Roger Ebert Movie Review - 01/08/10, 09:27

Roger Ebert Movie Review

Weekend Box Office: January 1-3, 2010

Avatar tops the box office with $68.5 million

Daily Box Office: Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Avatar tops Wednesday's box office with $6.9 million

"Youth in Revolt" (R, 90 minutes). Michael Cera is laid back to a point approaching the horizontal in a comedy about a 16-year-old who lusts in hapless dreams and whose divorced parents are both shacked up. When his character, Nick Twisp, meets the lovely Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday) during family vacations to the Restless Axles trailer camp, it's love, but it's not simple. Cera's self-effacing style works nicely with his urgent desires. Three stars

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus / *** (PG-13)

"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (PG-13, 122 minutes). Heath Ledger on this side of the looking glass, and Colin Farrell, Johnny Depp and Jude Law on the other side, in substitute casting after Ledger's death. Works pretty well in Terry Gilliam's phantasmagorical extravaganza about a traveling magic-maker (Christopher Plummer) trying to escape a deal he made for immortality with the Devil (Tom Waits) in exchange for his daughter (Lily Cole). Not very coherent, but is an Imaginarium supposed to be? Three stars

Leap Year / *** (PG)

"Leap Year" (PG, 97 minutes). Amy Adams and Matthew Goode have all the charm necessary to float a romantic comedy that follows an ancient plot trajectory with sweetness. Amy flies to Ireland for Leap Day, when she hopes to propose marriage to her fiancé of four long years (Adam Scott), but her journey must overcome many hazards and she's thrown together on the road with a handsome but surly young pub owner (Goode), and what do you expect happens then? Adams and Goode invest a familiar story with fresh appeal. Three stars

The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond / *** (PG-13)

"The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond" (PG-13, 102 minutes). Never produced, long-forgotten Tennessee Williams screenplay from the 1950s, now filmed with Bryce Dallas Howard as a Southern heiress who tasted the freedom of Paris and now pretends to reenter stultifying Memphis high society. Not a very good screenplay or film, but rich in Tennessee's obsessions, and at its center a great performance by Ellen Burstyn, as old Miss Aggie, who escaped to Hong Kong and opium but has been dragged back it an upstairs bedroom to die. Downstairs, the band plays on. Three stars

Daybreakers / **1/2 (R)

"Daybreakers" (R, 98 minutes) Ten years in the future, a global epidemic has infected most of the population with vampirism. Humans, the blood supply, near extinction. Ethan Hawke plays an ethical vampire who works to develop a blood substitute and builds a bond with human survivors, who are opposed by the fanatic Vampire Army. An intriguing future where most people live by night; but the story holds few surprises and the ending is routine violence. Lots of bloody vampire explosions, though. Two and a half stars

Birdwatchers / *** (No MPAA rating)

"Birdwatchers" (Unrated, 102 minutes). A group of Indians, displaced from their ancestral lands, returns to live there over the objections of farmers and federal government. A ground-level drama from the Indians' POV, with strong work by Indians playing themselves. The message is obvious, but the locations and performances are haunting. Three stars

The Joy of Singing / *** (No MPAA rating)

"The Joy of Singing" (Unrated, 96 minutes). The goofiest thrill-sex-music-spy movie in many a moon, with a surprising amount of nudity and an even more surprising amount of song. Secret info about uranium is missing, and spies from the Middle East, France and Russia are all assigned to take the same voice class as the widow of the man who last had the secrets. Why? Ask, and you're done for. The movie cheerfully makes little sense, but given its death toll all the spies become very serious about their lessons. Three stars

Great Movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Visiting an old people's home, I walked down a corridor on the floor given over to advanced Alzheimer's parents. Some seemed anxious. Some were angry. Some simply sat there. Knowing nothing of what was happening in their minds, I wondered if the anxious and angry ones had some notion of who they were and that something was wrong. I was reminded of the passive ones while watching "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Wiped free of memory, they exist always in the moment, which they accept because it is everything.

Movie Answer Man: What's this? Sherlock Holmes was
never much for the pipe and hat?

Q. In response to your recent Q&A concerning Sherlock Holmes' iconic Meerschaum pipe, although the great Basil Rathbone made great use of the prop, he certainly wasn't the man who made it the familiar image in the public mind. The Meerschaum pipe was first used by the well-known 19th century American actor William Gillette, who made his fame and fortune playing Holmes on the stage. Gillette originally used a conventional pipe as shown in the Paget drawings, but found it awkward to deliver his lines with the small straight pipe. I imagine it rather waggled in the air like FDR's cigarette holder. Gillette switched to the curved pipe, as it was easier to handle on stage. By Rathbone's time, it was a convention of the character. Mark S. Chenail, Champaign, IL A. I gather the Holmes of Arthur Conan Doyle never used such a smoking implement. Sidney Paget's drawings make him look too sleek. The Meerschaum fits better with a certain shaggy quality, don't you think? And here's another image challenged. Wikipedia reports: "Holmes is never actually described as wearing a deerstalker, although in "The Adventure of Silver Blaze," Watson describes him as wearing a similar-in-design "ear-flapped traveling cap." The entry points out that Holmes was too fashionable to wear such a hat in the city; it is properly worn only in rural settings.

Commentary: DGA honors Bigelow, Cameron,
Daniels, Reitman, Tarantino

AP -- The science-fiction blockbuster "Avatar" has earned James Cameron his latest nomination for the top honor from the Directors Guild of America. Cameron won the guild prize 12 years ago for "Titanic." Also nominated are Kathryn Bigelow for the Iraq War drama "The Hurt Locker," Lee Daniels for the Harlem teen tale "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," Jason Reitman for the recession-era story "Up in the Air" and Quentin Tarantino for the World War II hit "Inglourious Basterds."