New Movies

NANNY McPHEE RETURNS: I was only mildly impressed by her first film, five years ago, but it made lots of money and I’m glad it did. It led to this second film which is in a word: wonderful.

Emma Thompson stars as the nanny with the facial wart, protruding tooth and no-nonsense attitude who uses magic to teach her lessons. That allows all manner of visual trickery that children will love. Pigs climbing trees? How about pigs in a synchronized water ballet? There’s also a baby elephant, a mischievous crow called Edelweiss, a cow and several goats that McPhee can choreograph at will. It helps create a charming, magical tone that’ll have you nostalgic for the classic films and books you encountered when you were young.

There are also serious issues in among the whimsy. The film deals with honor, courage, faith, loss through death, good vs. bad behavior and more, without moralizing and often with gentle humor. That’s a tribute to Emma Thompson in her other capacity. She wrote the script, again basing her character on the Nurse Matilda books, but this time writing an entirely original story.

GET LOW: Robert Duvall gives one of the best performances of his career. It’s sure to be mentioned during awards season and … in keeping with the spirit of this film … in his obituary. He plays an old-timer in Depression-era Tennessee who decides to stage a living funeral for himself. For 40 years he’s been a near-recluse on his land outside of town, driving intruders away with a shotgun and stirring up plenty of gossip. Now he wants folks to let him hear all those stories and will raffle off his 300 acres of timber as an incentive. He also needs to unburden himself of one very old secret. “It’s time for me to get low,” he says. This is one story about making amends and re-connecting that is not heavy and tortured. It’s low-key and warm-hearted; revealing character details at a leisurely pace.

SALT: A few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have given this film any credence at all. Then the news broke. A Russian spy ring was discovered operating in the United States. This film has that, and more. Sleeper agents hiding in the U.S. ready to strike when ordered. Atomic weapons will be used, millions will die and, as one character proclaims, “Russia will rise from the ashes.”  Wild fiction, bad take on reality. The Soviet Union has been gone for 21 years and this film is trying to start the cold war all over again. It even blames the Soviets for killing Kennedy. Odd to see Angelina Jolie, a United Nations envoy in her other life, involved in something like this.

THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE: This second film in the trilogy was originally made for television, so don’t expect another one as great as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. There’s less tension, there’s less sense of discovery drawing you in and the pace and editing are not as crisp. Also, the limitations of the novels, entertaining as they are, become more apparent with improbabilities and coincidence. Still, it’s another good yarn told here, one that again takes us down into some grimy depths of Swedish society. This time it’s the sex trade worked by women imported from Eastern Europe and run by Russian gangsters. (The third film will show how the trade reaches up into high levels of government).