Family Film Reviews

NEW THIS WEEK

-- A RELATIVELY RESTRAINED OCCULT THRILLER THAT EXAMINES ISSUES OF FAITH:

"THE RITE" PG-13 -- High-schoolers who find occult thrillers fascinating on multiple levels may be drawn into "The Rite." Based on a nonfiction book by Matt Baglio, it's about Michael (Colin O'Donoghue), a skeptical American seminarian who doubts his own faith. A professor/priest (Toby Jones), who believes Michael still shows promise, sends him to Rome to train as an exorcist. Michael grew up the son of a pious mortician (Rutger Hauer) and his professor thinks the experience of handling corpses will help Michael deal with exorcism. The film's violent episodes are not excessively graphic, but they are disturbing enough to make it problematic for some middle-schoolers. Though it incorporates all the cliches of the genre, "The Rite" also benefits from fresh, intelligent writing and a uniformly excellent cast that underplays the lurid aspects of the story. And once Michael starts to work with an aging exorcist, Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins) in Rome, and meets a journalist (Alice Braga) interested in exorcism, the repartee and action pick up nicely.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Exorcism scenes show a young pregnant woman (who we learn was raped by her father) contorting and writhing and spitting out iron nails. A boy who has nightmares about a demon mule has hoof marks and bite marks on his torso. The film implies a fatal hemorrhage later on. The faces of characters possessed by demons go through veiny transformations. The script includes occasional midrange profanity. A couple of lethal crashes are depicted, and Michael has flashbacks to his childhood, seeing his mother dead and laid out in his father's mortuary.

-- GENIUS BRITISH DIRECTOR MIKE LEIGH HELPS US GET TO KNOW A FASCINATING GROUP OF QUITE ORDINARY CHARACTERS:

"ANOTHER YEAR" PG-13 -- An utterly un-Hollywood film, "Another Year" unfolds at a leisurely pace and is very much worth the attention of teen cinema buffs on up. Working with many of his regular troupe of actors, innovative British director Mike Leigh takes a look at Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen), a happily married couple -- she's a National Health psychologist, he's an urban geologist -- who are so genuinely kindhearted that miserable people are constantly drawn into their warm orbit. Chief among them is Mary (Lesley Manville), a work friend of Gerri's who is in her 40s, unattached, and often drunk. She has a delusional crush on the couple's grown son (Oliver Maltman) and no grasp of how she might get through life. Only occasionally do Gerri and Tom balk at how hard it is to work, be happy themselves, and still be there for Mary and other troubled friends and relatives. The movie follows them through a full year, each new season noted with the couple working in their garden plot. They are not beautiful or rich, but they are beguiling characters all the same.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Themes that deal with adult loneliness (Imelda Staunton is amazing as a patient of Gerri's) and depression may be too intense for some younger teens. Characters drink to excess and smoke. One estranged relative is apparently a criminal and threatening in his demeanor. The dialogue includes occasional profanity.

-- A PROFESSIONAL HIT MAN OUTSMARTS EVERYONE WHO THREATENS HIM IN THIS WHOLLY UNORIGINAL ACTION FLICK:

"THE MECHANIC" R -- Teens 17 and older who love to observe the always-watchable Jason Statham do his tough-guy thing won't be disappointed in "The Mechanic," in which he plays a by-the-book hit man caught up in a scheme not of his making. Arthur (Statham) usually takes his orders from the genial Harry (Donald Sutherland). Then one day the head guy (Tony Goldwyn) at the murky organization for which Arthur and Harry both work (a crime syndicate? the CIA?) tells Arthur he must kill Harry, who has become a loose cannon. Things get more complicated when Harry's bereft son Steve (Ben Foster), unaware of Arthur's involvement and another loose cannon himself, asks Arthur to train him as a hit man. Steve likes violence, but lacks restraint, so it gets messy. "The Mechanic" covers no new ground in the hit-man genre, but it's slick.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Victims die by drowning, strangulation, stabbing, point-blank gunfire, beating, and the inevitable explosions. The deaths are not as graphic as in some R-rated actions films, but they are still bloody. The script contains strong profanity and a couple of very explicit sexual situations with partial nudity, one between actual characters and one a porn video. Characters also smoke and drink.

-- A CONTEMPORARY YOUNG COUPLE TRY TO BE "SEX FRIENDS" WITH NO EMOTIONAL ENTANGLEMENT AND FIND IT TOUGH:

"NO STRINGS ATTACHED" R -- Ashton Kutcher finally exhibits some subtlety and emotional depth in his acting in this romantic comedy. Alas, the sexual content makes the movie questionable for most teens under 17. Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Kutcher) met as adolescents, when she rebuffed his advances. As young adults, they meet again, fall into bed for a one-night stand, then decide to continue the relationship as a sex-only fling with no attachments. She's a medical resident who works ridiculous hours and he's a would-be Hollywood screenwriter trying to live down his famous actor dad's (Kevin Kline) party-guy reputation. Even worse his dad has recently taken up, cringingly, with Adam's ex-girlfriend (Ophelia Lovibond). It is the softhearted Adam who first finds his arrangement with Emma unsatisfactory. He wants to "date" her and bring her flowers. She won't have any of it, seemingly protecting herself from a past hurt. The acting and repartee in "No Strings Attached" proves quite satisfying, as is the gradually increasing emotional intensity.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The sexual situations, though not frequent or with nudity, are quite explicitly played. Characters also drink, make condom jokes and drug references, and use strong profanity. The movie deals intelligently with the idea that most people can't have long-term sexual relationships without an emotional anchor.

