(in alphabetical order)

AMERICAN SPLENDOR - Paul Giamatti is a first class character known for his comic relief roles in action movies like "The Negotiator" and this holiday season’s "Paycheck" He has his first lead role as real life social misfit, Harvey Pekar, a self made cartoonist who portrayed the everyday drama of his life and friends from the VA hospital where he worked into an adult comic book series that gives the movie its title - "American Splendor." The filmmakers, Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, insert interviews with the real life Pekar into the dramatic action. Surprisingly, it works. In one imaginative scene, Giammatti paces the floor of the Green Room on The Tonight Show. As he leaves, the real Pekar walks onto the stage joining Jay Leno. The actor and the man are indistinguishable. Hope Davis is equally good as Joyce Brabner, the perfect mate and brains behind Pekar’s marketing. "American Splendor" is sad, funny and poignant. When Pekar discovers he has cancer, he deals with the experience the only way he knows how - by documenting it in his comic book.

THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS - Family and friends gather at the deathbed of a dying patriarch (Remy Girard) who has spent a lifetime of scholarship and womanizing. He has an ex-wife (Dorothy Berryman) who loves him, the financially successful son (Stephane Rousseau) who abhors him, and a cadre of friends who idolize him. They band together in one common purpose - to ease his physical and emotional pain. The man’s life becomes an open book for all to read. Along the way, the son becomes involved with a drug addict, bribes hospital officials, and pays some indifferent students to honor him. "The Barbarian Invasions" also gives the dying man’s treatise on life, death, sex and politics. It’s some pretty heady stuff but the acting, the surprisingly brisk pace, and literate script make the trip through this man’s life unforgettable. Forget that this is billed as the director, Denys Arcand’s belated sequel to "Decline of the American Empire" (1986) which has many of the same characters. "The Barbarian Invasions" stands on its own

BRUCE ALMIGHTY - Part "The Man Who Could Work Miracles" (1936) and "Sullivan’s Travels" (1941), Jim Carey plays a feel good newscaster who does stories that make people laugh. He longs for a prime time spot doing more serious news. When he’s overlooked for a promotion he invokes God to help him. God, played with wistful glee by Morgan Freeman, materializes and grants him God-like powers. His every wish is fulfilled from the trivial to the earth shaking moment when he lassoes the moon as a romantic gesture. Bruce slowly works his way to megalomaniacal heights to become the greatest newscaster in the world with disastrous results. There are laughs and sight gags galore leading up to Bruce’s epiphany. The after effects of Bruce’s actions have a narrative and scientific logic that makes "Bruce Almighty" much more than just a Jim Carrey movie.

CALENDAR GIRLS - Helen Mirren and Julie Walters real life Chris Harper and Annie Clark, two middle aged prim and proper ladies who come up with the idea of creating a nude calendar to raise money to furnish a shabby waiting room for a cancer ward at a rural area in Northern England to memorialize Annie’s husband’s memory. They upset the leader of their ladies local auxiliary when they take their case to a national leadership conference. They win out. The sight of them and their ten partners in crime overcoming their inhibitions is done tastefully and hilariously. When all is said and done and the calendar becomes a hit, they become overnight international celebrities. They make it to the States with a stint on The Tonight Show. There is a nice bit with some crass Hollywood commercial director exploiting the women. The experience reminds them why they made the calendar in the first place. Their is a heartfelt outpouring of emotion in their fan mail from women who lost husbands to cancer as Annie did. The love of these women and the sentiment of the movie pour off the screen. "Calendar Girls" is a celebration of life and a fitting tribute to a group of middle aged women who dared go where few of their ilk had gone before. .

THE COOLER - "The Cooler" is a whimsical adult fairy tale about a loser who falls in love, changing his bad luck to good, and his boss’ good luck to bad. It is humorous, violent, poignant and frank. William H. Macy is Bernie, the title character - a guy whose luck is so bad it makes him valuable to a rough and tumble gaming boss who relies on him to cool the winning streaks of his patrons. He can do it with the touch of a hand. Shelley (Alec Baldwin) is the man who owns him because of an old debt. But when the Cooler falls in love with the earthy Natalie (Maria Bello), his luck turns. Suddenly a winner, he longs to get out while the gettin’s good. His boss doesn’t like it and his boss’s boss doesn’t like it and someone has to pay. Good performances, creative direction, some loopy plot twists and some ageless gambling superstitions all figure in this highly imaginative take on the allure of Las Vegas. And the ending is a killer!

