the washington post friday, december 17, 2010 l
28 EZ
AlsoPlaying
Capsule reviews of recent releases playing in area theaters. Movies not reviewed by The Post are marked “NR” for not rated. For older movies, see the Movie Directory.
rrr½127 HOURS
“127 Hours” tells the true story of Aron Ralston, a climber who in 2003 became trapped in a slot canyon in Utah, his right arm pinned under a falling boulder. Most of
the buzz about the movie, which stars James Franco as Ralston, centers on the film’s climax, when Ralston breaks and then amputates his own arm in order to escape certain death. Although Ralston’s act of desperation is difficult to watch, viewers who might avoid the film out of squeamishness would be depriving themselves of a most exhilarating cinematic experiences. British filmmaker Danny Boyle is helped enormously in his endeavor by Franco, who as Ralston embodies the intrepid outdoorsman’s exuberance and charm, but also his darker flip side of isolation and arrogance.When Ralston sets out for Utah’s Blue John Canyon, he’s told
THE#1MOVIE INTHEWORLD
PURE MAGIC.”
“ J.D. Heyman,
“EVEN BETTER THAN THE FIRST ‘NARNIA’!”
“★★★★★” MUST-
Greg Wright,
HJ.COM
FA SEE “★★★★”
Sarah Bull, DAILY MAIL “THE
OF THE SEASON.” John Hayden, DECO DRIVE
MILY MOVIE Shawn Edwards, FOX-TV
“A MAGICAL AND FUN 3D EXPERIENCE.”
Jeff Craig, SIXTY SECOND PREVIEW “SPECTACULAR! TOTAL FILM Jake Hamilton, FOX-TV/HOUSTON Peter Travers,
no one where he’s going; his belief in his own physical and mental superiority makes him feel above safety rules. That exceptionalism will prove pivotal once he’s trapped in a narrow sandstone crevice for five days. (R, 90 minutes) Contains profanity and some disturbing violent content and bloody images. Area theaters. —Ann Hornaday
rr½ALL GOOD THINGS
Ryan Gosling delivers yet another chameleon-like performance in “All Good Things,” Andrew Jarecki’s ripped-from-the- headlines docudrama. Gosling plays David Marks, the troubled son of powerful Manhattan real estate mogul Sanford Marks (Frank Langella) who grabs at the chance to escape his stifling father when he meets a pretty, down-to-earth girl named Katie (Kirsten Dunst). The couple get married and move to Vermont, where they run a health-food store far out of Sanford’s overweening shadow. But soon the old man is knocking on their door, urging David to return to the family business—in this case collecting rent from sleazy tenants in a pre- gentrified Times Square. “All Good Things” takes its plot from the notorious case of Robert Durst, who when his wife, Kathie, disappeared in 1982, came under suspicion of murdering her. Jarecki clearly thinks Durst dunnit. But as absorbing and detailed as “All Good Things” is, it never manages to levitate beyond tawdry movie-of-the-week voyeurism. It is creepy and weird and sad,
and little else. (R, 101 minutes) Contains drug use, violence, profanity and sexuality. At the Avalon and Landmark’s E Street Cinema.
rrr½BLACK SWAN
Darren Aronofsky presents his inspired, unsettling drama about a ballerina teetering on the brink of greatness and madness. Aronofsky brings out the toughness of a world that, while presenting a gentler face, is powered just as compulsively by painful physical and psychological extremes. As Nina Sayers, Natalie Portman delivers a bravura performance as a child-woman whose fragility gradually gives way to grave self-destruction. “Black Swan” isn’t a classic dance film so much as a horror movie that engages in a taut pas de deux with lyricism. Nina is a dancer with a New York dance company when the troupe’s artistic director, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel), taps her to star in a production of “Swan Lake.” Her technical brilliance and tentative innocence make her perfect for theWhite Swan, but he’s less sure she can pull off the ruthlessness and sensuality of her evil twin, the Black Swan. Perhaps Lily (Mila Kunis), an uninhibited, wild-eyed newcomer to the company, would be better suited? (R, 103 minutes) Contains strong sexual content, disturbing violent images, profanity and some drug use. Area theaters.
—A.H.
—A.H.
PATTI PERRET
EwanMcGregor plays a convict who is the title character in “I Love You PhillipMorris.”
rr½BURLESQUE
THE 3-D MOVIE EVENT OF THE YEAR.”
“UNLIKE ANYTHING YOU’VE EVER SEEN.”
“HIGH-STYLE ADVENTURE.”
The first genuine showstopper in the musical “Burlesque” is a brassy, bawdy anthem called “Welcome to Burlesque,” a valentine to pure camp made all the more exhilarating in that it marks Cher’s return to the big screen after a too-long seven-year hiatus. Granted, this uneven but infectiously cheery movie is clearly designed around Cher’s co-star, pop star Christina Aguilera, who in her feature film debut bumps and grinds and shimmies and belts her way to certain stardom. But “Burlesque” also offers a case study in what has made the 64-year- old Cher such a captivating and enduring presence, a star of the glitzy old school. This corny guilty pleasure of a movie is a fitting two-hander for these seasoned pros. Aguilera plays the young, ambitious singer- dancer Ali Rose, who teeters out of her Iowa trailer park to make it big in Hollywood. While roaming the Sunset Strip, she comes under the wise tutelage of Cher’s Tess, who runs the Burlesque Lounge, a fading temple of rococo excess and tatty retro glamour. (PG-13, 100 minutes) Contains sexual content, including several suggestive dance routines, partial nudity, profanity and thematic material. Area theaters.
—A.H.
rrrTHE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWNTREADER
It’s great to be back in Narnia. If you’re anything like the Pevensie children featured in C.S. Lewis’s beloved series of fantasy books about siblings who discover a parallel universe, you’ve been itching to get back there. Directed by Michael Apted, the latest adventure focuses on the youngest two of the four Pevensies: Lucy (a pitch-perfect Georgie Henley) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes).While visiting their bratty cousin Eustace (Will Poulter), Lucy and Edmund, along with Eustace, are swept away when the waves in a framed painting of the ocean inundate their bedroom with a cascade of splashing seawater. The three find themselves on board the Dawn Treader, a ship under the command of Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes). So where is the Dawn Treader heading? And why have Lucy and Edmund been called back? Seven Narnian lords, it seems, havemysteriously gone missing. Only by finding them—or by finding and reuniting their seven missing swords—can Caspian and the children break the spell of evil, embodied by a creepy green mist that has descended upon the kingdom since our last visit. (PG, 112 minutes) Contains scary monsters and a few battle sequences, but no blood. Area theaters. —Michael O’Sullivan
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Disney.com/Tron
rrrDESPICABLEME The nasty streak that animates its protagonist, a hollow-eyed supervillain named Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), is so deep and wide as to seem insurmountable. But the film turns into an improbably heartwarming, not to mention visually delightful, diversion. After another evildoer impresses the world by stealing the Great Pyramid of Giza, Gru looks for his big comeback and hits on the idea of stealing the moon. He adopts three sweet girls from an orphanage run by a sadistic Southern belle (KristenWiig), and, along with an army of tiny yellow “minions,” begins to bring his plan into action. Carell’s expert timing is in full force as his character tries mightily to resist the parental tug of his three young charges. The film features some ace voice talent, including Russell Brand as Gru’s
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