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``Dreamgirls'' (PG-13, 2 hrs., 11 min.)
This glossy film adaptation of the 1981 Broadway musical will more likely appeal to the adults who've been waiting 25 years for it than to teens whose music has moved away from the soul/R&B stylings of the show. That is, unless those teens are avid musical theater buffs and/or ``American Idol'' fans who really want to see how one-time ``Idol'' finalist Jennifer Hudson does in the role of Effie. (She does splendidly.) The music is indeed mighty good and the film packs in a lot of cultural history while telling its story. The PG-13 rating reflects themes dealing with drug abuse, extramarital affairs and unwed motherwood. One singer strips to his skivvies to perform on national television. The script includes mildish profanity, mostly the S-word.
``Dreamgirls'' is the behind-the-scenes saga of a 1960s girl group patterned famously on the Supremes. The beautiful Deena (Beyonce Knowles), the naive Lorrell (Anika Noni Rose) and the ultra-talented (and temperamental) Effie (Hudson) are trying to get a break in the Detroit music scene when soul singer James ``Thunder'' Early (Eddie Murphy, who's terrific) hires them as his backup singers. The machiavellian, all-business Curtis (Jamie Foxx) becomes their manager. His treatment of Effie -- both professionally and personally -- triggers her show-stopping number ``And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going,'' a kaleidoscope of emotions that Hudson evokes with ease. ``Dreamgirls'' has never been a ``deep" show, but its music and its emotions are big, big, big and so is its payoff.
P.S. FOR TEENS: ``Dreamgirls'' is part of a long tradition of ``showbiz" melodramas to come out of Hollywood. One of the best from the 1950s starred Judy Garland. If you like movie musicals, check out ``A Star Is Born'' (the 1954 version) about the rise to fame of a talented but naive young woman.
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``The Painted Veil" (PG-13, 2 hrs., 5 min.)
This carefully observed 1920s story of an English couple who become deeply estranged only to discover their real love under the most severe conditions will appeal to literary high-schoolers. For them, ``The Painted Veil'' (based on W. Somerset Maugham's novel) will be a hugely rewarding experience. It is a melodrama, full of atmosphere and wry takes on British colonialism, all beautifully rendered. The film includes a couple of strongly implied sexual situations -- fairly steamy for a PG-13 film, with hints of nudity. We also see characters smoke what appears to be opium, as well as drink. The film's most intense moments, however, come during the surprisingly graphic depiction of suffering in a cholera epidemic, as patients lose all their bodily fluids.
Edward Norton plays Walter, a stiff-necked, humorless British epidemiologist living in the Far East with his socialite wife, Kitty (Naomi Watts). When she gets bored and begins an affair, he finds out and takes a position in rural China where an outbreak of cholera is killing people, then forces her to go with him. The story takes on a spiritual tone in the midst of the poverty and death. Kitty awakens from her boredom and anger to volunteer at a Catholic orphanage (Diania Rigg as the mother superior). She begins to understand the shallowness of her past existence and she and Walter find each other at last. Cue the strings!
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BEYOND THE RATINGS GAME
-- 6 AND ODLER:
``Charlotte's Web'' G (Entertaining, if not sublime, semi-Hollywoodized adaptation of E.B. White's beloved 1952 book -- live-action but with computer-generated effects -- about a piglet, Wilbur (voice of Dominic Scott Kay), rescued from slaughter (because he's a runt) by a little farm girl, Fern (Dakota Fanning), who must move him into a neighbor's barn, where he is befriended first by the spider, Charlotte (Julia Roberts), and eventually by geese Gussy and Golly (Oprah Winfrey and Cedric the Entertainer), cows Bitsy and Betsy (Kathy Bates and Reba McEntire), the spider-phobic horse, Ike (Robert Redford), and the rat, Templeton (Steve Buscemi), among others; Charlotte saves Wilbur from a second threat of slaughter by weaving a message, ``some pig,'' into her web; humans deem it a wonder; tale still brings a tear at the end when Charlotte passes on. Mildly crude barnyard expressions; cow-flatulence joke; subtle references to the killing of pigs, including Fern's father carrying an ax, and the smokehouse.)
