The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Bonneville (SenArt/Drop of Water)
Touching story of a widow (Jessica Lange) who treks by car from Idaho to California with her two girlfriends (Kathy Bates and Joan Allen) to turn over her late husband's ashes to her grown stepdaughter (Christine Baranski), who demands them in return for not evicting her stepmother from her home. First-time feature director Christopher Rowley --- with a sensitive script by Daniel D. Davis, who based the story on his grandmother and her friends --- sustains a gentle and easygoing tone throughout this mature "chick flick" road movie, the friendship of the women is beautifully dramatized, and there's an affectingly spiritual, if not specifically Catholic, quality in the healthy approach to dealing with death. A few instances of crass language, light violence and brief innuendo. (A-II, PG)
The Other Boleyn Girl (Columbia/Focus)
Fresh telling of the oft-dramatized liaison of Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman) and King Henry VIII (Eric Bana), including the monarch's break with the Catholic Church so he could divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon (Ana Torrent), with an emphasis on Anne's younger sister, Mary (Scarlett Johansson), who was the first Boleyn to win the monarch's favor. This adaptation of Philippa Gregory's best-seller from director Justin Chadwick keeps the story admirably intimate, and features surprisingly authentic performances by its non-British leads with predictably solid supporting work from Kristin Scott Thomas, David Morrissey and Mark Rylance. Royal bedroom intrigue with nongraphic sexual encounters including a rape, incest reference, adultery, divorce, light sexual banter and innuendo, and discreetly filmed beheadings. Acceptable for older teens. (A-III, PG-13)
Penelope (Summit Entertainment)
Likable romantic fairy tale about an otherwise beautiful London heiress (Christina Ricci) who, as the result of an ancestral curse, was born with a pig's snout and who, with the help of her domineering mother (Catherine O'Hara) and diffident father (Richard E. Grant) must avoid exposure by a tabloid reporter (Peter Dinklage) while searching for the man whose love can lift the spell, the two main candidates being an upper-class twit (Simon Woods) and a warm-hearted musician (James McAvoy) with a gambling problem. Director Mark Palansky's film establishes its unlikely premise quite successfully and offers some valuable observations about skin-deep beauty and self-acceptance, but the plot lags in places and the groundwork for a convincing central relationship is never really completed. Occasional crass language and innuendo, and suicide and adultery references. (A-II, PG)
Semi-Pro (New Line)
Outlandish, only sporadically funny sports comedy, set in 1976, about a one-hit singer (Will Ferrell) who becomes the owner and playing coach of a Midwest ABA basketball team and who must work with a new player (Woody Harrelson) and the team's established star (Andre Benjamin) to ensure his franchise's survival after their league's merger with the NBA. Executive producer and director Kent Alterman's feature debut has a few scenes of well-choreographed chaos and some sly period references, but mostly the film lumbers along with the cast strictly on autopilot. Brief sexual activity with partial nudity, pervasive rough and crude language, some uttered by a priest, some profanity and much sexual and scatological humor. (L, R)
Witless Protection (Lionsgate)
Generally crude and lowbrow comedy in which a headstrong rural sheriff's deputy (Larry the Cable Guy) kidnaps an elegant heiress (Ivana Milicevic) from the custody of an FBI special agent (Yaphet Kotto) he believes to be corrupt, and drives her to Chicago to testify against her former boss (Peter Stormare), who has hired a shady security guard (Eric Roberts) to bring her back. The film, as directed by Charles Robert Carner, succeeds in being funny about once every 15 minutes, making this journey to Chi-town one long, tedious trek. Much crass and crude language, three uses of profanity, frequent sexual and scatological humor, partial male nudity, ethnic stereotyping and an obscene gesture. (A-III, PG-13) |