ELF - Buddy (Will Ferrell) may be human but he thinks and acts like the dwarfs who raised him at the North Pole. He literally outgrown his stay and leaves his adoptive Dad (Bob Newhart) and Santa Claus (Ed Asner) for the Big Apple when he finds out he has a biological father (James Caan). His father is a children’s book publisher who’s sacrificed his own imagination for the bottom line. Buddy’s wild eyed innocence proves to be an irritant to his father, an attention grabber at the department store where he works and a major asset to his half brother who discovers the advantages of having a brother with the skills of a dwarf. "Elf" is a whimsical journey full of sight gags, one liners, and set pieces that never violate the tenets of its carefully constructed imaginary world.

KILL BILL VOL.1 - Quentin Tarantino pays homage to the Hong Kong action flicks that fuelled his imagination with this wildly entertaining, over the top tale with Uma Thurman as a killing machine hell bent on revenge when her former sisters in crime, the Assassination Viper Squad, and their boss, Bill, kill her husband and leave her for dead on her wedding day. She survives them and the sleazy caregivers who watch over her comatose body in the hospital, and whips herself back into the best shape of her life. She takes on Viveca A. Fox, Darryl Hannah, Lucy Liu and whole cadre of Yakuza in a blood splattered martial arts gorefest that is as cartoonish as it is exciting. "Kill Bill Vol. 1" is a triumph of style over substance. Each Viper has their own story, and each story is as absurd as the one that preceded it The grand finale is a fight to the death shot in glorious saturated colors that is as artful as as it is exciting. I haven’t been exposed to many Hong Kong action movies and I understand that Tarantino tips his hat to a multitude of them in scene after scene, but you don’t have to be versed in the genre to appreciate "Kill Bill Vol. 1." You could easily say it’s a one of a kind movie except it’s only one half of the movie Tarantino intended. If the sequel is as good as Volume One, then it would be safe to say it’s one of two of a kind.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING - The third installment of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy is every bit as thrilling as the first two and then some. The cinematography, locations, and computer generated worlds are breathtaking. The battles are monumental. What I said last year about the second installment of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy still applies. And I quote: "It’s an epic fantasy in the tradition of Frtiz Lang’s two part "Die Nibelungen" (1924), "The Thief of Baghdad" (1940), co-directed by Michael Powell, and George Lucas’ "Star Wars" movies. Those movies’ heroes were on a quest much like Frodo who must return the all powerful ring to Mt. Doom, the place where it was created, to save the world and all middle earth from eternal darkness." Well, that’s what they do in "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." Everything the fans of writer/director Peter Jackson’s adaptation of the "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy are looking forward to is here:the divisive Gollum, battles with monsters, armored mammoths, giant spiders that look like they came from some Jack Arnold sci-fi film of the fifties, and the final fight between good and evil - the once fractured kingdoms of the humans - and Sauron’s army of Orcs with Gandolf flying on his own winged creature cutting them down by the hundreds. All the elves, dwarfs and hobbit friends join in the battle along with an Army of the dead who hope to free their souls from their purgatory by joining Aragon (Vigo Mortenson). Some of the acting may not be top notch but a few key performances carry the emotional weight of the film: Elijah Wood as Frodo, Sean Astin as his die hard friend Sam, Andy Serkin - one of last year’s best kept secrets - as the voice and creepy crawly framework for special effects guys to hang the computer generated Gollum onto. Bernard Hill, who played the doomed ship’s Captain in "Titanic," is equally superb as the King of Rohan and as is Miranda Otto, the daughter who can swing a blade with the best of them. This is a big screen movie in every sense of the word and would be well deserving of an Oscar for Best Picture of the year just for its technical brilliance.

LOST IN TRANSLATION - Writer/director Sofia Coppola has created an ode to loneliness and the jet lag set with Bill Murray as an aging actor whose star is on the wane, cashing in on his celebrity in Japan to hawk whiskey in a Japanese commercial.

