October 25, 2007

"Dan in Real Life" (PG-13, 1 hr., 35 min.)

Good romantic comedies are so rare now -- they're either cloying, crude or cynical, but rarely good. So "Dan in Real Life" feels like an instant classic, even if closer inspection indicates a tad too much preciousness in the recipe. It is a treat best geared to adults and high-schoolers, and not so much to middle-schoolers, even though some characters in the film are their age. There are themes that deal verbally with the topic of young teen lust -- of the sort that gives a parent nervous fits. Other elements in this mild PG-13 include sexual innuendo involving adults -- suggestive dancing, subtle references to masturbation, brief side-view toplessness in a shower -- adults drinking, and a theme about numbing grief over the loss of a spouse.

Likably loony Steve Carell plays Dan Burns, an advice columnist who seems to ignore his own best ideas. He has lived, as one of his three daughters says, "like a monk" since the death four years earlier of his wife. His middle child, the youngish teen Cara (Brittany Robertson), has a boyfriend and exchanges passionate text messages and e-mails full of romantic longing that freaks Dan out. Jane (Alison Pill), the levelheaded eldest, is fed up that her dad still won't let her drive. Only little Lilly (Marlene Lawston) cuts him a break. When the extended Burns clan gathers at Dan's parents' (Dianne Wiest and John Mahoney) rambling cabin for a weekend, Dan, much to his own astonishment, falls like a ton of bricks for a woman he meets at a bookstore. Unfortunately, the lovely Marie (Juliette Binoche) turns out to be his brother Mitch's (Dane Cook) new girlfriend, also a guest at the cabin. Dan spends a deliciously awkward weekend trying not to hurt Mitch, lose her, or embarrass his girls with his weak-kneed, lovestruck behavior. True, it's contrived, and Marie seems more of an ideal than a person, but it's all quite charming under director/co-screenwriter Peter Hedges' mostly light touch.

P.S. FOR HIGH-SCHOOLERS: A film 1995, "Home for the Holidays" (PG-13), which Jodie Foster directed, dealt in comic and romantic terms with some of the same quirky family dynamics as "Dan in Real Life." A terrific cast headed by Holly Hunter and Robert Downey Jr. and a pithy script made the film a charmer, even if it wasn't a huge hit at the time.

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BEYOND THE RATINGS GAME

-- OK FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:

"The Game Plan" PG (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who's OK in action flicks, grimaces and lumbers through this harmless but clumsy family comedy, as he tries to show emotional growth in his character. Kids 8 and older may be entertained, but adults will note the movie's utter artificiality. Johnson plays Joe, a star Boston quarterback whose selfish life goes haywire after the 8-year-old daughter (Madison Pettis) he never knew he had shows up. Scenes gently imply footballers partying, with no details; mild hints that Joe has a girlfriend who stays overnight; a child's life-threatening food allergy; themes touch on a child's fear of abandonment, grief over a lost parent.)

"Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disney Digital 3-D" (PG, 1993) (NEW) (Spiders pop startlingly out of the eye sockets of the evil singing goblin Oogie Boogie (voice of Ken Page) in this 3-D re-release of the now-classic animated musical. It is stop-motion animation as high, witty art. Jack Skellington, the long, lean Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, is bored with his holiday, so he sends his spooks to kidnap Santa so he, Jack, can deliver Christmas to the world's children. But kids don't react well to shrunken heads or bats. Only Sally (Catherine O'Hara), the rag doll, can make Jack see his error. The rich humor helps kids handle the scary bits with ghosts, ghouls and bugs, made more vivid by the 3-D, but the tale is deliciously dark. Ah, the scientist who opens his skull to scratch his brain!)

-- OK FOR KIDS 10 AND OLDER:

"Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour" PG (NEW) (Perhaps a few tweens will glean a brief flutter of fun 'n' fright from this stunningly amateurish ghost story; most will not be impressed. As the director, screenwriter and at least three of the actors share a common surname, this appears to be some kind of family vanity production; one hopes they had fun, anyway. Sarah Landon (Rissa Walters), while visiting the grandmother (Jane Harris) of a deceased childhood pal, learns of a young man (Brian Comrie) living in fear of a psychic's prediction that the spirit of a dead man will kill him on his 21st birthday. Sarah joins him and his brother (Dan Comrie) in an effort to prevent it. There are a few ghostly images, gunfire and mild profanity.)

-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:

"Dan in Real Life" (NEW) ("Dan in Real Life" delights like a classic romantic comedy, even if it goes a little heavy on the preciousness. It is best geared to adults and high-schoolers. There are themes that deal verbally with pubescent teen sexual longing from the point of view of a petrified parent. Other elements include sexual innuendo involving adults -- suggestive dancing, references to masturbation, side-view toplessness in a shower -- grief over a loss, and drinking. Likably loony Steve Carell plays Dan, an advice columnist who has lived, as one of his three daughters says, "like a monk" since the death of his wife. At a large family gathering Dan falls in love with his brother's (Dane Cook) girlfriend (Juliette Binoche) and spends a deliciously awkward weekend trying to not hurt him, lose her, or alienate his girls. A mild PG-13, but not so much for middle-schoolers.)

"The Comebacks" (NEW) (This utterly brainless, poorly made spoof of high-school and college sports sagas is more an extended cable sitcom than a movie. It is 90 minutes of breast and crotch jokes, crude sexual slang and tired ethnic stereotypes geared to anyone who giggles about smelly athletic cups, penis size and masturbation. David Koechner plays a moronic new coach at a Texas college who urges his players to flunk courses, drink and do drugs to prepare for the Toilet Bowl against a prison team. The quarterback (Matthew Lawrence) practices his grip on the coach's daughter's (Brooke Nevin) breasts and her football-design bra. The film includes profanity, homophobic humor, drinking, and drug references. Its sexual crudeness makes it a poor choice for middle-schoolers.)

"Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?" (A solid cast lends weight and elegance to this sudsy adult melodrama, based on a play by writer/director/actor Perry. It is just as preachy, but less free and funny than his earlier films (all PG-13s). Four African-American couples on a luxurious therapeutic retreat led by a psychologist (Janet Jackson) and her husband (Malik Yoba) unpack emotional baggage that wrecks the gathering. References to venereal disease, to having one's tubes tied; marital bedroom cuddles; adultery theme; sexual innuendo; mild profanity; talk of the death of a child; drinking. Not for middle-schoolers.)

"Lars and the Real Girl" (LIMITED RELEASE) (Terrific ensemble acting and a fresh, unsentimental script propel this uplifting parable about a tiny Midwestern town that unites to help someone through mental illness. Ryan Gosling plays Lars, a damaged, socially inept young man who sends away for a life-size sex doll, which he introduces to his brother (Paul Schneider) and sister-in-law (Emily Mortimer). The doctor (Patricia Clarkson) advises them and other townsfolk to go along with his delusion. We never see the doll naked, but a character notes it is anatomically correct. No sex scenes, but a pointed question about the doll's "flexibility"; mild profanity; talk of loss, grief. Too adult for middle-schoolers; older teens able to leave cynicism in the lobby may enjoy it.)

-- R's:

"30 Days of Night" (NEW) (Chalk-faced vampires with retractable razor-teeth, their faces and claws caked with blood, chomp on the necks of victims in this smart, strikingly designed horror film, based on graphic novels by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. This is not for anyone under 16 or anyone else whose stomach churns at decapitations, ax-killings, skull-crushings, point-blank gun deaths, a vampire child killed off-camera, and a man who kills his family to protect them. The film includes strong profanity, milder sexual innuendo and drinking. Josh Hartnett plays Eben, the sheriff in far-north Barrow, Alaska. Just as the frontier town battens down for a monthlong stretch of no sunlight, a posse of vampires (led by a creepy Danny Huston; Ben Foster as their advance scout) appears. Eben, his estranged wife (Melissa George), and other townsfolk must struggle to survive.)

"Gone Baby Gone" (NEW) (This terrifically acted crime thriller (based on Dennis Lehane's book), directed with art, grit and hometown insight by Boston boy Ben Affleck (proving you can't judge a star by his Armani (BEG ITAL)or(END ITAL) his cinematic duds) is not for high-schoolers under 16. The topic -- child abduction, implied sexual abuse and murder (none of that on-camera) -- is grimly adult, the ethical issues tricky, the on-screen violence intense and the script seething with sexual and other profanity. We briefly see a dead child. Characters abuse drugs, drink and use racial and homophobic slurs. Ben's kid brother Casey holds the screen as private eye Patrick Kenzie, who, with his girlfriend (Michelle Monaghan), investigates the abduction in Patrick's old neighborhood of a drug-addled woman's (Amy Ryan) child. They have to work with the cops (Ed Harris, John Ashton, Morgan Freeman as their captain) on the case. 16 and up.)

"Sleuth" (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) (Michael Caine returns to an old hit in this remake of the 1972 film (based on Anthony Shaffer's play). This time he takes the role of the older man (played by Laurence Olivier in the first film). "Sleuth" is structured as a cat-and-mouse game between a wealthy author and the handsome young actor-hairdresser (Jude Law, in Caine's old role) with whom the author's wife is having an affair. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, this update proves disappointingly stagey and dull, despite strong stars, a highly profane new screenplay by Nobel laureate Harold Pinter, and a semi-lurid homosexual subtext in Act 2. The old version was even stagier and prim by comparison, but a lot more fun.)

"Rendition" (American treatment of terror suspects gets a tense, intelligent airing in this slow-to-boil but gripping thriller, which has an anti-torture agenda, but gives both sides a hearing. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a CIA man who observes while police in a North African country "interrogate" an Egyptian-born chemical engineer (Omar Metwally) from Chicago, arrested and sent abroad under "extraordinary rendition" because of cell phone records. His wife (Reese Witherspoon) seeks help from a friend (Peter Sarsgaard) on the U.S. Senate staff, but the CIA's anti-terror chief (Meryl Streep) won't budge. A subplot about a girl (Zineb Oukach) and her radicalized boyfriend (Moa Khouas) in North Africa explores the roots of terrorism. A prisoner is shown naked, beaten, subjected to electric shock and waterboarding; a huge suicide bombing; profanity; implied overnight trysts; liquor; cigarettes; implied hashish. Thoughtful older high-schoolers.)

"Things We Lost in the Fire" (Benicio Del Toro nearly saves this arty drama from its own pretentiousness as Jerry, a smart man struggling with heroin addiction. Halle Berry plays the disapproving wife of Jerry's lifelong best friend (David Duchovny). When she is suddenly widowed and Jerry is suddenly friendless, she seeks Jerry out for support. Berry's role is poorly scripted, her performance confused, the camera work woozy, but Del Toro is great. Graphic depiction of drug abuse, withdrawal; street crime shows a man beating a woman, gun murders; smoking; drinking; strong profanity; strong sexual innuendo; a child gone briefly missing; kids witness serious, unfiltered adult problems. OK for 16 and up.)