf.

All the fabulous fragility of a woman who sells sex for a living and all the inbuilt self-deprecatoryhumour and irony that she employs to survive in the brutal and harsh flesh-trade are mapped onthat face - an enchanting map of the human heart, if ever there was one. And what a face!

Whether swaying to Saroj Khan’s informally seductive rhythms in “Behta hai man” or mockingthe banker Aman (Rahul Bose) for his starchy cloistered middle class civility, Kareena goes waybeyond anyone’s expectations, including most decidedly her own, to deliver an all-time great per-formance, on a par with Nargis in Mehboob Khan’s “Mother India”, Meena Kumari in “SahibBibi Aur Ghulam” and Shabana Azmi in Mahesh Bhatt’s “Arth”. Kareena flashes an intuitivebrilliance that comes to movies very, very rarely indeed.The larger picture that emerges from thepower and glory of the central performance is also incredibly incandescent.

Director Sudhir Mishra, who delivered a fiasco last year in “Calcutta Mail”, returns to his rootsto make yet another linear story situated during one night. He’s done another film.“Iss Raat KiSubah Nahin” in the same format but his endeavour to suffuse anxious lives in smoulderingcolours fell short for the lack of inherent charisma in the actors.

Rahul Bose and Kareena work wonderfully as incompatible companions on a rain-splashed night.From Bose’s initial white collar outrage at being stranded with a woman of sleazy repute, to thegrowing awareness of a compassion that flows between them like a two-way river nourishing oneanother’s famished yet festooned life, he and Kareena make Richard Gere and Julia Roberts in“Pretty Woman” look-like candidates rehearsing for a play on the prince and the showgirl.

The one stand out component in this vivid portrait of one night’s unstoppered vagaries is the tech-nical polish. Seldom has an off-mainstream film, which “Chameli” undoubtedly is, exuded so muchskill and efficiency in the execution of the story.

From the sound-mixing (which conveys mostly the melody of the rain without toppling over intoa torrential downpour), to the background score and songs by Sandesh Shandilya, “Chameli” is a portrait of ravishing restraint and lyrical harmony.

Director Mishra mixes echoes of the film’s un-definably tortured past with the jostling melee of therain-drenched present in a chamber-piece that stirs memories of Bimal Roy’s “Bandini” andGulzar’s “Mausam”.

In some ways, Mishra goes beyond both the films in search of a contemporary content throughcaustic, yet sensitive, characterizations.

Chameli

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Tamanna (Shilpa Shetty) is a very successful and hardworking executive of an Adagency. Her boss treats her like his own kith and kin and it’s obvious that Tamanna isgoing places. She lives on her own with her younger sister, Tanya, who works as

a Radio Jockey, they both having been orphaned at a young age, when their parents were killedin a car accident. However,Tamanna’s routine is thrown helter-skelter when she receives a callfrom a friend telling her that Rohit Manchanda (Salman Khan) is going to be coming toIndia for a school reunion and that she must take off two days to come down for this longover-due meeting. Clearly,Tamanna is still living a college romance which never came to fruitionand throwing caution to the winds, goes off to meet her pals, despite the urgency with regardto one of the Ad agency’s biggest clients. Rohit and Tamanna meet and they appear to rekin-dle a light which seems to have waned in the 10 years that Rohit has been in the US. Rohitreturns to the US and Tamanna home, in bliss...

But this is not to last for long when giving blood, it turns out that she is HIV positive.Stunned by this, Tamanna comes to realize that the only way that this could have happenedwas through un-protected sex that she had with Rohit. Delirious, she tries to reach him invain and after informing her boss, her world slowly starts to collapse in front of her.Think thisis just another story? Come and see, it could happen to anyone of us.

Phir MilengeDirection: RevatiProduction:Percept Picture CompanyCinematography: S. Ravi VermanScreenplay:Atul SabbharwalLyrics: Sameer, Prasoon Joshi.Music Direction:Shankar Mahadevan, EhsaanNoorani, Loy Mendonca.Art Direction: Sabu CyrilSound Designing:Deepan ChatterjeeCast: Salman Khan, Shilpa Shetty,Abhishek Bachchan, Revati,Mita Vashishth.

Taxi 9211Direction: Milan LuthriaScript: Rajat AroraCinematography: Kartik VijayMusic: Vishal-Shekhar

Well, the rumors that Milan Luthria's TAXI NO 9211 bearsresemblance to the Tom Cruise-Jamie Foxx starrerCOLLATERAL have been dispelled.The film on the con-

trary is one helluva joy ride that is plentiful in action and humor.Themovie however is targeted at the multiplex audience and is basicallyMumbaiya in its texture.The slick execution and perfect characterizationmakes it a treat to watch!

TAXI NO 9211 is the story of Raghav Shastri (Nana Patekar) andJai Mittal (John Abraham) who meet up one fine day and their colli-sion sparks off the tumultuous events that change their lives forever.Raghav is a cabbie, who is an insurance agent for the world, and Jai Mittalis a spoilt brat who is heir to a wealthy businessman, and is desperate toseek claim in the court to his father’s property. Raghav is a hot tem-pered, skeptical cabbie while Jai is a suave but stubborn man who is will-ing to trade any path to get hands on his familial wealth by challenginghis father’s will in the court. If he fails, all the estate will be bestowed onthe father’s trusted supporter Mr. Bajaj.

Raghav gets hold of the key, which is the sole decider of Jai’s fate.Thekey is of the locker where the will is kept and at any cost Jai wants thatkey. But Raghav has other plans and thus begins the appalling feudbetween the two ‘gentlemen’ that forms the rest of the story. Of course,the film ends on a happy note but not before stirring a healthy dose ofaction and some straight-in-the-face humor.

The performances are first-rate. Nana as usual is the stand-outenthraller who so effortlessly essays the raucous but sensitive cab driverRaghav Shastri. His funny one-liners and witty sarcasm is ‘paisa vasool’stuff for the audience. He once again proves that he is one of theextremely talented actors in Bollywood. Sonali Kulkarni as his wife isrational and shares a fine chemistry with the mercurial actor. Sonali,unfortunately, has been underrated so far and one hopes that Bollywoodwould offer her more opportunities that can justify her talent.

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OmkaraDirection/ Music: Vishal Bharadwaj

Producer: Kumar MangatCast: Ajay Devgan, Saif Ali Khan,Viveik Oberoi, Kareena Kapoor, KonkonaSen, Bipasha Basu, Naseeruddin Shah.

Omkara is based on William Shakespeare’s 17th century classic,Othello. Regarded as one of the Bard’s finest plays about the human con-dition, it is being brought to life in an Indian milieu for the first time in a

mainstream Hindi film, by noted writer-director Vishal Bhardwaj.This is his suc-cessive Shakespeare effort after the highly celebrated “Maqbool’’which broughtthe brooding Macbeth to Indian screens a couple of years back.