All he has to do is strike a pose, say a few words and look suave. Once Bob is out of the studio and onto the streets of Tokyo, he tries to escape his sponsor’s entourage and his celebrity. If he is to be bored, he wants to be bored on his own terms. Enter the pert, perceptive young blonde. Scarlett Johanssen is the much younger Charlotte, the wife living in the shadow of her hyperactive husband (Giovanni Ribisi), a freelance photographer on assignment in Japan. She and Bob ride the same elevator, walk the same streets, pass each other in the hallways of the hotel, and drink in the same bar. Like Bob, she feels adrift in a foreign culture, is emotionally out of touch with her spouse, and is literally bored to death. Common language and a chance encounter unite her with Bob in a common purpose: to break loose from their hotel hell. In the hands of a male director Bob and Charlotte’s story could have easily degenerated into another one of those May December romantic fantasies where the old guy beds a woman twenty to thirty years his junior halfway though the movie. But Sofia Coppola’s sophomore effort has a bittersweet sense of reality devoid of fantasy or manufactured feelings. When Bob and Charlotte connect, it’s like two kids who bond instantly in their childish enthusiasm with the neon world of Tokyo night life as their playground. The growing attraction between Bob and Charlotte is revealed through subtle gestures and the looks of longing. And just when you think they might consummate their relationship, Bob trumps their feelings by falling back on his celebrity to get him through the night. "Lost in Translation" ends on a melancholy note of unrequited love that still tugs at the heart even though you see it coming. It’s not an easy task but Sofia Coppola pulls it off.

MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD - Director/ screenwriter Peter Weir has created one of the finest period seafaring films ever made despite the fact it occasionally feels like Seamanship 101. Every nook and cranny of the British frigate, the HMS Surprise, is up on the screen. All that’s missing are the textbook captions that identify each and every part. Of course they would look silly amidst the action, the intimate details of men co-existing at sea with superstitions plaguing their morale, the elements threatening to send them to Davy Jones’ Locker, and the enemy at their back. The enemy is a French privateer called the Acheron. It can outrun, outgun and outmaneuver the Surprise. But can its Captain outsmart Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe)? Captain Jack uses his observation, cunning, and the good advice of his officers to make a getaway when the weather is on his side: to survive one of the greatest sea storms ever put on screen; and to fight one of the most relentless blood and guts battles ever fought at sea. "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" is not your typical swashbuckler. When the cannon ball hits, and the blade thrashes, you feel the pain. You might even shed a tear for the loss of the some of the Capt. Jack’s men. The movie is not all blood and guts. It’s also strong on character development. The fine cast gives some truly wonderful performances from Max Pirkis as Midshipman Blakeney - the young boy who stands as tall as any man on the Surprise - to the unrecognizable Paul Bettany as Captain Jack’s best friend, ship surgeon, naturalist, and fellow musician. "Master and Commader:The Far Side of the World" is one of the best of its kind and not to be missed.

