New Movies

War’s other collateral damage brings out Woody Harrelson’s acting chops. He’s even nominated for an Academy Award. Bruce Willis teams up with Kevin Smith in a cop story and some George A. Romero almost-zombies are brought back to life. They’re your top new movie choices this week.

For the next few weeks, the Olympics will make this column less complete than usual. I’m a volunteer and won’t get to all the previews. This week there were three on the same night, and I went to none of them. I was at the dress rehearsal for the opening ceremonies instead. Can’t tell you much about it, except that it’s a fabulous show and I’ll be watching it again on TV. One thing I’ll say though: they’ve finally fixed the bad acoustics in BC Place. The muggy echoey sound was gone Wednesday night.  

 If you’re more interested in the movies than the Olympics, these are your newly-arrived choices. I’ve seen two of them.

Mel Gibson is looking for redemption. He may even have dreams of bumping Avatar out of #1. We’ll have to wait and see what the people say. Meanwhile, we can travel the movies to Russia, Rome, Romania and Winnipeg. Or check out a couple of short festivals.

In two separate movies this week, Paul Bettany turns against God. He’s an angel refusing his orders in one, and Charles Darwin writing to demote him in the other. Maybe you prefer Harrison Ford as a research scientist or (surely not) The Rock as the tooth fairy. Better to try some quality and art from Austria’s favorite misanthrope.

THE WHITE RIBBON:
Michael Haneke from Austria won big awards both at Cannes and now the Golden Globes for this mesmerizing and beautifully staged examination of life in a German village just before World War One. True to his now-familiar inclination, he finds mostly unpleasantness, or as one character puts it, “malice, envy, apathy, brutality, persecutions and petty acts of revenge.” Only a school teacher and a nanny are nice people. A baron rules like in medieval times; a parson is a strict disciplinarian to his children; a doctor abuses both his midwife and his daughter. Somebody seriously injures him by tripping him off his horse, other accidents follow and fear sets in. A farm hand tries sabotage. The children move around mysteriously like a gang.