Set against the milieu of political warfare in the interiors of Uttar Pradesh, Omkarafollows one man’s descent into sexual jealousy and the final wreckage of his love at thealtar of blind obsession. Love is blind but jealousy is even blinder and can tear aparteven the strongest and bravest of warriors...

Omkara or Omi is a gifted chieftain who heads a gang of outlaws, which includethe crafty Langda Tyagi and the dynamic Kesu amongst his chief cohorts.The storybegins when Omi appoints Kesu and not Langda as his chief lieutenant. Langda’spride is slighted and raging with envy, he hatches a plot to falsely implicate Omi’sbeautiful fiancé Dolly, in an illicit affair with Omi’s “favourite lieutenant’’, Kesu. Usingpetty insinuations and lies, Langda keeps poisoning Omi’s mind till one day he snapsand goes amok tearing up his secure world, leading up to a horrific tragedy at theend of which Omi realizes the backlash of his actions but is it too late...

In the original play, Othello’s “tragic flaw’’ is his jealousy, his inability to take thingsat face value, a quality that Iago provokes to the hilt. Omkara, in spirit, stays trueto that central theme and weaves all other conflicts around it. Having said that,Vishal has made the story his own and ends up humanizing Shakespeare’s characterswith the necessary folklore and ethnic charm that is unique to an Indian setting.

All in all, a gripping modern-day adaptation, that makes this one of those rareinstances of Shakespearean cinema, that anyone can tune into and enjoy.

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HollywoodBuzzScarlett Johansson, Monica Bellucci,Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez,

Cameron Diaz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert De Niro,Al Pacino, Leonardo Di Caprio, Brad Pitt, MattDamon, Renee Zellweger, Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Julia Roberts,Tom Hanks, Hilary Swank,

Halle Berry, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, Uma Thurman, Liv Tyler, DrewBarrymore,Audrey Tautou,Adrian Brody, Demi Moore, Charlize Theron, Collin Farell, Owen

Wilson, Jude Law, Russell Crowe, Johny Depp,Val Kilmer, Sandra Bullock, John Travolta, NicholasCage, Kate Winslet, Catherine Zeta Jones, Kate Blanchett, Kirsten Dunst, Laetitia Casta, Nicole

Kidman,Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Sharon Stone, Ewan McGregor, Morgan Freeman, RobinWilliams, Keira Knightley, Samuel L. Jackson, Rachel Weisz, Jennifer Aniston,Alicia Silverstone,

Anne Hathaway,Antonio Banderas, Gene Hackman, Jack Nicholson,Anthony Hopkins, SeanConnery, Juliette Binoche, Marion Cotilliard, Ben Affleck, Mel Gibson, George Clooney,AndyGarcia, Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Harrison Ford, Meg Ryan,Mathew McConaughey, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Costner, Denzel Washington, Denise Richards,Diane Lane, Kim Basinger, Orlando Bloom, Elizabeth Hurley, Joseph Fiennes, Jim Caviezel, Jim

Carrey, Ethan Hawke, Eva Longoria, Eva Mendes, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael Pfiffer, Daniel DayLewis, Minnie Driver, Hilary Duff, Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Helen Hunt, Keanu Reeves,

Christian Slater,Winona Ryder, Judi Dench, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson, KateBeckinsale, Kate Moss, Liam Neeson, Rene Russo, Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox, Robert Redford,

Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, Emma Thompson, Naomi Watts, Natalie Portman, Nicole Richie,Paris Hilton, Sheryl Crow, Michael Douglas, Ralph Fiennes,Tobey Maguire, Zhang Ziyi.

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Muppets Movie With Angelina JolieAs Miss Piggy?

Disney has enlisted Jason Segel and NickStoller to create the next Muppet movie forthe studio. Both will write the script and

Stoller will direct. Segel got his first sole writing creditwith Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which Stollerdirected. In Sarah Marshall, Segel’s character writes a“Dracula” musical performed by puppets.Those clothcreatures were custom-made by the Henson pup-peteers, and the experience emboldened Segel to pitchhis concept for a Muppets movie when he was invitedin for a general meeting with exec. Kristin Burr. Segelgot a deal in the room and enlisted Stoller to co-writeand direct the project.

And a new rumor connected to the project is thatAngelina Jolie is being lined up to star in the newMuppets movie.The 33-year-old actress - who is set togive birth to twins - has reportedly been approachedto feature in the film, because she is such a huge fan ofthe Jim Henson creations.

“The idea is to re-launch the Muppets with a big nameand a big movie.Angelina is a big Muppets fan and beingso passionate about kids, there’s a very real chance thatshe’ll take this project on.” “Even Brad might want tohave Miss Piggy as a love interest!” Angelina has previ-ously revealed she thinks she looks like one of thecomical puppets.“I am odd-looking. I sometimesthink I look like a funny Muppet!”

Alicia Keys To Adopt In The Future?

A licia Keys at the premiere of We Are Together at the Director’sGuild of America in New York, talked a little about her admiration ofAngelina Jolie and her multi-racial family.

“I’ve always loved kids. Kids are so important. It’s important to nurtureand spend time with them and listen to them.” “I’m not ready to be amom. But adoption is something that is important to consider. That’s whatI really admire about Angelina. I think it’s beautiful the way sheembraces children of the world.”

And she insists she would like to create a family of different cultures, like Jolie:“We are all one.We’re not as separate as we often-times think. So I possiblywould, when I’m more in the motherhood stage of my life.” Keys leads anintensely private personal life, but is rumoured to be dating and planning tomarry record producer and business partner Kerry.

Anna KournikovaStill Hits It

A nna Kournikova isthe sexiest woman toever play tennis. She’s

no longer in the top 100players, but it is a treat tosee her graceful form backon the court...

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthonyspent $1.4 million dollars on

the births of their babies

Jennifer Lopez and MarcAnthony spent $1.4 million dol-lars on the births of their babies

Jennifer Lopez gave birth to a healthy baby boy andgirl at North Shore University Hosptial in New York.

Lopez shelled out $700,000 to reserve the luxurious

birthing suite in the hospital. She also spent$175,000 per week for the suit, which was reservedthree weeks before she checked in.

The suit has a large Apple computer monitor,private kitchen, two flat-screen tv's, and whitecouches.The couple also paid $300,000 for privatedoctors and nurses, $300,000 for security, and$100,000 for a personal assistant.

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Cameron Diaz in July 2008 Shape Magazine

Cameron Diaz, who is definitely known for being in great shape,is the cover girl for UK’s 2008 July Shape Magazine. She saysher biggest weaknesses are burgers and fries, that she had to

alter her eating habits, because she was gaining weight as she got older,and that she attributes her active, healthy life-style to keeping her sane.

“I eat healthily but love my burgers, and if you put a bowl of fries nearme, then it’s over. Normally, though, I’ll have a half-order of somethingand save the left-overs. I’m queen of left-overs.”