THE MISSING - If you like gritty westerns that have the look and feel of what it must’ve been like to live on your own on the edge of civilization, you can’t go wrong with "The Missing." Kate Blanchett is a single mother who lets her lover (Aaron Eckhart) guide her older daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) to town where she hopes to start her long journey to Chicago for the World’s Fair. They never make it. She’s kidnapped by renegade Indians led by a shaman who hopes to sell her south of the border. Tommy Lee Jones is the grizzled grandfather, a frontiersman who abandoned his family to live among the Indians who comes out of the wilderness to save his savage soul and his granddaughter’s life. The only thing that undermines the story is some by-the-numbers dialogue created fill the gaps in the lives of father and daughter. Less would have been more. Still, Ron Howard captures the harsh reality of a vanished way of life in almost every frame and once the hunt is set in motion, "The Missing" turns into a thrilling cat and mouse chase film.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN:THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL - For a movie based on a Dsineyland theme ride, it’s "Pirates of the Caribbean:The Curse of the Black Pearl" was quite a surprise. It might be redundant to say it has good writing, acting, and directing but not when you didn’t expect it. The Writing:The names of Ted Elliot and Terry Rosso may not be on the tips of everyone’s tongues, but if you enjoyed 1998’s "The Mask of Zorro," then you’ve already had a taste of their adventurous spirit. "Pirates" has the same zest. Like their Zorro, Jack Sparrow is a swaggering hero whose ego is only exceeded by the stupidity of his adversaries. Elliot and Rosso have mined the traditional swashbucklers of yore to come up with a tall tale that owes as much to "Captain Blood" as it does to "Treasure Island." The plot is intricate, the characters memorable, and the dialogue often funny. "Pirates" walks a fine line between adult entertainment - there is killing - and children’s fare - many of the pirates could give the Three Stooges a run for their money. The Acting:Johnny Depp doesn’t really speak his lines as Jack Sparrow. He lets the words roll off his tongue as if each syllable were an afterthought. Though the immortal phrase "Yo! Ho! Ho! And a bottle of rum!" is never mentioned you get the idea that the pirate elixir runs through his veins. Always off kilter, he still manages to keep his wits about him. Think Jackie Chan in "Drunken Master." When Sparrow is stranded on an atoll with Elizabeth Swann with rum as his only other companion, Depp makes him riotously incoherent. Geoffrey Rush’s Barbosa is menacingly funny in a diabolical Captain Hook - ala Peter Pan - kind of way. His performance seems inspired by Robert Newton’s Long John Silver from 1950’s "Treasure Island" with his Cheshire cat grin, exaggerated gestures, and calculating smile. Orlando Bloom is dashing and Keira Knightley is fetching as Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, the two love struck romantics who have eyes for each other and wanderlust in their hearts. Their relationship is not unlike Errol Flynn’s and Olivia de Havilland’s in "Captain Blood" from 1935. The Directing:Gore Verbinski blends the comedy and action of "Pirates" as seamlessly as he did horror and suspense in "The Ring" (2002). Oddly enough both are ghost stories. In "Pirates," Gore intrigues us with a sea rescue, a burning ship, and the specter of a - real or imagined - ship in the mist. Mystery segues into swashbuckling, tongue in cheek adventure, secrets are revealed, and special effects pirates invade the coast looking for a gold piece to free their souls and awaken the senses held captive by a curse. Jack Sparrow has to help or hinder the pirates to get his ship back, depending upon the situation. The pirates need Elizabeth Swann for the gold piece and her blood, or so they think. Elizabeth needs to get away from her father to avoid an arranged marriage. Will Turner needs Sparrow to rescue Elizabeth. And Sparrow needs Turner to…. Verbinski mixes all the heavy plotting with some heady humor, great swordplay, and daring escapes at sea and on land. He never dwells on one scene too long, moving on once a plot point as been made. "Pirates" adheres to the great story tradition of a classic Hollywood spectacle. You may feel antsy by the last reel (because of a once too often visit back to the ‘island.’) but you never lose interest. The ending, as predictable as it is, still offers a one last final surprise. "Pirates of the Caribbean:The Curse of the Black Pearl" is a rollicking adventure, the likes of which have not been seen in a long time.

SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE - Writer/director Nancy Meyers has created a a first class romance for the Viagra generation. Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton are hilarious as Harry and Erica, two people who don’t want anything to do with each other - at first - but who find themselves inexplicably drawn to each other for reasons they can’t explain. He’s philanderer who never dates anyone over thirty who is dating Erica’s daughter - but not sleeping with - Marin (Amanda Peet). Erica’s a divorced playwright with writer’s block. When Harry accompanies Marin to the her mother’s place in the Hamptons, he has a heart attack and advised to stay put at Erica’s. Slowly, the geriatric record executive and the playwright with writer’s bloc begin to appreciate each other’s finer qualities. But not before Jack’s doctor (Keeanu Reeves) makes a play for the older Erica; and not before Erica’s breaks through her writer’s block. He whirlwind romance becomes the topic of her new play and some more uproarious comedy. "Something’s Gotta’ Give" hits all the right marks with wit, wisdom and some excellent performances from Amanda Peet as well as Frances McDormand as Eric’s wisecracking sister. Writer/director Nancy Meyers has made one of the best romantic comedies I’ve seen in years. And Jack and Diane are Mahhhhhvelous!

THE STATION AGENT - Peter Dinklage is a train obsessed dwarf who inherits and lives in an abandoned train depot complete with broken down train cars. His solitary life is intruded upon by a hot dog vendor (Bobby Cannavale) who never knows when to shut up and a woman (Patricia Clarkson) who almost ran him over. She’s a struggling artist dealing with the loss of a child and the break up of a marriage who is need of compassion and a friend. Predictably, "The Station Agent" tells the story of how these three totally different personalities enrich each other’s lives when they dare to open up their hearts and souls to each other. Filmmaker, Tom McCarthy avoids all the cliches, painting portraits of real people by relying on the captivating performances of his actors. You get the sense that these are people you’d like to call your friends. The pace is slow and deliberate but never boring. The payoff - rewarding.

