Taking place in 2027, the film is set so closely to our times and is so recognizably an extension of our world that it offers an intriguing chance for reflection on how we treat one another and what we take for granted. Clive Owen stars as an apathetic Brit drawn by an old flame ( Julianne Moore ) into a terrorist group s efforts to protect a young woman (Clare-Hope Ashitey) who may hold the key to humanity s salvation. Adapting the story from P.
D. James novel, Cuaron presents a film of ideas disguised as a thriller, examining such issues as racism, distrust of immigrants and economic inequities that are so relevant today. Michael Caine co-stars.
R for strong violence, language, some drug use and brief nudity. 109 min. Three and a half stars out of four.
"Notes on a Scandal" It s hard to go wrong when you match up two of the world s finest film actresses on opposite sides of a twisted psychological drama about a looney spinster preying on the soul mate she thinks she s finally found. This pure-class take on "Single White Female" allows Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett to melt into their roles as London school teachers whose friendship carries a dangerous underpinning. Dench plays a desperately lonesome woman whose only friend is her cat until a nervous new art teacher (Blanchett) joins the staff.
Their budding camaraderie turns sinister after Dench s character discovers her new pal is having an affair with a teenage student, using the information to try to extort a lifelong commitment of devotion from her unsuspecting victim. The film loses some punch in the homestretch, but director Richard Eyre maintains intense momentum throughout. R for language and some aberrant sexual content.
91 min. Three stars out of four. "Pan s Labyrinth" Writer-director Guillermo del Toro has crafted a masterpiece with this terrifying, visually wondrous fairy tale for adults that blends fantasy and gloomy drama into one of the most magical films to come along in years.
The story centers on a bookish girl (Ivana Baquero) existing among the mythic monsters in her fertile fantasies and the more petrifying ones in her real life in 1944 Fascist Spain. Living with her ailing mother (Ariadna Gil), evil stepfather (Sergei Lopez) and his compassionate housekeeper ( Maribel Verdu ), the girl steps into a netherland where the ancient satyr Pan (Doug Jones) gives her three tasks to complete so she can return to her true life as princess of the underworld. The images are visceral, surreal, bewildering, unnerving.
The drama is passionate, profound, tragic, startling. It s a film of horrors and marvels, the tone ranging from savage atrocity to divine benevolence, the movie bursting with provocative ambiguity that provides the stuff of endless debate over the story s meaning and even its outcome. R for graphic violence and some language.
119 min. Four stars out of four. "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" Think of it as an olfactory version of "The Silence of the Lambs": A perfume maker becomes a serial killer or perhaps it s the other way around to capture women s scents.
It s a fabulously twisted idea, based on the novel by Patrick Suskind and sensuously rendered in a style that s totally different from German director Tom Tykwer s best-known film, the vibrant "Run Lola Run." With his wiry frame and intense eyes, Ben Whishaw could be a modern-day Anthony Perkins on the prowl for beautiful girls in 18th century France. It s not that he has any sexual interest in them he s just entranced and obsessed by scent, having been blessed from birth with an unusually powerful proboscis.
He s both ardent and eerie, appreciative and predatory. Dustin Hoffman gets to chew the scenery as his perfumer mentor, and Alan Rickman is typically formidable as the father of the stunning redhead the killer seeks most. R for aberrant behavior involving nudity, violence, sexuality and disturbing images.
145 min. Three stars out of four. "The Tiger and the Snow" After bombing with 2002 s "Pinocchio," writer, director and star Roberto Benigni returns with a worthy, touching successor to his acclaimed hit "Life Is Beautiful.
" The film features much of the trademark Benigni goofiness yet also is a story of surprisingly subtle emotion and restrained dignity. In this oddball tale of a smitten man journeying from Italy to war-ravaged Iraq for the woman he worships, Benigni tones down his shtick to become more the authentically devoted lover than the bumbling clown. Benigni plays a frivolous Italian poet who transforms into a determined pragmatist to reach Baghdad and save his unrequited love (played by Benigni s wife, Nicoletta Braschi), who s been injured in a bombing in the U.
S.-led war there. Co-starring Jean Reno and Tom Waits, it s a refreshing story of a man unfazed by the severity of the real world, a dauntless romantic who feels to his marrow that love truly does conquer all.
Unrated. 113 min. Three stars out of four.
2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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