“I used to be able to eat and drink anything I wanted - fried chicken,onion rings, half a bottle of wine - then go right to bed. But as you getolder your insides rebel against you!” “I hike, snowboard and surf. I admitI do hire a personal trainer as well, but for me working out is a big partof keeping mind and body together.”

35-year-old Cameron Diaz says she would like children of her own at somepoint in her life, but is happy looking after her friends and family at themoment.“In a sense, I’m a mother now. I think we all have that maternal

ability and we all give that to our friends and our family. I think that’s a nurturing naturethat we all have. I definitely don’t want to have children right now.”

“I think I’m pretty good with kids. I love kids. Kids are great. I treat kidslike human beings because that’s how I was treated - I talk to them like peopleand some kids get it and some kids don’t.” Cameron is still trying to find ‘the one’.“You're always told that he has to look like this, and this is how he exists in all thestory-books we’ve been given over the years - but it doesn’t always come in thosepackages. And people are not always what they seem to be. I wasn’t really bigfairy-tale girl when I was growing up.”

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Jessica Alba Gives Birth to a Baby Girl!

Jessica Alba and Cash Warren welcomed a new babygirl into their family on June 7. Jessica had a very large

room in the maternity ward (at Cedars Sinai MedicalCenter) on reserve for her delivery. She wanted a lot ofprivacy and very few people knew she was going to deliverthere, but there was buzz all over the floor, because every-one heard a celebrity would be in ‘any minute now’, andthat she wanted mega VIP service, so everyone guessed itwas Jessica Alba since they had seen her in and out of thehospital a lot recently.The baby’s name is Honor MarieWarren. Jessica Alba and Cash Warren got married on May 19, at the Beverly Hills court-house.

Scarlett’s Stage Fright

Scarlett Johansson’s debut albumAnywhere I Lay My Head will bereleased soon. She say’s she is so pleased

with the disc of Tom Waits covers, she wantsthe chance to play them live at a music festival- if only she could get over her stage fright.

“It would be sad to not get everybody (bandmembers) together.Whether it’s at a festivalor somewhere that’s kind of fun.” “(But) I havehorrible stage fright, so it would have to beovercome. People approach me (about playinglive) and my usual answer is, ‘Ah, I’ll thinkabout that’.” “When I do think about it, I startto get really sweaty and uncomfortable anditchy around the neck.”

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Ashton On His ‘Illogical’Decision To Marry Demi

“Sometimes the most illogical deci-sions you make in your life can bethe best ones when it comes to

love. In a lot of cases, when you think aboutthings too much, you make the wrong deci-sions.When I (Ashton Kutcher) marriedDemi Moore, I was 25, I was the host of‘Saturday Night Live,’ I had the number oneshow in America, I had the number one showon cable and the number one show on FOX,and I’d just beat Prince William as the mosteligible bachelor in the world. If I thought logi-cally, my logical mind would have talked meout marrying a woman with three kids, an ex-husband and a whole different life - but I letmy illogical mind and heart talk me into it.”

“But now, every morning I wake up, and finallymy logical mind caught up to my heart and Iknow marrying Demi Moore was thesmartest decision I’ve ever made.”

Lindsay Lohan SellingLeggings

Everybody believes that the bigger thecelebrity ego, the more second careersthey try to have.And if they keep trying

new careers instead of working on just doingone thing right… well that’s what I like to call theLindsay Lohan formula. No one would reallycall Lohan a good actress anymore. She was greatin Mean Girls and a few other films back in theday. But everything since Herbie Fully Loadedhas pretty much sucked - the pinnacle of sucki-tude of course being I Know Who Killed Me.

Instead of working on becoming a non-suckingactress, Lohan decided to get her to the musicstudio, with varying results. Now that’s donewith, Lohan has moved on to the number onefavorite celebrity second career: fashiondesigner, or more accurately known as prod-uct endorser. Lohan has put out a line of leg-gings, which will range from $40 to $140.

LINDSAY LOHAN’s leggings are getting closerto store shelves! The starlet’s new line, named“6126?” after MARILYN MONROE’s birthdate,has been picked up at L.A.’s posh Fred SegalBoutique and online retailer www.revolvecloth-ing.com and will start shipping around soon.

Recently, Lindsay caused a frenzy in Beverly Hillswhen she and two models posed for publicityshots wearing the pieces. So far, the “6126?”collection includes “footless tights” made from“Supima cotton and Modal ribbed knits” alongwith other fabrics spruced up with zippers, foilprints, yarn dyes and sexy metallic and screenprints. Cashmere leg warmers and somethingcalled an “ankle glove,” a modified warmer thatcovers the ankle, are also part of the line, whichwill start at $40 and go up to $140.

Angelina Jolie says that people hating on her makesher feel stronger

A ngelina Jolie says that she keepsguns in the house, and that shewould shoot anyone who tries to

hurt her family. It’s a real concern for heras someone with small children who’shad a past break in, and is followed bypaparazzi wherever she goes. She incitesa strange kind of a fanaticism amongsome who will rant about her on onehand, while saying they don’t want to

read anything about her.With a heatedsubject like guns, it would have beenworse. She gets asked about the mostcontroversial topics in her well-docu-mented life and she answers withoutmincing words or using a long explana-tion that she’s not going to answer, as alot of celebrities do to protect their pri-vacy. She talks about her past, her family,and her relationship with Brad Pitt.Angelina says that when people expressstrong dislike or admiration for her, shetakes it as a sign that she’s making theright decisions in life.

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Kate Winslet & LeonardoDi Caprio Together Again

Here they are after 10+ yearstogether again on set, filming theirnew movie Revolutionary

Road. They had such great chemistry inTitanic, this is sure to be a good one!

Kate Winslet has sketched a por-trait of her curvy behind for theupcoming Paint4Poverty charity

auction. She is famously proud of hercurvy figure and has previously insisted itis her responsibility as a role model topromote a healthy body image to her fans.She said:“In the past, people have beenunkind about my weight, but I’m happywith my shape and size. I don’t understandthe obsession with skinny celebrities.” The artwork will be auctioned at Bath’sGuildhall, in England.

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Ben Affleck HatedJennifer LopezVideo

Ben Affleck reportedly has a lotof regrets when it comes toJennifer Lopez, one of them

being his appearance in one of hervideos, because he believes it nearlyruined his career.When the Hollywoodactor started dating JLo in 2002, hemade a cameo in her video “Jenny fromthe Block” where he was rubbing suntan lotion onto JLo’s big booty.

He said: “If I have a big regret, it was doing the music video.But that happened years ago. I’ve moved on.” However, heinsists he’s not blaming JLo for practically ruining his career,even though his career seemed pretty doomed while he waswith her. He claimed: “It not only makes me look like a petu-lant fool (to blame Lopez), but it surely qualifies as ungentle-

manly? For the record, did she hurt my career? No.” Of coursebeing with her hurt his career! His movies were awful after hehooked up with her. However, maybe it wasn’t her fault hechose those dumbass roles, but during the same year hehooked up with JLo, he was named People’s “Sexiest ManAlive” and then after that, but while with her, he seemed tolose his appeal.Well, it’s a good thing he’s not with her andprobably shouldn’t mention it anymore.

