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This Means War; Ghost Rider; Shame Open

23.05.12

★★ The more preposterous the situation at the center of an escapist entertainment, the more genuine the characters need to be. There’s no inherent reason why this premise — two CIA agent pals (Tom Hardy and Chris Pine) using their training and technology to compete for the same woman (Reese Witherspoon) — couldn’t have generated a romantic-action-comedy with a heart. Co-screenwriter Simon Kinberg worked wonders with a similar romantic-entanglements-go-high-tech concept in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, yet here there are only token moments to establish light-hearted one-upmanship between Tuck (Hardy) and FDR (Pine), and virtually nothing to indicate why such an intense rivalry would emerge between two apparently inseparable bros. Yet they still make more sense than Lauren (Witherspoon), whose erratic personality shifts suggest she should be under surveillance for more traditional reasons. There are stretches when the film works on a purely superficial level, including Chelsea Handler’s dirty-mouthed comic relief as Lauren’s best friend. But in general, the problem isn’t that it’s a movie where people find themselves in wild situations; it’s that the wild situations don’t actually involve anything that feels like a person. (PG-13) (AMC Dutch Square; Carmike 14; Regal 7; Regal Pastime; Regal Sandhill) ★★★ If your impression of animated features has been shaped entirely by the whiz-bang studio product of the CGI era, bring an open mind to this adaptation of The Borrowers from Japan’s Studio Ghibli. They move to Japan the story of a sickly boy named Shawn (David Henrie) who discovers a family of tiny people — including teenage Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler) — living under the floorboards of his house. Like many of Studio Ghibli’s films, Arrietty centers on an adventurous young female protagonist and a fantastical world of intricate detail, with a distinctive, hushed sense of pacing that’s allows time to absorb all that detail. It’s a bit less compelling as narrative, though, both because of an occasional focus on mythology over character and English-language voice characterizations that sometimes feel flat. But Arrietty holds your attention not through sheer manic refusal to let you catch your breath, but rather by trusting that texture and depth can be just as fascinating as pure speed. (G) (Carmike Wynnsong; Regal Columbiana Grande; Regal Sandhill) ★★★ Movies about addiction of any kind often avoid the risk of not taking the subject seriously enough by taking it far too seriously. That’s the main problem facing co-writer and director Steve McQueen’s (Hunger) often-compelling character study, which follows a New Yorker named Brandon (Michael Fassbender) dealing with a sex addiction that insinuates itself into his life in a variety of ways. McQueen is never overt about the specific causes for Brandon’s psychology, using his relationship with his equally but differently screwed-up sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan), to hint at some deeply rooted issues. But despite terrific individual moments and Fassbender’s intense performance, McQueen faces the same familiar structure that accompanies most narratives of addition. By the time Shame reaches its crescendo of degradation, Brandon no longer connects as an average guy with an emotionally damaging problem. He’s living an opera. (NC-17) (Nickelodeon Theatre)

Source: Free Times