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-- PG-13s:

"THE WAY BACK" -- History-loving high-schoolers may be able to stick with this reality-based saga of a few brave souls who escaped a Soviet prison camp in Siberia around 1940 and trekked on foot all the way to India. Actually, not everyone in the group makes it there. If only the film unfolded more coherently. Characters played by stars such as Colin Farrell (as a hardened Russian criminal), Ed Harris (as an aging American who emigrated to revolutionary Russia as a true believer and got caught up in the Soviet purges), and Saoirse Ronan (as a young Polish woman on the run) are easy to tell apart. But too many other male characters are impossible to distinguish one from the other. The narrative, too, is difficult to follow, with abrupt and confusing transitions. Yet despite it shortcomings, "The Way Back" touches with wrenching urgency upon the human yearning for freedom and what that yearning can cost.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Director Peter Weir stays away from graphic portrayals of violence, injury or death. Yet he does show people who freeze to death and die of dehydration, and there are stabbings, and the implied threat of torture by Soviet authorities. Characters make verbal references to cannibalism, and we hear a graphic description of someone being strangled. The script includes rare profanity. Subtitles are used early in the film, but it is mostly in English. Characters smoke cigarettes.

"THE GREEN HORNET" -- The mix of irreverent humor and 3-D action in "The Green Hornet" may entertain high-schoolers, at least for a while. This superhero adaptation has true moments of high hilarity, but it runs too long and finally loses steam. Even the Green Hornet's iconic, weaponized Chrysler Imperial can't relieve the endless car-chase tedium. Star Seth Rogen ("Zack and Miri Make a Porno," R, 2008) co-wrote the script, so it isn't surprising that he's given the story a bad-boy edge. Thus, the film includes too much sexual innuendo and profanity for many middle-schoolers. Add the offbeat visual/spiritual style of director Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," R, 2004) and you have an odd mix: The repartee is straight out of Rogen's earlier films, while the action and chases look post-modern and arty. Britt Reid (Rogen) inherits his chilly father's (Tom Wilkinson) newspaper and meets Kato (Jay Chou), a former employee of his dad's who brews a mean cappuccino and is an engineering and martial arts genius. Britt convinces Kato to join him in a crimestopping duo -- the Green Hornet and his (far more gifted) sidekick.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The profanity-peppered dialogue (midrange, not ultra strong), the portrayal of boozy nights out, and the implication that Britt Reid has serial one-night stands and is sex-obsessed all make this a PG-13 less appropriate for middle-schoolers. The mayhem has a comic tilt, but can be intense, with point-blank shootings and head-banging fights.

"THE DILEMMA" -- Teens who like watching adults tangled up in comic crises may get into this farce about an immature man struggling with a moral question. But they'll also notice that "The Dilemma" bounces off its various themes like a billiard ball, veering wildly in tone, sometimes within the same scene. At first it's intriguing, but after a while, it's just sloppy. Ronny (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Kevin James) are polar opposite buds -- a tall, lackadaisical, blarney-blessed pudding, and a short, beefy bundle of nerves, respectively. They're business partners, hoping to sell Nick's invention to Detroit. Then Ronny witnesses Nick's wife Geneva (Winona Ryder) cheating with a hunky lover (Channing Tatum). He agonizes over whether to tell Nick, and behaves so oddly that he throws everyone for a loop. The scenes between Vaughn and James are fun, but the film just flails at everything else.

THE BOTTOM LINE: A theme about marital infidelity, steamy kissing scenes, and a nonexplicit sexual situation with implied nudity all earn the PG-13. Characters use crude, but not exactly obscene, sexual slang and occasional mild profanity. The movie also features a couple of fistfights and some drinking. It does a nice job of showing the difficult but true value of honesty and friendship.

"LITTLE FOCKERS" -- Despite a smattering of real laughs, the humor feels forced in "Little Fockers," but that doesn't mean high-schoolers won't get a charge out of watching adults behave badly. The sexually focused humor is pretty graphic at times, making the movie inappropriate for middle-schoolers. Nurse Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) and his wife (Teri Polo) have two young children. Greg's relationship with his hard-nosed ex-CIA father-in-law Jack (Robert De Niro) takes a turn for the worse when Jack suspects Greg is having an affair with a flirty pharmaceutical rep, Andi Garcia (Jessica Alba). Toss in Greg's own dad (Dustin Hoffman), off learning the tango in Spain, his mom (Barbra Streisand) and her sex-advice show, and his New Age-y millionaire pal Kevin (Owen Wilson) and Greg is in for an embarrassing time.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The adult-oriented sexual humor features erectile dysfunction jokes, including visual gags about that 4-hour Viagra side effect, as well as other sexual innuendo and behavior. In a hospital scene, Greg and Andi insert a tube into a patient's posterior. Characters use mild profanity, abuse prescription drugs, and drink.

