Film Capsules
Capsule reviews of feature films
Toolbox
Published: November 27, 2009
THE BLIND SIDE 2½. Sandra Bullock stars as a Southern woman who takes a destitute teen into her home. Based on a true story, it’s part sports saga, all tearjerker. 2 hrs. 08. PG-13 (violence; drug and sex references) — David Hiltbrand
DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL 2 stars. Robert Zemeckis’ visually immersive, emotionally uninvolving animation of the Charles Dickens evergreen features “motion capture” performances by Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman and Robin Wright Penn. Lost in the video-game effects and ghostly grotesquerie is the redemptive saga of the man who learns that his stinginess has spiritually deformed him. 1 hr. 36 PG (really creepy effects, unsuitable for those under 10) — Carrie Rickey
AN EDUCATION 3½ stars. A disarming and unexpectedly poignant story set in 1961 of a dreamy, Oxford-bound 16-year-old (enchanting Carey Mulligan) who takes up with a sophisticated older man (Peter Sarsgaard). pungently realized by filmmaker Lone Scherfig from the memoir by Lynn Barber. 1 hr. 35 PG-13 (discreet sexual content, smoking) — Carrie Rickey.
THE MAID 3 stars. Offbeat (and deadpan) comedy about a longtime domestic serving a Chilean clan. Is she a member of the family or a fixture inanimate as the kitchen sink? 1 hr. 35 No MPAA rating (nudity, sexual candor) — Carrie Rickey
2012 2½ stars. Roland Emmerich sure knows how to make a doomsday movie with a happy ending. This preposterously diverting film starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, John Cusack and Danny Glover is a wild ride that says, it’s OK if 8 billion die as long as eight movie stars — and the dog — live. 2 hrs. 28 PG-13 (intense disaster and destruction, profanity, children and dogs in peril) — Carrie Rickey
Ratings: 4 stars: excellent; 3 stars: good; 2 stars: fair; 1 star: poor
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