Marisa Miller NamedHottest Woman

In The World

According to Maxim magazine, SupermodelMarisa Miller is the hottest woman in theworld.They say the blonde bomb-shell “embod-

ies the official return of the all-American super-model.Not since Cindy Crawford ruled the catwalk, has a pin-up

born and bred on U.S. soil, so thoroughly captured the imagi-nation of the American male.”

Of her career, Miller says:“I get a kick out of it, but it would bestupid to let it go to my head. It’s modeling - I didn’t find

the cure for cancer.”

Other hotties on the list include newly-engagedScarlett Johansson in the No. 2 spot, Jessica Bielat No. 3, and Eva Longoria Parker, who the mag-azine dubs “hotter than a truck-load ofjalapenos,” at No. 4.

Also in the top 10: Sarah Michelle Gellar, ElishaCuthbert, Eva Mendes, Christina Aguilera,Lindsay Lohan, who topped last year’s list, andAshley Tisdale.

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Kate Beckinsale hasn’t slowed down at all on the movie front. Here’s her list of up and coming movies:

Everybody’s Fine (2009) (post-production)

Nothing But the Truth (2008) (post-production)

White-out (2008) (post-production)

Winged Creatures (2008) (completed)

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Liv Tyler Wants To Reconcile

Just a month after announced their separation, Liv Tylerreportedly wants to reconcile with her husband of 5

years, Royston Langdon.Tyler has had a change of heartafter chatting with married friend Gwyneth Paltrow, andnow she wants to salvage her marriage for the sake of herthree-year-old son Milo.

“(She) is desperately sad and thinks she may have made amistake. She now feels that no matter how bad it was, theycan still make it work… Liv even suggested they (she andLangdon) go on a trip together.”

Psst... Psst... Psst...I heard these stories... somewhere...

...it’s me, Tom Hanks...

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmesare set to move to New York

The Hollywood couple - who recently helda star-studded house-warming party tocelebrate moving into their new $35 mil-

lion Beverly Hills mansion - will buy an apart-ment in Manhattan while Katie Holmes pre-pares to make her Broadway theatre debut in‘All My Sons’.

The show’s producer Eric Falkenstein said:“Katie and Tom are committed to keeping thefamily together, so they have to get an apartmenthere in New York.” Eric believes Katie - who hasa two-year-old daughter Suri with Tom Cruise- is perfect choice to play Ann in the stage adap-tation of Arthur Miller’s play.

He said:“Katie is not a celebrity type. She hasdone brilliant work in films like Pieces of Apriland The Ice Storm.” “Ann starts out as a sim-ple, sweet, average Mid-Westerner, and by thefinale gets up the gumption to stand and confrontwhat’s wrong.” Katie basically has that exactmoral fiber [of her character in the play].”

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...it’s me, ‘Big B’...Psst... Psst... Psst...I heard the Buzz...somewhere...

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Beauty is power; a smile is its sword or so,

says English writer Charles Reade. How true

it holds of Bollywood and its brimming popula-

tion of pretty faces...

One look at them and it’s hard to look at anything

else. Distractingly stunning and unapologetically

gorgeous...

Katrina enters the cover page of ‘Verge’

The actress Katrina Kaif has been going places post ‘jabwe met’ and the weight loss.And one of the places shehas made her mark is on the cover-page of ‘Verge’.The

latest issue has the profiles of top female achievers of which,Katrina is one.The magazine though, hasn’t given any ranking.The list includes ladies like Kareena Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor,Preity Zinta etc… With Katrina being the first choice of mostof the magazine covers, looks like she’s gonna ace this field too.

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Kangana Ranaut is no doubt a future Super Star.She has the talent and the oomph to bring her-self the Start Dom in Bollywood.Apart from

these two qualities, this lady has one more unique quali-ty in her - she excels in designing her clothes - both on-screen and off-screen.

The actress has done almost 90% of her clothes onscreen and need less to say that she looks great inthose.Well, it will be hard to resist such deadly combina-tion of talent and loads of talent for directors. Here isStar in making!

Madhuri Dixit on ‘Coffee

with Karan’

‘Koffee with Karan’ is going to be a steamy Dhak Dhak

episode! The next celebrity is none other than Madhuri

Dixit Nene - the damsel herself. One hour entertain-

ment packed by Bollywood’s dream-weaver director, this

show is sure one of the highlights of Karan’s show.Watch out

as one of Bollwood’s finest and talented actress, who is a die-

hard Madhuri fan makes a surprise visit! Who is she? Well… you

will just have to wait and watch! And just when the Q&A wraps

up, the fun doubles with the fiery rapid fire round! Who according

to Madhuri is the hottest hunk in Hindi Cinema? Other than Ram,

the sweetest marriage proposal she has received. Sooraj Barjatya’s

next or Sanjay Bhansali’s next? Sridevi or Juhi? Who does

Madhuri choose?

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Mallika Sherawat - One of the 100 most beautiful

She has indeed made it to the elite circles of Bollywood! Though MallikaSherawat started of to do the usual but nevertheless consequentialroles for publicity, she took the fame forward with remarkable and bank-

able work nationally and also internationally. Mallika Sherawat has long made itinternationally like all the A-list stars in Bollywood.What more, she has alsowalked the red carpet with the legendary Jackie Chan at Cannes.The lady isnow ready to be termed one of the 100 most beautiful women in the world.One of Hong Kong’s premiere luxury fashion magazine asks her for the coverpage.This monthly claims to be a leading authority on fashion, beauty andentertainment in the Asia-Pacific region. Editor Ellie O'Ready says,“We feelthat Mallika is truly one of the 100 most beautiful people in Asia and our listjust wouldn’t be complete without her.” So be ready to see our very ownMallika on the prestigious magazine’s cover soon.

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John and Bips reported tohave split

It might be tough to realize but looks like it isall over between John Abraham and BipashaBasu. Rocky S, Bipasha’s designer friend, says

the lady declared,“I am single for the first time inten years.”

First it was rumors of John having flings with hisco-stars and then it was Bipasha’s friendship withSaif Ali Khan that got the media talking toomuch about the rift between the couple.AfterBipasha’s smooch with the famous sports personRonaldo, media went berserk about the splitrumors. Looks like, finally the media has been suc-cessful in splitting the couple.

?Aamir’s new apprentice

Aamir Khan, who hasrecently become very pop-ular as a mentor, finds him-

self a new disciple. This time, postJiah Khan as his disciple, hisnew follower will be South Indianstar Kamal Hasan’s daughter,Shruti Hasan. The actor has thelittle girl casted in Luck, oppositehis nephew, Imran. Now, with a mentor like that, who wouldn'tdo well??