-- 7 AND OLDER:
``Night at the Museum'' PG (Enjoyable, if under-realized and illogically scripted comic romp, with-computer-generated effects, about a loser (Ben Stiller) who gets a job as the night guard at New York's Natural History Museum and discovers, after his shifty, aged predecessors (Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs) leave him, that the exhibits -- a T. rex skeleton, Attila the Hun, Sacajawea, Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams, having a bully time), miniature Roman legions, Civil War soldiers and cowboys (Owen Wilson in a cameo) -- all come to life and tear up the place; he must contain the chaos to keep his job, impress his son (Jake Cherry) and woo a cute tour guide (Carla Gugino). Little kids may jump at the dinosaur chasing Stiller, the Huns grabbing him; toilet humor; a few rude but unprofane expressions.)
-- 10 AND OLDER:
``Eragon'' PG (Rather silly, warmed over ``Dungeons & Dragons'' tale (from Christopher Paolini's book, the first in a planned trilogy) -- live-action with added special effects -- about farm boy Eragon (Edward Speleers), who finds a huge egg, sees it hatch and grow into a terrific flying dragon, Saphira (voice of Rachel Weisz) who talks to him telepathically; Eragon learns he is destined to be a Dragon Rider, battling an evil king (John Malkovich) and sorcerer (Robert Carlyle); a wise ex-Dragon Rider (Jeremy Irons) and lovely elf warrior (Sienna Guillory) help him. Battles with demons, their faces swarming with bugs; implied impalements, arrow-piercings, nongraphic except for occasional bloodless gashes; nongraphic scene implies soldiers torture a man; cool/scary flights on Saphira; newly-hatched dragon eats a rat, mostly off-camera.)
-- PG-13s AND TWO PGs BETTER SUITED TO TEENS:
``Dreamgirls'' (NEW) (Fun, high-gloss, well-sung and long-awaited film adaptation of 1981 Broadway musical about the tempestuous rise of a 1960s girl group, famously inspired by the Supremes; Beyonce Knowles as the pretty Deena, Anika Noni Rose as the naive Lorrell and terrific Jennifer Hudson as the talented and temperamental Effie; Jamie Foxx as their machiavellian manager; Eddie Murphy as the eccentric soul singer who first hires them as a backup trio; much cultural history of the era neatly tossed in. Drug abuse; implied extramarital affairs; unwed motherhood; male singer strips to his skivvies to perform on television; mildish profanity, mostly the S-word. OK for most teens, but likely to attract musical theater buffs and ``American Idol'' fans eager to see one-time finalist Hudson triumph.)
``The Painted Veil'' (NEW) (Beautifully observed melodrama (based on W. Somerset Maugham's novel) traces emotional and spiritual arc of an English couple living in the Far East in the 1920s -- he a stiff-necked epidemiologist (Edward Norton), she a bored socialite (Naomi Watts); when he discovers her infidelity, he takes an assignment in rural China fighting a cholera epidemic and drags her along; as she rouses herself to help out at a Catholic orphanage there, she comes to understand how shallow her earlier existence was and he learns to forgive her. Graphic depiction of a cholera epidemic, including patients losing bodily fluids; strongly implied sexual situations, steamy for PG-13; hints of nudity; implied opium use; drinking. More for high-schoolers.)
``Rocky Balboa'' PG (Sylvester Stallone's hugely amiable, meandering swan song for the great South Philadelphia boxer and philosopher he created (with many sequels) 30 years ago (``Rocky,'' PG, 1976) harks back to that first film very nicely; now in his 50s and widowed, Rocky regales customers at his little restaurant with boxing tales, until a heavyweight champ (Antonio Tarver) challenges him to an exhibition match; his estranged son (Milo Ventimiglia) objects, but his brother-in-law (Burt Young) and a struggling waitress (Geraldine Hughes) he befriends encourage him. A few hard punches, cuts and bruises in fairly nongraphic fight scenes; mild curse words; a couple of shouting matches; drinking. Too nostalgic to appeal to many teens.)
``We Are Marshall'' PG (Matthew McConaughey has a winning goofiness and drive as real-life college football coach Jack Lengyel, who rebuilt the football program at Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va., soon after a tragic 1970 plane crash killed most of the school's football team, coaching staff and many local boosters; Matthew Fox as a devastated assistant coach, Anthony Mackie as a haunted varsity player, David Strathairn as the shy college president, Ian McShane as a tortured board member. Aftermath of crash depicted, with burning wreckage, a body bag, anguished loved ones; crash not re-enacted -- we see passengers on the plane, a flash, then blackness; frequent use of S-word, milder oaths; college kids drinking beer.)
