THE READER

, 124 min, 2008

Director: Stephen Daldry
Writers: David Hare (screenplay), Bernhard Schlink (book Der Vorleser)
Stars: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Bruno Ganz

Stephen Daldry’s The Reader is an intimate epic of sexual awakening, embarassing secrets, shameful lies, grief and guilt. This is a sensual, historically-influenced tale which touches greatness, but never quite lives up to it.

GRAN TORINO

, 116 min, 2008

Director: Clint Eastwood
Writers: Nick Schenk (screenplay), Dave Johannson (story) & Nick Schenk (story)
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Christopher Carley

Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino could be taken a number of ways: Is it a treatise on modern American race relations? Is it a violent melodrama in which one man must stand up to the growing throng of gang violence? Or is it a coming of age tale of sorts for both a young teen and a bitter old man? It could be seen as all of the above; however, it’s also frustrating, contrived, emotionally manipulative and wildly uneven – and sometimes kind of wonderful.

DOUBT

, 104 min, 2008

Director: John Patrick Shanley
Writer: John Patrick Shanley (screenplay), John Patrick Shanley (play)
Stars: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams

John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt is a fascinating, challenging, complex morality play which examines through a glass darkly the various applications of the word “doubt” and applies them to a parable set in a hermetically sealed time and place.

TIMECRIMES

Writer-director Nacho Vigalondo’s mildly intriguing sci-fi/horror thriller is an alternatingly fascinating and confounding piece of work. An unassuming married man spies a woman across the way from his backyard and investigates, only to stumble into a nearby lab and accidentally enter a time machine. Much confusion ensues.