Ratatouille (Disney/Pixar)
This is hardly the first time an American animated feature has used Paris as a backdrop for the adventures of four-legged creatures -- think "Gay Purr-ee" and Disney's "The Aristocats" -- but the City of Light has never been so dazzlingly etched.
And rather than feline characters, the delectable "Ratatouille" (Disney/Pixar) has as its hero Remy, a cute and skinny rat (voiced by Patton Oswalt) with a penchant for cooking.
Inspired by late TV chef (in cartoonland, anyway) Auguste Gusteau (Brad Garrett), whose oft-stated mantra was "anyone can cook," Remy attempts to steal some ingredients from the kitchen of a gun-toting granny. Remy and all the other rats must flee down a storm drain where, in the churning rapids, he's separated from the others, and emerges solo to view the wondrous city below him (a particularly breathtaking moment).
Guided by the spirit of Gusteau (Remy's imagination, not an actual ghost), he soon spies the late chef's former five-star eatery and makes his way into the kitchen, where he can't resist doctoring the soup, which of course, becomes a big hit with the customers.
The restaurant's hapless garbage boy, Linguini (Lou Romano), gets the credit, and after some initial hesitation the pair decide to work together, with Remy perching under Linguini's chef's hat, and directing him to use the proper ingredients. The kitchen's lone female chef, Colette (Janeane Garofalo), softens her harsh manner as she finds herself falling for the budding chef, and becomes another ally.
Linguini's concoctions continue to win wide approval, much to the envy of the eatery's diminutive head chef, Skinner (Ian Holm), who contrives to discover the secret behind Linguini's unlikely culinary prowess.
When Remy's family finally catches up with him -- including his no-nonsense father, Django (Brian Dennehy), and slovenly brother, Emile (Peter Sohn) -- they try to persuade him that he cannot live with humans, and should return to them instead.
Linguini's success has so gone to his head that Remy thinks his father's advice may be correct after all. But suffice it to say, everything is sorted out by the end, with much comedy and touching sentiment along the way.
Writer-director Brad Bird's gorgeously animated production has a rare sophistication that should entertain adults as much as their children. The Pixar wizardry is quite wondrous, with outstandingly choreographed detail, from Remy's fast-moving antics to the intricate food preparation. Voicewise, Peter O'Toole is particularly amusing as a dour food critic, Anton Ego.
Despite recent attempts from some quarters to discredit France, it's nice to see -- one gratuitous crack notwithstanding -- the French presented without derision.
The film's messages of teamwork (even in a world foreign to one's own), honesty (the rats learn it's wrong to steal), and following one's dreams however unlikely (a rodent can indeed succeed in the kitchen) are marvelously conveyed.
"Ratatouille" is delicious from first scene to last.
Apart from the subtle implication of a character born out of wedlock, which should go over most youngsters' heads, and some cartoon peril, the film makes fine family viewing. (A-I, G)
Live Free or Die Hard (Fox)
After the dreadful "Perfect Stranger" with Halle Berry, and a series of clever cameos in other people's movies, Bruce Willis is back in good, sardonic form as New York police detective John McClane in "Live Free or Die Hard" (Fox).
The action-packed (mostly Washington-based) fourth installment finds McClane assigned to a seemingly routine assignment apprehending a computer geek, Matt Farrell (Justin Long), in New Jersey, but becomes much more interesting when high-powered gunmen attempt to annihilate Matt as he's being arrested.
It seems Matt may hold the key to major-league hacker Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) and his girlfriend and deadly chief operative Mai (Maggie Q), who, for reasons not revealed until late in the picture, intend to cripple the nation with a catastrophic computer breach, or what's called a "fire sale."
Disenchanted with the establishment, Matt had initially helped the villains, but when the full intent of Gabriel's nefarious plan becomes clear, Matt comes to realize it's not just some amorphous "system," but real people who stand to suffer, and from that point on he's squarely in McClane's court.
Gabriel and Mai have already hijacked the TV networks' broadcast transmissions, and are showing the public scary images of imminent disaster. The FBI seems helpless, and in fact they've already been infiltrated by Gabriel's gang.
McClane and Matt must reach the computer hub before the nation's infrastructure is fatally disabled. Along the way, the pair reach out to an eccentric colleague of Matt, a techno whiz known as Warlock (Kevin Smith) who, for all his cyber skills, still lives in his mother's basement.
With all the high-powered action stuff, there's more of a human element than in most films of this genre. Early in the film, we observe McClane scolding his estranged daughter, Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), for making out in a car. She sasses him back, but you feel she's grateful for the intrusion. Later on, when she's kidnapped by Gabriel, McClane's paternal instincts come to the fore, and it's clear that teenage defiance or not daddy is still No. 1.
So, too, McClane's fatherly relationship with Matt is essentially a positive one, with each coming to look after the other. There are echoes of the fractious, then supportive, dynamic between Willis' character and Mos Def's in 2006's "16 Blocks."
Mark Bomback's screenplay gets off to a formulaic start, but before long, builds in excitement, with director Len Wiseman overseeing some really splendid action sequences. McClane and Mai fighting to the death in an elevator shaft and an airborne car that manages to bring down a helicopter are just a couple.
There's an admirable absence of the f-word, but repeated profanity (mostly an all too common taking of the Lord's name in vain) and one especially vulgar and borderline racist line of dialogue are unfortunate detriments, and push what might otherwise have been an A-III classification into the more restrictive L category.
That's a pity, because otherwise the film ranks high on the entertainment meter as an exhilarating thriller.
The film contains some crude and vulgar words and expressions, gratuitous profanity, a couple making out in a car, innuendo, pervasive nongraphic violence including explosions and shootings, albeit with little gore. (L, PG-13)
Evening (Focus)
Artful but studied story of a dying woman (Vanessa Redgrave) recalling the Newport wedding of her best friend (Mamie Gummer) years before, where, as a maid of honor (now played by Claire Danes) she had a romance with a young doctor (Patrick Wilson), an encounter with unexpectedly tragic consequences. Director Lajos Koltai's rendering of Susan Minot's novel is handsomely filmed, with predictably fine performances by an incredible cast that also includes Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Natasha Richardson, Toni Collette, Hugh Dancy and Eileen Atkins, but the narrative often feels contrived, despite some keen observations on mortality, mother-daughter dynamics, and how the actions of one generation can affect the next. An out-of-wedlock encounter, post-coital tableau, premarital pregnancy, innuendo, brief abortion discussion, alcohol abuse, some profanity and rough language, divorce, subliminal same-sex attraction and a car accident. (A-III, PG-13) Harry Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. More reviews are available online at www.usccb.org/movies.
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