"Breaking and Entering" Writer-director Anthony Minghella leaves viewers with their faces pressed to the glass.
December 12, 2006 (Press Release) --
Capsule reviews of films opening this week:
"Breaking and Entering" Writer-director Anthony Minghella leaves viewers with their faces pressed to the glass, looking in on but not really involved with this dramatic study of a London couple and an immigrant mother and son whose lives cross over a series of burglaries. Rich performances from past Minghella collaborators Jude Law, Juliette Binoche and Ray Winstone, along with Robin Wright Penn, bring more depth and soul to the film than the somewhat superficial characters and overly contrived situations warrant. Law plays a landscape architect drawn together with a teenage Bosnian thief and his mother. An emotional frostiness in much of Minghella's work, including "Cold Mountain" and best-picture Academy Award winner "The English Patient" is distinctly present here, hindering the audience's ability to connect with the people on screen. R for sexuality and language. 119 min. Two and a half stars out of four.
"Dreamgirls" The title of the film is "Dreamgirls" but it could have been called "A Star Is Born" Former "American Idol" contestant Jennifer Hudson absolutely walks away with this big, splashy dazzler of a picture, based on the 1981 Broadway musical, even before performing her plaintive, showstopping number, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going." And that's quite a feat. Writer-director Bill Condon ("Gods and Monsters," "Kinsey"), who was nominated for a screenwriting Oscar for best-picture winner "Chicago," has crafted an endlessly entertaining, technically triumphant film. In following the rise of a Supremes-style Detroit trio played by Hudson, Beyonce Knowles and Anika Noni Rose the music, choreography, costumes, lighting and makeup are all superb. The editing is consistently fluid, the energy high. Yet the ending is so rushed it'll make your head spin (Condon really crams a lot into those last 20 minutes or so) and the whole thing is just hard to take seriously especi! ally "And I Am Telling You," which in the past 25 years has become a favorite drag-queen anthem. Jamie Foxx is sufficiently sleazy as the group's two-timing manager, with Eddie Murphy revisiting his "Saturday Night Live" James Brown impression as an R&B sex machine. PG-13 for language, some sexuality and drug content. 131 min. Three stars out of four.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
"Breaking and Entering" Writer-director Anthony Minghella leaves viewers with their faces pressed to the glass, looking in on but not really involved with this dramatic study of a London couple and an immigrant mother and son whose lives cross over a series of burglaries. Rich performances from past Minghella collaborators Jude Law, Juliette Binoche and Ray Winstone, along with Robin Wright Penn, bring more depth and soul to the film than the somewhat superficial characters and overly contrived situations warrant. Law plays a landscape architect drawn together with a teenage Bosnian thief and his mother. An emotional frostiness in much of Minghella's work, including "Cold Mountain" and best-picture Academy Award winner "The English Patient" is distinctly present here, hindering the audience's ability to connect with the people on screen. R for sexuality and language. 119 min. Two and a half stars out of four.
"Dreamgirls" The title of the film is "Dreamgirls" but it could have been called "A Star Is Born" Former "American Idol" contestant Jennifer Hudson absolutely walks away with this big, splashy dazzler of a picture, based on the 1981 Broadway musical, even before performing her plaintive, showstopping number, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going." And that's quite a feat. Writer-director Bill Condon ("Gods and Monsters," "Kinsey"), who was nominated for a screenwriting Oscar for best-picture winner "Chicago," has crafted an endlessly entertaining, technically triumphant film. In following the rise of a Supremes-style Detroit trio played by Hudson, Beyonce Knowles and Anika Noni Rose the music, choreography, costumes, lighting and makeup are all superb. The editing is consistently fluid, the energy high. Yet the ending is so rushed it'll make your head spin (Condon really crams a lot into those last 20 minutes or so) and the whole thing is just hard to take seriously especi! ally "And I Am Telling You," which in the past 25 years has become a favorite drag-queen anthem. Jamie Foxx is sufficiently sleazy as the group's two-timing manager, with Eddie Murphy revisiting his "Saturday Night Live" James Brown impression as an R&B sex machine. PG-13 for language, some sexuality and drug content. 131 min. Three stars out of four.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
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