STUCK ON YOU - Nothing in the gross out classics "There’s Something About Mary" or "Dumb and Dumber" from the Farrelly Brothers could have prepared anyone for this sweet confection. (Bob) Matt Damon and (Walt) Greg Kinnear play twins who are literally joined at the hip. They have two distinct personalities that function together like a well oiled machine. The one thing that separates "Stuck on You" from the typical Farrelly oeuvre is the sheer joy generated by the brothers’ relationship. Walt is the extrovert, Bob the introvert. Each takes turns accommodating the needs of the other making for some hilarious repartee especially when one wants to go to Hollywood to become a star!…and does! - with Cher as his co-star! There are some nice cameos by the likes of Meryl Streep and Griffin Dunne that hardly seem gratuitous once "Stuck on You " turns its sights and barbs on the Hollywood scene. When Walt’s celebrity and Bob’s love life threatens to upset their strong bond, they need to take some drastic measures that test the measure of their love. "Stuck on You" has endless sight gags, one liners and set pieces that are not only hilarious but totally believable under the Farrellys’ astute direction. "Stuck on You" may not be on anyone’s top ten list but it’s still one of the best films of the year.

WHALE RIDER - Koro (Rawiri Paratene), a Maori chief, longs for a grandson to take his place when he dies. A grandson dies in childbirth but his twin sister, Pai (Keisha Castle-Highes) lives on. Women are not allowed to take on roles traditionally held by men in the world of the Maoris but Pai believes that she is destined for something greater than to follow in the footsteps of the women in her tribe. She eavesdrops on classes held for the boys of the tribe, learning the secrets ways of the men, the traditions of her tribe, and the way of the Warrior. She does everything she can to win favor with her grandfather, trying to convince him that she is worthy. Pai defies the odds with the help of other family members, and a wisdom beyond her years. Director Niki Karo never beats you over the head with the movie’s mysticism, but let’s it slowly seep through pushing Pai toward her destiny and pulling us along with her.

BIG FISH - Billy Crudup comes to his father’s deathbed unable to reconcile a lifetime of differences and misunderstandings that hinge on his father’s boorish tall tales about his life. Albert Finney plays the old man and Ewan McGregor is his younger self acting out his stories as a wide eyed wonder following his muse while seeking the woman of his dreams. He befriends an ogre, saves a town and deals with a werewolf among other persons and things. His amazing adventures, though amusing at first grow tiresome, and just when it looks like "Big Fish" will tank under the weight of its whimsy, the movie turns on a dime and gets serious. The grown son’s exploration of his father’s past unravels a kernel of truth in each of his stories. These truths set him free to discover the real man behind the tall tales that will become a part of his father’s legacy. The end of "Big Fish" is surprisingly very moving and ultimately worth the wait.

COLD MOUNTAIN - Anthony Minghella’s adaptation of the best selling Civil War novel by Charles Frazier has BIG written all over it. Expectations for "Cold Mountain" are high after the bloody depiction of the epic battle of Petersburgh, Virginia opens the movie. Inman (Jude Law) is shown stroking a photograph of his beloved Ada (Nicole Kidman). After the battle, the story nosedives and gets bogged down in the dispirited flashbacks that show how Inman fell in love with the new preacher’s city bred daughter. Law and Kidman are quite good but the ebb and flow of the narrative and the miscasting of Donald Sutherland as her father bog the movie down. "Cold Mountain" is at it’s best when focusing on Law’s Odyssean trek home and the people he meets along the way like the widowed frontier mother (Natalie Portman), the wayward preacher (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and the white trash family who hunt down Army deserters for the bounty. . Kidman’s story never kicks in until the ditzy farm bred Ruby (Rene Zellweger) takes control of her life. On the home front, vigilante lawmen hope to catch deserters at home so they can confiscate their family’s farms. Despite the best efforts of the actors and the movie’s epic look, there is an emotional disconnect between the story and the feelings it should be generating. The individual parts are greater than the whole.

GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING - This movie is as beautiful to look at as the painting by Veermeer that inspired the best seller by Tracy Chevalier. Unfortunately the entire movie is about as exciting as watching someone paint. Scarlett Johanssen plays the fictitious servant girl who inspires Veermeer’s masterpiece and Colin Firth plays the painter. Love supposedly blooms beneath Vermeer’s veneer but he is a painter first subservient to the economics of his family’s needs. His wife (Essie Davis) bitches, his kids are vindictive, the mother-in-law wants to protect their good name, and his patron (Tom Wilkinson) wants something new and the girl who become the subject of Veermeer’s masterpiece. There is an underlying tension that runs throughout "Girl with a Pearl Earring" between these characters but ultimately it’s the pace of the film that does it in.

HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG - The American dream of owning one’s own home goes awry in this quasi-thriller about substance abuser, Kathy Nicolo (Jennifer Connelly), in the severe throes of a severe depression who cannot deal with the simple tasks of every day life. Kathy’s house represents the legacy of her father. The local government seizes it in a tax snafu that snowballs into a battle of wills when it is bought by Massoud Behrani, a former Iranian Colonel living in exile. His hubris pits the morality of a legal action against the letter of the law. That the back taxes are a pittance only exacerbates the conflict. Prejudice lifts its ugly head when a cop, played by Ron Eldard, falls for Kathy. He abuses his power by harassing Behrani and his family. The issues raised in "House of Sand in Fog" give it substance, but the pacing is off. It has all the elements of a classic thriller but never capitalizes on them. Instead director /screenwriter, Vadim Pereleman stays closer to the heart of the best selling novel by Andre Dubus III by focusing on the tragic consequences of a dispassionate legal system, a man’s foolish pride, a woman’s need for love, and the cops xenophobia. If for nothing else, "House of Sand and Fog" should be the riveting performances of Ben Kingsley and the relatively unknown Shohreh Aghashloo as the wife whose understanding of her husband’s needs does not dissuade her the compassion she feels for the woman whose home she is living in.

MONA LISA SMILE - This is basically an ensemble piece with some of today’s hottest young actresses as students at Wellesley College at a time when higher education was nothing more than an expensive finishing school. Julia Roberts is the art history teacher who hopes to make a difference. "Mona Lisa Smile" is pretty straight forward stuff with a host of stereotypes from the promiscuous (Maggie Gyllenhaal) to the miss-thinks-she- knows-it-all (Kirsten Dunst) and the one girl who really knows what she wants (Julia Stiles). There’s also a love interest to add some depth to Ms Roberts’ character. The performances are first rate and reason enough to see "Mona Lisa Smile" but if you want something that covers the same ground and time period but with a lot more edge, you might want to check out "The Group" from 1966. Based on the acclaimed novel by Mary McCarthy, it’s about a class of Vassar Grads in whose personalities are put under a cinematic microscope. The movie marked the screen debuts of Candice Bergen and Hal Holbrook.

MONSTER - There is only one reason to see "Monster" - Charlize Theron. She IS Aileen Wournos, the hooker turned serial killer. She not only conceals her natural beauty with a complete physical makeover but she reaches deep into her own psyche to identify with the mind of a tortured woman and puts it on the screen. Theron manages beyond anyone’s imagination to turn Wournos into a sympathetic creature without necessarily condoning her actions. Abused and thrown out of the house as a teenager, she survives the only way she knows how. She somehow manages to tap into the immature longings of a young woman (Christina Ricci) who responds to her emotionally and physically. Aileen is the provider, looking for tricks to earn money to hold on to the only love she’s ever known. At first, murder is an afterthought. Then it gets easier. There are some truly disturbing moments. "Monster" wears itself out about two three quarters of the way through, but it’s Charlize Theron’s magnificent performance makes it worth hanging out till the bitter end.

PETER PAN - You know the plot, you’ve seen the Disney animated classic, and possibly the classic TV version of the Broadway hit with Mary Martin as Peter Pan and Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook. This is a retread with some alterations. The one thing that really sets it apart from the rest is the dazzling eye popping visuals and CGI effects that overwhelm most of the movie. "Peter Pan" is a feast for the eyes. The filmmakers also break with tradition and cast a real boy, Jeremy Sumpter, as Peter Pan adding some seemingly innocent sexual innuendo that was, hitherto, lacking in other live action productions. Perhaps those original productions were on to something that audiences never understood - playing it safe. Does anyone remember the oft used phrase from a hit song from a bygone era, "I want a girl just like the girl that married dear old dad!" Think about it! Peter Pan wants Wendy to be a surrogate mother to read him stories yet he’ll never grow up! Hmmmm. Despite the fairy tale origins of "Peter Pan", a play by James Barrie, there are some adult issues that are presented but not fully addressed, like Peter’s infatuation with Wendy. Another interesting idea hints at Captain Hook’s demise if all the children stop believing in him - like Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny. To the best of my knowledge, this idea was never in the original productions - at least for the bad guys. Professing belief was - and is used here - to save Tinkerbell. In this version the children of London answer to an invocation to declare "I believe in fairies." It’s actually an exciting set piece. In the stage versions the audience is required to respond. In the end though, this "Peter Pan" is still more gloss than substance.