Amrita Rao finds love in Jal singer Farhan Saeed

The cupid has finally able to struck Amrita Rao, with her momaccompanying her everywhere she goes, the cupid had a tough timetargetting her. But all said and done Amrita Rao is going around

with her new man, and he is none other than Farhan Saeed.

Farhan Saeed is the lead vocalist of Pakistani Band Jal (famous for theirWoh Lamhe). Jal had roped in Amrita for their new music video for theirnew album Boond.Amrita was bowled over by Farhan’s mannerisms andattitude.The duo hit off very well and soon became good buddies.Afterawhile both Farhan and Amrita developed special feelings for each other.They started hanging out together and were regularly spotted at manyrestaurants together. Farhan is unable to stay away from his lady-love, andis flying frequently to Mumbai from Pakistan just to be with Amrita.

Neha gets experimented

Neha Dhupia, who shot to fame withher meaty roles, is now surely tryingto have an image change (which is

quite preffered by the bollywood hotties…shot to fame as sex symbol and then get achange of image once you are famous enough).This hottie though has become really choosywith her roles, and beyond showy roles, she hasher bag full of big movies this year.The actresssays she is liking the experiments she does withthe roles and that her co-stars in her next flick,Vinay Pathak and Rajat Kapoor inspire herto go towards comedy too.

Amrita Rao is the next in M.F. Hussain's list

After being an ardent fan ofMadhuri Dixit, M.F. Hussainhas found his latest interest in

Amrita Rao. Hussain says,“Amrita hastremendous potential.After MadhuriDixit she will go a long way”.“She is theideal woman of today, someone whostill has her Indian values intact,” headded. Hussain saw Vivah nine timesand is planning to see it again. He issoon going to launch an exhibition forhis ‘Rao paintings’.

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Vinay Pathak to share screen with Shah Rukh Khan

His comic timing has been fantabulous.Witty, smart, adorable, and talented,Vinay Pathak is all this and much

more.After his stint in Bheja Fry, directorsand producers are lining outside his house, andhe has already signed a number of films.

In addition to all that, he now has another film inthe Yash Raj Film’s camp after Aaja Nachle.

Vinay will now appear in Aditya Chopra’s RabNe Bana Di Jodi.“Yes, I have signed AdityaChopra’s Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi in which I will beplaying an important role. But I cannot divulgeinto any details as the director and producerhave clearly asked me not to do so.And I reallycannot break a promise”, states Vinay.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi will be Aditya Chopra’sdirectorial venture after 8 years.The film hasShah Rukh Khan and debutante AnushkaSharma. His last film was Mohabbatein.

Shilpa Shetty’s smell to engulf all

She has been planning to have her restaurant chain inLondon and also her own cloth line. But one thingthat has seen the day’s light is her perfume S2.

“It is really unique and very international yet it has an eth-nic feel to it. It’s something that is very synonymous withme. I chose the name S2 because I thought that is a brandthat can go on for my other products as well my ownclothing line which I do intend on doing. I may even have a jewelry line,” said Shilpa. She was recently honored atIIFA for the global impact she created through BigBrother. Great going Shilpa!

Ash Abhishek having fights???The perfect looking couple, who seem to have nofights, has finally started to live a normal married life.And with a normal married life, come the enhance-ment called fights. But then, this couple seems to notknow how to deal with it. Recently, at IIFA,Bachchan seemed to have lost his temper on Ashand the couple was found screaming so much that thevoices could well be heard outside their room.Apparently, the reason was the typical eager-to-catch-attention nature of the actress.While Jr. Bachchantried to keep her low in an award function, the ladywas busy being over-expressive with Kunal Kapoorat the function.This allegedly made Bachchan toexcuse himself and Ash, to take her to a corner andtalk about the issue.Ash seemed to be unconvincedand thus the duo, later had a huge fight!! Now, this islike what it is to be really MARRIED!!

SRK says no to sequel of Don

SRK, who had faced sharp criticism and com-parison with Amitabh Bachchan postFarhan Akhtar’s ‘DON’, has shown his

dis-interest in the remake of the film. SRK, whowas quite interested in the sequel, even before‘Don’ was released, has now, had a change ofplans. Now that’s a good move to avoid Bachchanrelated controversies, SRK!!

London Beauty,Indian Fans

In a recent survey conduct-ed by a magazine, actressKareena Kapoor was

voted to be the ‘SexiestWoman In The World’. Thecompetition though, was noteasy. It had Asia’s Sexiest,Bips, along with other bolly-wood babes like DeepikaPadukone and Katrina Kaif.The list also had hotties fromhollywood like Rihanna,Madonna, Angelina Jolie,and many more. Over 5 Lakhvoters took part in this onlinevoting contest to crown Beboas the sexiest woman. Withhuge hits to her credit, andnow the title to add on, lookslike the stars have finallystarted favouring the beauty,haven’t they?

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Kangana is pleased with hernew counselor

Kangana Ranaut has found a newcounselor for herself on the sets ofher latest flick, Fashion. And it’s

none other than Priyanka Chopra. Theduo shared a great friendship on the setsof fashion, with Priyanka ending up givingsome great piece of advice to the co-actress of her. And Kangana seems to likeit a lot and has finally decided to changeher career plan according to the counselor.The actress would now not stick to doing 1film per year and go by Priyanka’s adviceof making it big. Well, thanks Pri, for mak-ing the hot Kangana availble on screenmuch more often now.

SRK and Irrfan Khan come together for ‘Billo Barber’

No,the two hot Khans don’t share the same hair-stylist.We are talkingabout upcoming movie produced by SRK’s Red ChilliesEntertainment, which will have Irrfan Khan playing the main

protagonist. SRK is collaborating with ace director Priyadarshan for a comedyflick titled, ‘Billo Barber’. Unlike all SRK produced movie, Billo Barber will haveSRK in a supporting role and Irrfan Khan is the main hero.

The story for Billo Barber is inspired from the legend of Krishna and Sudama.Thefilm is the story about friendship between a rich actor (SRK) and a poor barber (IK).The duos were langotia yaars in their childhood. But later drift apart only to meetagain.An industry “Billo Barber is a story based on the relationship between Krishaand his childhood friend Sudama. Priyan is adapting this story of friendship betweentwo friends in a completely new avatar. Here SRK represents Krishna, he plays anactor. On the other hand Irrfan Khan represents Sudama and plays a village barber.The two are friends from school who grow up and drift until they meet again.”

According to rumours, SRK will be romancing three top actresses - Kareena,Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone. Meanwhile the lady opposite Irrfan Khanis yet to be finalized. Priyan is looking for an energetic actress for the role. Mostprobably Ameesha Patel or Tabu will clinch the deal. Lets see the sizzling chemistrybetween the two hot Khans.

