New Releases for the Week of July 23, 2010

Evelyn Salt looks guilty even when she's trying to look nonchalant.

SALT

(Columbia) Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andre Braugher, Daniel Obrychski, Daniel Pearce, Hunt Block, August Diehl. Directed by Phillip Noyce

It starts off as routine, with decorated CIA agent Evelyn Salt interrogating a Russian intelligence agent who wants to defect to the United States. Then, he drops a bombshell; there is a Russian spy hidden in the very fabric of the U.S. security whose mission is to assassinate the President. That spy is named Evelyn Salt. From there a tense chase begins, with Salt’s husband the unwitting pawn and every law enforcement agency in the country after a lone woman. Is she being set up? Is she what the Russian says she is? There’s only one way to find out the truth…see the movie!

See the trailer, clips, featurettes, interviews and promo here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence and action)

Khatta Meetha

(Baba Films) Akshay Kumar, Trisha Krishnan, Makrand Deshpande, Kainaat Arora. A struggling contractor tries to navigate the corrupt and often confusing bureaucratic system in India to try and snag some lucrative government contracts and keep his business afloat. He has no money for kickbacks or bribes, so he has to use some unconventional means to get what he wants.

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Rating: NR

The Kids Are All Right

(Focus) Annette Benning, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska. The two teenage children of a lesbian couple decide to seek out their biological father and introduce him into the family equation that their two mothers built for them. This simple act creates absolute chaos as boundaries are stretched, lines are crossed and nothing remains the same – except that there is nothing more important than family.

See the trailer, clips, interviews and a featurette here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Rating: R (for strong sexual content, nudity, language and some teen drug and alcohol use)

Ramona and Beezus

(20^th Century Fox) Selena Gomez, Joey King, Josh Duhamel, Bridget Moynahan. Based on the beloved series of children’s books by Beverly Cleary, the movie follows the adventures of young Ramona Quimby and her big sister Beezus as the effervescent Ramona tries to save the family home, using her boundless energy and wild imagination.

See the trailer and clips here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Release formats: Standard

Rating: G

Five Minutes of Heaven

You never know who's on the other side of that door.

(IFC) Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt, Anamaria Marinca, Juliet Crawford, Niamh Cusack, Richard Dormer, Jonathan Harden. Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel

Violence is a tool that our species likes to use to resolve conflict. Rationally, we know that it solves nothing and only leads to more violence. However, nobody ever accused the human race of being intelligent.

On a cold day in 1975, 17-year-old Alistair Little, a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force, shot 19-year-old Catholic worker Jim Griffin in the head through the front window of the Griffin home as he watched TV, killing him. Jim’s 11-year-old brother witnessed the crime; had Little known that he was related to the young man he’d just murdered, he’d have shot him too.

33 years later, a documentary program wants the two men to meet and reconcile on live television. Little (Neeson), who’d served 12 years in prison for his crimes, had come out a changed man, working with people in war zones on conflict resolution, trying to teach people to solve their issues without violence and stop the cycle he watched tear his country apart.

Griffin (Nesbitt) has never fully recovered from the incident. His mother blamed him for not stopping the murder of his brother; Joe for his part isn’t sure she’s not right. Married and with two daughters of his own, he is a broken man – oh, he’s normal enough on the outside, but his demons torture him on the inside, turning him into a man who endlessly fidgets, tormented by things only he can see.

You see, Joe’s reason for going on the program is more simple and direct than reconciliation. He intends to kill the man who murdered his brother on live television. He’s brought a knife with him for that very purpose.

The murder of Jim Griffin actually took place as described, and both Joe Griffin and Alistair Little were participants as described. The documentary show is complete fiction; the two men have not met and it is unlikely they ever will. They both consulted with the filmmakers on the script, however.

You would think that both the reality and the fictional situation would make for compelling drama, but German director Hirschbiegel (Downfall) and screenwriter Guy Hibbert don’t deliver. The script is a talky one, with the two men not meeting until the final scenes. Much of the exposition is done through flashbacks and dialogue between the two men and the chauffeurs driving them to the television taping. That makes for some lifeless cinema.

The movie is redeemed by the performances of the two leading men, and they couldn’t be more disparate. Neeson’s Alistair is dead-eyed and drained, something vital inside him killed by the same act that tore apart the Griffin family. Alistair had been gung ho to make his mark on the Troubles, never realizing what the consequences would be of that act to his life. Alistair has had to live with those consequences, and the price is terrible indeed. 

Nesbitt gives us a Joe who is so filled with rage he can’t sit still. He masks his pain with one-liners and bonhomie, but the anger surfaces in subtle ways, especially now that the murder is much on his mind with the television program bringing it all back. He is obsessed with vengeance, equating it with justice.

The movie’s denouement is a bit of a letdown, but once again it is saved by the powerful performances of Nesbitt and Neeson. I would have preferred a movie that wasn’t so static and had a bit more juice to it, and considering the subject matter I think it would have naturally occurred. It’s a shame, because the actors and the concept deserved a better movie.

WHY RENT THIS: Nesbitt and Neeson deliver terrific performances. The concept is a compelling one.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: The movie is very talky, with much of the exposition coming from conversations between the two principals and their drivers.

FAMILY VALUES: There’s a brutal, bloody murder early on, and plenty of foul language throughout. The subject matter is complex enough that I’d warn away the little ones.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The movie was originally broadcast on BBC2 on April 5, 2009 before being given a theatrical release in the United States.

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: None listed.

FINAL RATING: 6/10

TOMORROW: My Sister’s Keeper