SHATTERED GLASS - Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction unless you pass fiction off as truth, just as Stephen Glass did as a star writer for The New Republic. "Shattered Glass" tells the story about his fall from grace when an on-line startup magazine investigates the facts behind one of his stories. Writer/director Billy Ray shows the day to day life of a magazine writer from the inception of an idea, to the gathering of the facts, the writing of the story and its publication - and he does it by showing what Stephen Glass does not do. It’s an unusual approach that works. Every time Glass is forced to support his facts he tries to schmooze his way out of it by changing his story. Soon enough he begins to bury himself under the weight of his fiction. Steve Zahn plays the gutsy online journalist who sets off the domino effect in Stephen Glass’s decline. Peter Saarsgard plays Chuck Lane, the New Republic’s only hope. He has integrity and a clear eyed vision of the magazine’s future. That future doesn’t include Glass. Saarsgard’s performance is the centerpiece of "Shattered Glass." At first Lane is a background character. Nuance and gesture indicate that he sees right though Glass - no pun intended. He walks through the movie like a lit fuse waiting to let loose his pent up rage. Unfortunately, Hayden Christensen is less unconvincing as Stephen Glass. He plays it is too smarmy and ingratiating. It’s hard to imagine him as a charismatic personality who could fool so many people for so long.

21 GRAMS - This movie is all over the place hop-scotching back and forth through time with dizzying results. It starts near then and then spends the rest of the movie showing how it got there. Yet, you can’t escape the volcanic eruption of emotions writer/director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarruto exactracts from his actors. Paul (Sean Penn) is a math professor who sees life as an infinity of mathematical probabilities. He needs and gets a heart transplant and needs to know about the donor and the circumstances surrounding its donation. Cristina (Naomi Watts) is a lost soul who loses her sense of purpose when tragedy strikes home. Jack (Benicio Del Toro) is the ex-con trying to sort out his life and hold his family together through a Pentecostal Church. Paul’s wife wants a child. Paul will want Cristina. And Jack will lose his faith. His wife tries to restore it. One random tragic event throws all their lives into a spin that tests the fragility of their lives and the world they live in.

LOVE ACTUALLY - An advertising blitz promotes "Love Actually" as the ensemble comedy of the year. What it promises and what it delivers are something else again. It’s a movie that tries too hard. The lines are forced, most of the situations are banal, and the tie ins that relate one character’s story to another are a stretch. Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman head an all star cast, but their story - as husband and wife - is the one that really sticks. You want to know everything about them. He may not be a philanderer, but he might have been at one time. She may have at one time forgiven her husband for an affair, but it’s never spelled out. When he buys a necklace for a woman interested in him his wife discovers the purchase. When Emma Thompson learns the necklace is not for her, she gives off so many signals that you get the distinct feeling she’s been there before. The feelings she projects highlights all the things that are wrong with "Love Actually." Hugh Grant plays her brother, a Prime Minister who is smitten with on of his female aids - its a stretch; an overplayed father (Liam Neeson) /son talk strains for the familiar when less would have been more. And then there are these somewhat amusing scenes during the making of a soft core sex film that don’t seem so funny when you think of the advertising campaign that pictures playful scenes with young children. They give the distinct impression that that movie should be at least a PG and not the film’s deserved R rating. The second strongest scenes involve Laura Linney as woman whose amorous evening is broken up by phone calls from her institutionalized schizophrenic brother. It seems the filmmakers couldn’t make up their mind what kind of movie they wanted to make, drama, domestic comedy, or something else. There are digs at the record music business, that like the soft core porno scenes, seem to belong in another movie. Surprisingly "Love Actually" was written and directed by Richard Curtis who wrote the screenplays for the very likeable "Four Weddings and a Funeral" "Bridget Jones’s Diary" and "Notting Hill." But "Love Actually" is never as focused as these films. He tries to cover too much ground in the space of its two hours and eight minutes. A mini-series may have been more suitable to his ambition.

Copyright 2004