Bips enjoys the companyof youngies

Bipasha Basu is all set to set thefloors on fire soon with thescreen chemistry with the hottest

newbies of the bollywood: RanbirKapoor and Neil Nitin Mukesh. Notjust this, the older lady also admits thatworking with the kids makes her feelgreat.The vibrancy of the actors makeseverything around them alive.

“So what if these actors are younger, isthere an issue? My pairing with theseyounger men looks good.With Ranbir, Ihave great chemistry on-screen. Neiland I complement each other thanks toa fabulous script.They are cool and con-temporary”, chirps the dusky beauty.

Where did she go??

Seen this lady lately?? She doesn’t need an intro-duction, but just in case you lost track, she isSushmita Sen… former Miss Universe and

a brilliant actress. But the question is, where has shedisappeared?? The lady who has been so popular

among her friends, especially men (going by the num-ber of her affairs), has been out of the social circuitfor really long. She was in news with her film undermaking, Rani Lakshmi Bai, but then the rumorsare that even that film isn’t going on well as there issome financial problem.

Come out girl…The fans wanna see more of u…

Vidya Rules Yusuf ’s Heart

Here’s another cricketer who is wildlywooed by the bollywood actress.Thebudding cricketer of the Indian crick-

et team, Yusuf Pathan, says Vidya Balan ishis dream girl. He also adds that he wants hisgirl to look exactly like Vidya Balan.The crick-eter who recently contributed a lot in thevictory of the IPL team, Rajasthan Royals, sayshe loves the soberness and beauty of theactress.This statement has been the latesttalk of bollywood town. Let’s see what Vidyahas to say about it...

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Sallu and Priyanka:Not friends anymore

Actor Salman Khan has done it again. He hasstarted on with a cold war against the duskybeauty, Priyanka Chopra.The duo have stopped

interacting or even looking into each other’s eyes at thesets of “God Tussi Great Ho”.The duo also had thishard time earlier, but then, they patched up. But the his-tory has repeated itself really soon and the duo haveagain gone in No-Talking mode.

It all began with Sallu getting his ego hurt after Priyankacouldn’t say yes to his brother Sohail Khan’s movie,“Main aur Mrs Khanna”, due to lack of dates.Thisreally hurt him and he started passing rude and indirectcomments to the actress on the sets of GTGH.After thetotal ignore act by the actress, Sallu finally stopped thisand the duo have not spoken since then.

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John gets friendlier with environment

With celebrities coming in news only when their films areabout to release, here is one actor who is always innews for his creative and noble acts.Actor John

Abraham was recently awarded with the Eco Warrior Awardsgiven to the people who contributed in maintaining the environ-mental balance.The actor has fought his way and was to a verylarge extent successful in saving the elephants.The list of awardeescontained 15 people, with John as the only actor from bollywood.With this, will our bollywood actors try and learn doing something reallyconcrete rather than just showing off??

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Dia to look different in ‘Acid Factory’

The beautiful actress Dia Mirza is surely at cloud #9 after beingcasted opposite six men in her next flick, Acid Factory.The Lady issaid to undergo a total personality change for the film.The stylists

are thus trying to give her a different look, especially by changing her hair-style. Dia insists that her role in this film will be very different from whatthe audience has seen till now.With Priyanka Chopra coloring her hair,seems like bollywood is having a Hair Change Trend!!

Esha with an increased respect for air-hostesses

Esha Deol, who plays the role of an air hostess in herfilm, ‘Hijack’, has developed an immense amount ofrespect for the air-hostesses. She says that all this

time, she thought that their job was quite an easy one, butonly recently, while shooting for ‘Hijack’ did she realizehow tough their job is. Let’s see if her movie takes herhigh in the sky this time.

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Auteur Cinema

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3-Iron (Bin-Jip)Directed by: Kim Ki-dukCast: Jae Hee, Lee Seung-yeon.

Astartling tale of burglary, domestic abuse and golf from Kim Ki-Duk, theKorean film-maker of The Isle and Bad Guy.

The Korean title of Kim Ki-Duk’s film translates as “empty houses”, which is fittingsince most of its action takes place in apartments that have been vacated by theirowners. Tae-Suk (Jae) spends his days driving around on a motorcycle deliveringtakeaway menus. Later, he returns and breaks into the houses that haven’t removedthe taped menus from their doors. Once inside he lives there until the owners comeback, fixing anything that’s broken and doing their laundry. It’s an aimless, isolated existence that lasts, until he breaks into an apparently empty house and finds Sun-Hwa (Lee), a victim of domestic violence.

Kim scooped the Best Director award at Venice Film Festival for this strange,stylised love story that plays with themes of voyeurism, violence and angst, allfamiliar from his other works. Focusing on its silent lovers as they break into thehomes of rich and poor alike, it’s a fatalistic film which offers little explanation forits characters’ damaged personalities and skimps over the issues of misogyny anddomestic violence that it invokes.

There’s always been something rather juvenile about Kim’s cinema: his concern withinarticulate characters unable to express the burden of existence is distinctly adoles-cent. Here the violence which inarticulacy can lead to - the 3-Iron of the English titlefeatures heavily as a weapon and a golf club, and occasionally both - is laced with feel-ings of dark despair and Oedipal tension.

Beating Sun-Hwa’s violent husband Min-Kyu (Kwon) with his own golf club, thenabsconding with his wife,Tae-Suk sets in motion a train of events that becomeincreasingly dreamlike as the film unfolds.After Tae-Suk is arrested, Kim movestowards magical realism with the imprisoned hero disappearing from the world alto-gether: he perfects the ability to hide behind his prison guard,“shadowing” his move-ments long enough to escape back to Sun-Hwa. Once there, he becomes an invisibleghost-like figure, standing between Min-Kyu and his wife in a coda that makes littlesense at all. Kim ends with a gnomic note:“It’s hard to tell that the world we live in, iseither a reality or a dream,” which undoubtedly obscures far more than it illuminates.Is this a battered wife’s fantasy about being saved? A young man’s fantasy of playingsaviour? Or simply a morality play without a moral? We’re left uncertain.

What is clear is the haunting atmosphere that pervades proceedings. Partly that’sa result of the decision to keep his two protagonists almost silent.Yet it’s alsoaided by the slow but sure pacing that lends an air of inevitability to all that fol-lows.Whatever Kim’s flaws as a writer-director, he remains one of Korea’s mostconsistently intriguing film-makers.

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Empty Houses(Bin-Jip)

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Samaria/ Kim Ki-duk

Yeo-jin and Jae-young areyoung teenage girls andbest friends, cl oser thanmost that call themselvesthat - they are more like

soul mates. They are normal girls inalmost every way, save one. Jae-young isa prostitute, although she mainly does itfor companionship and a spiritual needto bring happiness through sex, and Yeo-jin is the one who sets up the ren-dezvous, although she despises what’sgoing on. Then when a police raid endsup in tragedy for Jae-young,Yeo-jin seeksto reverse the process which ended inher friend’s demise, by going through theappointment book, giving the same mensex and paying them back the moneythey originally paid. However, there’s asnag in the plans, as Jae-Young’s policeinspector father has found out hisdaughter might be a prostitute herself,and he’s going to do whatever is neces-sary to put an end to her behavior, withthe exception of shaming her with theknowledge of his awareness.