``The Pursuit of Happyness'' (Will Smith tugs hearts as a down-on-his-luck family man scrambling to get out of debt and make it through a stock brokerage internship that pays zilch in San Francisco, circa 1981 -- a fine, refreshingly un-Hollywood film; Smith's real son Jaden plays his film son, with Thandie Newton as the despondent wife and mom who leaves them; a gripping, unvarnished look at being one paycheck away from the street; loosely based on entrepreneur Chris Gardner's life. Rare profanity, including the F-word as a graffito and spoken by a child; smoking; depiction of a tense, disintegrating marriage; scenes in which Chris gives blood for cash and in which he and his son spend nights in a homeless shelter and in a subway restroom; shoving and shouting but no violence. Teens.)
``The Holiday'' (Utterly phony but quite watchable (pretty people, pretty locales) romantic comedy may delight sentimental high-schoolers; a shy London magazine writer (Kate Winslet) and a self-absorbed Los Angeles producer of film trailers (Cameron Diaz, mugging rather than acting), eager to escape wretched love lives, arrange via a Web site to swap houses over Christmas; the English girl meets a nice composer (Jack Black) in L.A.; the L.A. girl meets the English girl's dishy brother (Jude Law). One couple starts an affair minutes after meeting; no sexual situations apart from semi-passionate kisses and bedroom cuddles; sex discussed, but in muted, nonexplicit language; brief allusion to suicide; rare profanity; sexual innuendo; drinking. Not for middle-schoolers.)
-- R's:
``Children of Men'' (NEW) (Chilling, incredibly vivid, ultimately inspiring dystopian thriller (based on P.D. James' book) set in a grim futuristic Britain, circa 2027, where a militarist dictatorship rules a strife-torn land and brutally rounds up refugees; humans have become infertile and are doomed; Clive Owen plays Theo, a former activist who now despairs; his ex-lover (Julianne Moore), an anti-government fighter, asks him to get travel papers for a special young woman (Claire-Hope Ashitey) who offers hope for humanity; an old mentor (Michael Caine) offers sanctuary, but soon Theo and the girl must run a gantlet of violence to get her to safety. Shattering gun and bomb violence; bloody injuries; suicide theme; birth scene; very strong profanity; marijuana; drinking; smoking. 17 and up.)
``Notes on a Scandal'' (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) (Absolutely ripping, very adult, creepy, terrifically acted drama about an older, sexually repressed, obsessively controlling teacher (Judi Dench) who befriends her school's young art teacher (Cate Blanchett) until she discovers the young woman is having an affair with a student; jealous and hurt, she holds the secret over the younger woman's head, threatening to destroy her career and family. Explicit sexual situations; very strong profanity and sexual language; drug references; toilet scene; drinking; smoking. Not for under-17s.)
``The Good Shepherd'' (Terrifically wrought, hypnotic fictionalized saga traces in a looping, nonlinear narrative the growth of the CIA from its World War II inception as the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) into a covert Cold War behemoth, seen through the eyes of Matt Damon as a counterintelligence agent recruited while still a student at Yale in 1939, already a guarded, non-trusting, emotionally remote fellow; directed with brains and style by Robert De Niro, who also acts in it, with William Hurt, John Turturro and other heavyweights; Angelina Jolie as the agent's neglected wife. Fairly non-gory acts of murder, torture, suicide; betrayal theme; explicit though stylized sex scenes; unwed pregnancy; nudity; profanity; ethnic slurs; smoking, drinking, drugs. 16 and older.)
``The Good German'' (LIMITED RELEASE) (Swell-looking, often compelling attempt by director Steven Soderbergh to work in the style of post-World War II films noir, borrowing heavily from the likes of ``Casablanca'' (1942) and ``The Third Man'' (1949), with a circuitous (too much so) plot and shadowy, sharp-angled images; fun, if something of an academic exercise; George Clooney as an American magazine correspondent in occupied Berlin in 1945, trying to seem more savvy than he is; Tobey Maguire as a corrupt officer dealing in black-market goods and prostitution; Cate Blanchett as a German widow Clooney's character once knew, now with many secrets. Explicit sexual situations; seminudity; beatings, shootings; strong profanity; ethnic slurs; smoking; drinking. High-school-age cinema aficionados.)
(c) 2005, Washington Post Writers Group |