"TRUE GRIT" -- A new adaptation of Charles Portis' novel (not a remake of the 1969 John Wayne movie, G-rated on video), this best-picture Oscar nominated "True Grit" is a fabulously spun Wild West yarn. It is, however, iffy for middle-schoolers because of the grim lawlessness it portrays -- mayhem intense and graphic enough to warrant an R. Co-directors/writers Joel and Ethan Coen celebrate language in this film. Every character talks in a dead-serious but hilariously florid style. It is the post-Civil War frontier. Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld, nominated for an Oscar in her very first film) rides into Fort Smith, Ark., aiming to hire a lawman who'll avenge the murder of her father. She sets off with drunk-and-disorderly one-eyed U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Oscar-nominated Jeff Bridges) and comic/heroic Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) on an odd, epic quest.

BOTTOM LINE: "True Grit" deserves an R for haunting images of death. The violence depicted includes lethal and intense gun and knife fights, hangings and plain old fights. The film also shows casually callous (if muted) mistreatment of Native American children, and harsh treatment of animals. Characters drink and smoke, and there is mild sexual innuendo when LaBoeuf admits he thought of kissing the under-age Mattie as she slept. SPOILER ALERT FOR ANIMAL LOVERS: A pony is ridden to death in order to get someone to a doctor.

-- R's:

"THE COMPANY MEN" (Limited Release) -- Discerning high-school drama lovers will appreciate the smart dialogue and full-blooded characters in this first-rate drama. "The Company Men" takes a look at our shaky economy through the lives of three corporate men at the same company and how they react to being downsized. Bobby (Ben Affleck) is a top sales executive at a shipbuilding firm. Suddenly laid off, it takes him awhile to realize he can no longer afford his house, sports car and golf club membership. His wife (Rosemarie DeWitt) is the one who knows they need to cut back. A top man at the same firm, Gene (Tommy Lee Jones) clashes with the big boss (Craig T. Nelson) and finds himself jobless, too. A midlevel exec Phil (Chris Cooper) can't get his bearings after he's fired, and starts to drink. Bobby, who's always been a cocky guy, has to work for his brother-in-law (Kevin Costner) hanging dry wall. "The Company Men" is a slice of tasty, yet decidedly humble, pie.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The script contains a lot of strong profanity and some characters drink. Two people engage in an implied but nongraphic adulterous affair, and there is a brief moment of toplessness. The movie also brings in a subtle theme about an adolescent boy worrying about his dad's job loss and his parents' marriage. The film will also light a bulb in high-schoolers on a big question: Why isn't this country a manufacturing giant any more?

"THE KING'S SPEECH" -- Bizarrely rated R for a few bursts of profanity in scenes depicting speech therapy, this marvelous film (12 Oscar nominations) deserves a teen audience, especially those who prefer human stories over special effects. They'll see fascinating bits of history, too. Britain's King George VI (best-actor nominated Colin Firth) comes to the throne after his older brother King Edward VIII (Guy Pearce) abdicates in 1936 to marry his American mistress. "Bertie," as the royals call him (he was Queen Elizabeth II's father), doesn't want to be king. He has a terrible stutter and dreads public speaking. In the film, his wife Elizabeth (supporting actress-nominated Helena Bonham Carter), known to us as the late Queen Mother, prods "Bertie" to start working with an eccentric speech therapist, Lionel Logue (supporting actor-nominated Geoffrey Rush), well before he ascends the throne. Scenes of Firth and Rush sparring and bonding are bliss for acting aficionados.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The strong profanity (including nonsexual use of the F-word) occurs only in some of the speech therapy scenes. The film has vague sexual references, and shows much smoking and some drinking.

"THE FIGHTER" -- Teens 17 and older who appreciate drama straight from the gut may gravitate toward this true-story (eight Oscar nominations) of estranged, then reconciled blue-collar boxing brothers of Lowell, Mass. Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) longs to get his one-time promising welterweight career back on track. His half brother Dicky Eklund (supporting actor-nominated Christian Bale), now Micky's trainer, was once an up-and-coming boxer, but veered into a life of crack addiction and petty crime. Poor Micky's life is pulled every which way after he falls for Charlene (supporting actress-nominee Amy Adams), who tries to rescue him from his domineering mom (supporting actress-nominee Melissa Leo) and her chorus of equally tough daughters.

THE BOTTOM LINE: "The Fighter" earns its R with portrayal of drug abuse, drinking, smoking, steaming profanity, a lone sexual situation, graphic boxing scenes and some outside-the-ring nonlethal violence.