Some reviews originate at newspapers that do not award star ratings; some movies are not screened in advance for critics. Ratings range from zero to four stars.
OPENING THIS WEEK
“This Means War” * ½
Reviewed on Page 6D
“The Secret World of Arrietty”
* * *
Reviewed on Page 8D
“Kill List” * * * ½
Reviewed on Page 4D
“Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance”
Not reviewed
CONTINUING
Here are selected mini-reviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically.
“Albert Nobbs”
Costume drama. * * * R.
“Albert Nobbs” has been a passion project for Glenn Close since she won an Obie in the role back in 1982. As star, producer and co-writer — and lyricist for the film’s theme song — she has poured her heart and soul into this film. What Close accomplishes is something deeper than surface imitation. Jettisoning all of the mawkish sentimentality that might have sabotaged the film, director Rodrigo Garcia and his star (Close) make this withdrawn, near-asexual creature both fascinating and emotionally captivating. (Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune) 113 minutes
“The Artist”
Silent movie. * * * ½ PG-13. There is vigorous praise for this tale of a silent-era star struggling against the tide of the talkies. Stars include Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, above, and John Goodman . (Lisa Kennedy, The Denver Post) 100 minutes
“Big Miracle”
Family movie. * * * PG. The plight of a family of gray whales, stranded under the Alaska ice, captivated the country and forced oil men and environmentalists, natives and Cold War foes to team up in this delightful story. Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski and Dermot Mulroney star. (Roger Moore, McClatchy-Tribune News Service) 104 minutes “Chronicle”
Comic fantasy. * * * PG-13. Teenagers acquire super powers and, being teenagers, videotape themselves as they learn what they can do in “Chronicle,” an entertaining comic-book movie without the comic book. Featuring effects that put the last two “Spider-Man” movies to shame, engaging, believable characters and a kind of real-teens/real-problems melodramatic screenplay, this makes an entertaining exercise in that child’s game, “What would YOU do if you had superpowers?” Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell and Michael B. Jordan star. (Roger Moore, McClatchy-Tribune News Service) 84 minutes “Contraband”
Thriller. * * * R. Mark Wahlberg delivers the goods in this B-movie about smuggling in boozy, corrupt New Orleans. He plays a smuggler who has gone legit selling household alarm systems. His wife (Kate Beckinsale) runs a beauty salon. They have two kids. He’s wised up and left “the life” behind. But his wife’s younger brother (Caleb Jones) hasn’t. (Roger Moore, McClatchy-Tribune News Service) 99 minutes
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
Drama. * * * ½ PG-13. Director Stephen Daldry and screenwriter Eric Roth made sacrifices in adapting Jonathan Safron Foer’s 9/11 novel for the big screen. Yet they’ve made a balm of a movie. The film is less concerned with national trauma than it is with communal healing. It tightens the focus on Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn), a grieving child on a search for a lock that fits the key his father left him. Sandra Bullock plays Oskar’s mother, and Tom Hanks the father killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center. (Kennedy) 129 minutes
“The Grey”
Action. * * * ½ PG. Ottway (Liam Neeson) and a small planeload of oil- company workers set out for a job on an airplane that crashes somewhere in Alaska. Most are killed or die quickly. Seven are left alive. They hope they’ll be found by rescuers, but their plane is rapidly being covered with snow. They set out in bitter cold, slogging through snow, eating a little food from the plane, starting fires at night, intensely aware that they have attracted a large following of wolves. Frank Grillo and Dermot Mulroney also star. (Roger Ebert, Universal UClick) 117 minutes
“Haywire”
Action. * * ½ R. Steven Soderbergh cast Gina Carano, a mixed-martial-arts star/model, in this film and surrounded her with experienced actors because he wanted to see an action movie starring a woman who could credibly beat the living daylights out of legions of guys who got in her way. (Roger Moore, McClatchy-Tribune News Service) 93 minutes
“The Iron Lady”
Biopic. * * ½ PG-13. See this drama about Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s Prime Minister and the first female leader of a Western nation, not because it’s an incisive history lesson. It’s too rushed to serve that purpose. Instead see it for Meryl Streep. Streep is impressive portraying the conservative maverick’s rise in Britain’s political establisment. But she is astoundingly touching as the octogenarian whose once-great intellectual powers are flickering. (Kennedy) 105 minutes
“Journey 2: The Mysterious Island”
Fun fantasy. * * ½ PG. The movie is loosely a sequel to “Journey to the Center of the Earth” with two connections: It’s inspired by a Jules Verne novel, and it co-stars young Josh Hutcherson as the hero, Sean. Sean and his stepdad Hank (Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a. The Rock) fly off to the Pacific to rescue his Grandpa. On arrival they hire a tourist helicopter pilot named Gabato (Luis Guzman). Gabato has a daughter named Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens). These four fly off in the helicopter, are trapped in a Category 5 hurricane, which rips it to pieces, and are lucky enough to find themselves alive on the beach of the Mysterious Island. (Roger Ebert, Universal Uclick) 94 minutes