Acclaimed Korean film-maker Kim Ki-duk filmed Samaritan Girl in betweenthe two films that would bring him inter-national acclaim, Spring Summer FallWinter... and Spring and 3-Iron, althoughthis is not really a lesser film in terms ofprovocative and fascinating subject mat-ter. Although the story is a simple one,the themes run very deep, marrying the

occupation of prostitution with religioushealing, with sex as a means for bringinghappiness to those who partake, as evi-denced by the perpetual smile on theyoung girl’s face for making her men feeljoy, if only for a few minutes. Beneaththis, it is also a tale of love between twogirls, one that feels a higher calling andanother that sees the euphemistic bless-ings as a sin, and also what took her loveaway. She seeks to reverse the pattern asa way of paying back and washing awaythe shamefulness of everything that hastaken place. The final player in this three-part act is the father that can’t come toterms with his virginal daughter’s inno-cence given so freely away to men unde-serving of such a thing. Although hedoesn’t understand Yeo-jin’s motivations,he is also following in her footsteps, doinghis own part to see that her deeds areatoned for, only his methods of operationinclude righteous retribution.

Samaritan Girl isn’t an easy film to under-stand fully, although one could watch it asa straight narrative, but that’s probablyonly seeing half of the full story. Motifsabound, especially of stones and of con-crete, and how these can bring life anddeath in varying ways - a burial marker, amurder weapon, a way to ward off the un-wanted, something hard to fall on, a wayto get stuck, a way to free oneself, and away to come into woman-hood. At thesame time that one may not come away

understanding the symbolic significance ofthings in the film, so too is Samaritan Girlnot an easy film to like outright. It dealswith subject matter we don’t like to seeor know exists in this world, and the wayevents play out, we grow increasingly surethat there can be no road back to happi-ness once the domino effect of these dis-turbing events-chain react.

Samaritan Girl is a film that some will notquite feel the impact of, until after seeingit, as the images and events of the film set-tles uneasily in one’s mind in a way thatcan only be resolved through contempla-tion and understanding. In the end, it’sabout guilt, shame, and forgiveness. Shamefor a girl, shame for a family, and as agrowing epidemic, a shame for a country.Ultimately, it puts a face on the smilingyoung girls as sympathetic, putting theblame for this problem on the men thatseek to use them, because they do notsee how adversely the prostitution affectsthe lives of these children and theirfriends and families, while in the confinesof a hotel room for a few minutes. AsKim may have intentionally set forth in hismorality tale, if the men who willingly payfor child-prostitutes can see the full pic-ture, as Samaritan Girl painstakingly por-trays in its own metaphoric fashion, per-haps the tide can finally be turned on aproblem, that is currently running rampantin his native country of Korea, and indeed,throughout Asia and the world.

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Bad Guy/ Kim Ki-duk

While walking through acrowded street Han-Ginotices Sun-Hwa - a young

college girl - waiting on a bench forher boyfriend. Immediately fascinated,Han-Gi approaches the girl and sitsdown next to her, prompting theyoung girl to move away quickly.Whenher boyfriend arrives Han-Gi suddenlygrabs the girl and gives her a long kiss,while the boyfriend attempts to pryhim off of her.The police get involvedand beat Han-Gi when he refuses toapologise to the girl - who then spitsin his face. Later, Han-Gi tracks Sun-Hwa and her boyfriend down.WhenSun-Hwa is alone, she falls for into atrap, which Han-Gi has set, which putsher thousands of dollars into debt andforces her to sell her body for cash.

BAD GUY is not a nice film.Director Kim Ku-Duk seems tointentionally try to offend, insult anddegrade his audience in much thesame way that Sun-Hwa (Seo Wun) istreated throughout the story.That’snot to say that BAD GUY doesn’tmake for interesting cinema, it justmeans that you should prepare your-self for an uncompromising subjectwith equally disturbing imagery.

BAD GUY is a strange combination ofa sleazy sex film, an unlikely love storyand an examination of obsession, class,voyeurism and violence. It is thesethemes that you have to concentrateon while watching the film, otherwiseit feels un-inspiring pretty quickly.Thenarrative itself is confused and uncon-vincing: Sun-Hwa’s life as a prostitutenever rings true - there’s many rea-sons why this would may not happento her, and never convinces us why

she would submit so easily. In fact, thefilm barely cares about Sun-Hwa at all,as she is stripped of her identity andcomfort and reduced to nothing but afigure for Han-Gi to obsess over.Instead the focus is directed towardsHan-Gi, the bizarre central ghost-likepimp and thug of the film.While the-matically the film is at times thought-provoking, the narrative is - in manyways - a cheap, dirty tease.

Han-Gi (Cho Jae-Hyun) is a strangecentral character. For the first half ofthe film it is almost as if he is noteven completely there.Althoughevents unfold as a result of hisactions and scheming, Han-Gi watch-es those around him from the back-ground with a mad, wide-eyed stareand an otherwise totally un-respon-sive expression on his face. Han-Gialso barely utters a word (typical ofthe ‘mute’ character re-occurring inKi-Duk’s films).This makes boththose around him uncomfortable, aswell as us the viewers.We are forcedto empathise with a figure who iscommitting these terrible acts - but itis almost impossible to try to under-stand the reasons why.This is thereason why the film is both interest-ing and at the same time, unsatisfying.

In a film that presents us with somecontradictions and ironies in class(Han-Gi is a college girl reduced to astreet whore), violence (Han-Gi beatssome of Sun-Hwa’s dis-respectingclients even though he is responsiblefor putting her in her unfortunate situ-ation) and voyeurism (Han-Gi watchesSun-Hwa through a double-sided mir-ror, while we watch him watching her),it never worries about reasons why.

Kim Ki-Duk seems to be saying ‘lookat this - it’s terrible - what do youmake of it?’ It’s as if Ki-Duk asks thisover and over without offering hisown interpretation.

BAD GUY is quite a surreal film.Visually the film is a treat, full of blind-ingly obvious paradoxes and ironies -the red-light district is a sea of colourand energy, but it is essentially a love-less environment, Han-Gi’s office is litonly by unforgiving artificial white light,and scenes on the beach are grey andcold, but strangely comforting.Thetheme of voyeurism is explored notonly through Han-Gi’s two-way mirror,but scenes are often framed at a dis-tance, or through objects such asfences and plants. Several key-imagesare what makes the film worthwhile -such as a moment where the two cen-tral figures are on opposite sides ofthe double-sided mirror, cleverly sym-bolising role-reversal and reflection.