“Man on a Ledge” Thriller. PG-13. David Englander (Ed Harris) is in collusion with corrupt, coke-dealing cops and has railroaded the justice system into convicting Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington), a former police officer who accompanied him as a guard on a short trip during which a $40 million diamond was stolen. Nick, found guilty of the theft because of trumped-up evidence given by his corrupted colleagues, faces 25 years in prison after his appeal is turned down. He uses his father’s funeral to escape and climbs to the 21st floor of a hotel and pretends to be a suicidal jumper and stall for time while his brother tries to find the diamond. (Stephen Holden, The New York Times) 112 minutes
“My Week With Marilyn” Drama. * * * R. In 1956, a young and eager Colin Clark was third assistant editor on the London set of “The Prince and the Showgirl.” Based on Clark’s memoirs, this well-acted drama, starring Michelle Williams, doesn’t illuminate the mystery of Monroe so much as remind us how complicated, demanding and intimate the role of spectator can be. (Kennedy) 99 minutes
“One for the Money” Comedy-drama. PG-13. The latest Katherine Heigl vehicle finds her in the role of Stephanie Plum, a divorced and recently unemployed Jersey girl. She takes a job working for her cousin’s bail bond company and leaps at the chance to track down Joe Morelli (Jason O’Mara), a cop gone bad — though he may be innocent — and also a man who long ago did Stephanie wrong. (A.O. Scott, The New York Times) 106 minutes
“Red Tails”
Action. * * ½ PG-13. Despite stunning aerial scenes and good intentions, the George Lucas-produced film is grounded by clumsy dialogue, a meandering plot and the occasional jarring anachronism. It’s an inspired-by tale of the Tuskegee Airmen that wanders from wildly entertaining to schoolroom instructive to one-note flatness. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard star. (Tish Wells, McClatchy-Tribune News Service) 120 minutes
“Safe House”
Rerun action film. R. Ryan Reynolds plays Matt Weston, a CIA newbie assigned to man a rarely used Cape Town facility. Every day he clocks in, checks the supplies and waits to see if he’ll finally get something to do. Soon enough he does: A squad of tough agents arrive to interrogate Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington), a top spy who went rogue nine years ago and has been selling America’s secrets. (John DeFore, Special to The Washington Post) 115 minutes
“A Separation”
Drama. * * * ½ PG. Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s domestic drama is frontrunner in the Academy Awards race for foreign language film for good reason: it is patient filmmaking at its finest. Hushed, beautifully performed and vividly composed, the film invites us into the aching story of Simin (the luminous Leila Hatami) and Nader (Peyman Maadi), a middle-class couple who part ways because he refuses to leave Iran and his ailing father for the sake of their teenage daughter. Nader’s confrontation with a caretaker plunges story into a new set of questions about rifts beyond the marital. The writer-director’s intricately observant and ethics engaging screenplay is also nominated for an Oscar. In Persian with English subtitles. At the Mayan. (Lisa Kennedy, The Denver Post) 123 minutes
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Suspense. * * * * R. An expertly crafted rendering of the classic John le Carré espionage novel about trickery in the lofty upper reaches of British intelligence, with Gary Oldman in the title role. (Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle) 127 minutes
“The Vow”
Romance. PG-13. This new film, loosely based on a true story, follows the life of a woman who comes out of a coma with no recollection of her married life. The film’s biggest assets are Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum. McAdams has the type of angelic face and sweet personality that make it easy to fall in love with her. Tatum brings both a rough physicality and surprising vulnerability to his role. They make it easy to root for this couple to stay together. (Rick Bentley, McClatchy Newspapers) 104 minutes
“The Woman in Black”
Spooky thriller. * * * R. Daniel Radcliffe, above, acquits himself reasonably well in his first adult big-screen role as a young lawyer, single father and widower. He’s also a failing young barrister in Britain in the early 1920s who must trek to the marshy East Coast and rummage through the papers of a family whose long-abandoned mansion, Eel Marsh, is to be sold. (Roger Moore, McClatchy-Tribune News Service) 95 minutes
GIANT SCREEN
IMAX — Denver Museum of Nature & Science
“Tornado Alley 3D” and “Flying Monsters 3D.” Dates, times and tickets vary. 2001 Colorado Blvd., 303-322-2009,
IWERKS — The Wildlife Experience “Turtle Vision 3D,” “Sharks 3D,” “The Alps” and “Alaska Dogs.” Dates, times and tickets vary. 10035 S. Peoria St., Parker, 720-488-3300, thewildlife
FILM SERIES
Denver Psychoanalytic Film Series
Today: Monthly movie series continues with “Buck,” 7 p.m. Discussion with guest psychoanalyst included. Free. Montview Church, 1980 Dahlia St., 303-667-5743