The film is nasty and violent; there are scenes of rape, but surprisingly thisdoesn’t stop us from liking the film.The final third of the film veers off asKi-Duk makes an attempt to tie up hisideas and the result is less interestingthan the earlier part of the film.Thenarrative takes over at the end of BAD GUY, the themes become bloatedto a ridiculous level and start makinglittle sense before starting to disappearup their own backside. Ultimately, whatBAD GUY leaves us with is someshocking imagery and ideas which areless complex than it seems to thinkthey are.There’s little subtlety in thefilm, but this is probably it’s strongestpoint: there are moments which maywell haunt you long after viewing.

Cast: Cho Jae-Hyun, Seo Wun, Kim Yun-Tae, Choi Duek-Mon, Choi Yoon-Young.

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Kim Ki-duk’s 13th film Timeopens with video footage of a women undergoing plastic

surgery.The images are predictablygruesome, displaying the violencethat lies behind a re-shaped face.We might expect such an openingto lead on to a story about society’sobsession with beauty, peopled bynarcissistic heroes, eager to dowhatever it takes to be pretty, butin fact this is a work with less pre-dictable trajectories. Kim Ki-duk hasbeen known to occasionally drivehome an obvious point - The CoastGuard perhaps being the bestexample - but in Time his filmremains balanced enough to under-mine easy conclusions.

Meanwhile, Jiwoo is shocked at herdisappearance, and months passwithout a word from her. He even-tually starts to approach otherwomen, but something or someoneseems to be following him, prevent-ing him from getting close to any-one.Then one day, a womanappears (played by Sung Hyun-ah ofWoman is the Future of Man), whoattracts him immediately, and whoat the same time feels oddly famil-iar. She says her name is “Saehie.”

Time is unusual in Kim’s filmogra-phy in that its heroes are not mar-ginalized characters who exist onthe outskirts of society. Jiwoo andSehie/Saehie lead middle class lives,pursue art as a hobby and (quiterare for Kim’s films) don’t get tan-gled up with the police.Nonetheless, the force of theiremotions lead to frequent publicoutbursts, and they are often theobject of onlookers’ stares;

In this sense, perhaps, they areoutsiders. For the viewer as well,the emotions of the characters -and that of the film itself - aresometimes expressed in suchextreme ways that we, too, feelalienated, or simply turned off. Kimeventually pushes the symbols andnarrative patterns of his work sohard that the underlying structurestarts to crack. Characters’ actionsviolate psychological norms, andthe film’s coincidences flaunt plau-sibility.The hand behind the filmseems to be taking over.

We might say that Kim simply lostcontrol of the film.Yet he has beendoing this for so long and withsuch consistency that perhaps weshould just accept this as anaspect of his filmic style. In thelesser works among his filmogra-phy, even a leap of faith on thepart of the viewer isn’t enough tohold everything together.

Nonetheless Time, despite itssometimes cringe-inducing defi-ciencies, exhibits a weird sort ofattraction. When Sehie sendsJiwoo a letter saying that shewill return, and then appearswith a photo of her old facestrapped around her head as amask, it looks absolutely ridicu-lous. And yet it’s oddly com-pelling in some ways, too.

The film is well-acted and alwaysengaging, if awkward and uneven attimes. It is refreshing to watch afilm from Kim that is neither outra-geously misogynist nor out tomake a deep philosophical point.

Hot young actor Ha Jeong-woo(The Unforgiven) plays Jiwoo, aman who is basically content inhis long-term relationship with hisgirlfriend Sehie, but who feelssomewhat restless. Sehie (playedby Park Ji-yeon) senses this rest-lessness on his part, and noticeswhen his eyes shift towards otherwomen. This unease starts to eataway at her, and soon she eruptsin storms of jealousy. One day, shedecides to disappear from his life,and she finds herself at a plasticsurgery clinic. “I’m not sure I canmake you more beautiful,” saysthe surgeon. “I don’t need to bemore beautiful,” she says. “Justmake me unrecognizable.”

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Kim Ki-Duk casts Taiwanese actorChang Chen in a quirky meditationon life, death, and the change of

seasons. Not a very forthcoming motion pic-ture, but within its inaccessible, opaquemoments lie recognizable truths and emotions.

Kim Ki-Duk goes for something a littleless extreme with Breath, a spare andpotentially less disturbing film than onemight expect from the well-knownauteur, whose predilection with cruel-ty and violence have made him anotorious art-house figure. The filmstars Taiwanese actor Chang Chen asJang Jin, a death row inmate whoattempts to hasten his upcoming demiseby stabbing himself in the throat with asharpened toothbrush. The attempt isunsuccessful, only raising the concern ofhis cellmates, one of whom, who carriesan unspoken homo-erotic crush on thedoomed Jang. The suicide attempt alsomakes the news, reaching the attention ofdisaffected housewife Yeon (Zia), whopasses her days sculpting, doing laundry,and generally looking like she’s going tostep off her balcony one day.

Yeon has a daughter and a husband (HaJung-Woo), but the latter has strayed.Impelled by her anger or perhaps merelyher daily monotony, Yeon visits the prison,and asks to see Jang Jin, saying that she’s hisex-girlfriend. She’s rejected, but is let in soonafterwards by the prison’s apparent in-charge, a faceless, nameless individual run-ning the prison’s security cameras.This per-son seems to have an odd and perverseinterest in seeing Yeon interact with Jang Jin,first separated by a window, and then withinthe confines of a visiting room during herlater visits.At the first visit, she tells Jangabout her own near-death experience, whenshe held her breath for five minutes under-water as a child.After telling Jang Jin not tohurt himself again, she leaves, returning toher cold, evidently unfulfilling life.

But she returns again and again, bringing anew season each time. During each visit, shewallpapers the visiting room to resemble aseason, dresses in the appropriate clothing,and even sings a song, while Jang Jin looks onquietly. He’s mute because he stabbed him-self in the throat - which helps out theKorean-impaired Chang Chen -

and he watches her curiously, intently, andultimately affectionately. Chang turns in afine performance, considering that he canonly communicate through minute actionsand facial expressions, creating a characterthat’s interesting and even sympathetic,though the enormity of his death-row crimeseems a little jarring once its revealed.

It seems that the characters in Breath muststep outside the norm to find life, and createit for themselves if it’s not there. Otherwise,life is a drag, with people seemingly uncom-municative and unsympathetic towards oneanother. Kim brings unspoken understandingbetween characters and the promise ofaccord that seems to indicate better timeseven outside the visiting room’s walls.Meanwhile, other characters take an almostperverse interest in Yeon’s activities.Thesecurity monitor and even Yeon’s husbandseem to be okay with watching, almost likethey see the benefit and even approve of herextreme play-acting.Again, it seems like Kimis sending us a positive message. Maybe whathe’s saying is we all need a vacation, even ifit’s to a visiting room filled with colorfulwallpaper, announcing the arrival of fall.filmFOCUS

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