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This police corruption tale is trying to be something that it is not. In its attempt to develop a whole cast of characters it deludes all of its characters, leaving them as nothing more than cop movie clichés. Minor characters are given their own scenes, which tell you nothing more about them than their simple stereotype. The villains can’t just be corrupt but they have to be sociopaths.

Cops have been killed at a drug house. They’re the men of Franny Tierney (Noah Emmerich, LITTLE CHILDREN), whose family has been in the NYPD for years. His top cop father Francis Sr. (Jon Voight, COMING HOME) wants his youngest son Ray (Edward Norton, THE INCREDIBLE HULK) to leave missing persons and investigate this case himself. Unbeknownst to them, their brother-in-law Jimmy Egan (Colin Farrell, ALEXANDER) is involved in shady dealings connected to the case. Now everyone is on the hunt for the murderous drug dealer Angel Tezo (Ramon Rodriguez, CARLITO’S WAY: RISE TO POWER).

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Controversy comes to This Weekend’s Film Festival with the recent release of one of the best films of 2008 — 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS. Abortion is the central subject, so we contemplate the touchiest of issues this week. All the films deal with the topic as a central issue. One particularly is pro-choice, while the others never wear their opinion overtly. Two of three films feature provocative material that may not be suitable for all viewers. The purpose of this collection of movies, as always, is to, hopefully, provoke thought and discussion. The purpose is certainly not to convince anyone to think one way or the other, only to share varying points of view. Abortion is an issue that evokes many emotions and moral quandaries, and these five films represent them strongly. Do not watch with a closed mind.

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I distinctly remember the first time seeing this film in a college class on identity in media. We watched it as part of our studies on sexual identity. Only a decade ago, the teacher warned the class that there was a gay sex scene but nothing gratuitous. Still you could feel the awkwardness in the room when the gay love scene came and during the kiss between the two male prisoners. Seeing it today, there is nothing at all gratuitous about this tale of a transformative relationship. Sexuality is hardly the point of the film.

Luis Molina (William Hurt, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE) has been imprisoned in a South American jail because he was caught with an under-aged boy. His cellmate is Valentin Arregui (Raul Julia, THE ADDAMS FAMILY), a political prisoner who is continuously tortured for information. These two men are polar opposites. Molina escapes into fantasy, recounting the grand love story of a WWII-era Nazi propaganda film to free his mind from the prison world. He doesn’t care a bit about the politics, only the tragic ideal love story. Valentin is a realist, who is only focused on his mission. He survives the prison lifestyle by putting all his energy into his ideals; he suffers for the cause. They come to learn that they are imprisoned by their minds.

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When Oliver Stone, the unabashed liberal, decided to make this biography of George W. Bush many thought it might be a hatchet job. What we really received in the end is a cross between a satire and Stone’s Greek tragedy-like NIXON. Stone can’t help but work in many of the classic Bush-isms like “fool me once, shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” Stone certainly makes W. look like a fool at times, but he also makes him look like a man with strong convictions. Like Nixon’s paranoia, Stone argues that Bush’s anger toward criticism and lack of self-reflection combined with a deep desire to gain the approval of his father are the character flaws that have brought him down.

Bush Jr. (Josh Brolin, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN) was a hard partier in his younger years, booze and women being his favorite pastimes. Like many of his jobs, it was his father (James Cromwell, BABE) who pulled strings to get his oldest son out of trouble time and time again. Following a disastrous speech during his first run for the Senate, Bush asks his wife Laura (Elizabeth Banks, THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN) her opinion of his performance. When she says it was bad, he drives the car into the garage door. After he loses, he vows never to be out Texan-ed or out Christian-ed again. When his dad runs for president, George Sr. asks for his son’s help where he shows his knack for dirty politics with the infamous Willie Horton ads. Political advisor Carl Rove (Toby Jones, THE MIST) tells him he could be a great politician, but he has to do something with his life. W. finally decides to clean up his act.

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Many of the negative reviews of this film, based on Sue Monk Kidd’s bestselling novel, are that its too sweet and that its another one of those films where saintly African-Americans save white people. It’s not really a realistic portrayal of the South in the 1960s, but that’s not its intention. It’s a parable on guilt.

Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning, WAR OF THE WORLDS) is 14-year-old living in a rundown house with her harsh peach farmer father T. Ray (Paul Bettany, A BEAUTIFUL MIND). She’s full of guilt for attributing to her mother’s death when she was four. One day on the way to town, her and her black housekeeper Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson, DREAMGIRLS) meet up with a trio of white men dead set on stopping Rosaleen from registering to vote. Rosaleen ends up in the hospital and after T. Ray reveals a painful secret about her mother, Lily decides to break Rosaleen out of the hospital and head to the city on the back of a picture her mother had.

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Jonathan Demme channels the style of the late Robert Altman and crafts one of the best films of his career. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS director has also crafted one of the premiere films of 2008. This bittersweet tale, written by Jenny Lumet (daughter of famed director Sidney Lumet) creates one of the most honest and rich wedding films ever. Those blessed events are ripe for filmmakers to use as a means of bringing families together and exploring conflicts. This film understands family dynamics with an acute attention to personality clashes and how those affect all the people around them.

Kym (Anne Hathaway, GET SMART) is leaving rehab to attend her sister’s wedding. Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt, TV’s MAD MEN) has a loving, but combative relationship with her troubled sister. Kym has issues with everyone judging her, especially when it comes to the doting of her father Paul (Bill Irwin, POPEYE). He is divorced from their mother Abby (Debra Winger, AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN), who resigned herself to take a hands-off role in the wedding, allowing Paul and his new wife Carol (Anna Deavere Smith, PHILADELPHIA) to do much of the work. Many of Rachel’s family are meeting her fiancée Sidney (Tunde Adebimpe, member of the band TV on the Radio) for the first time. Paul trusts Kym so little that he makes her ride a bike to her AA meeting where she meets Kieran (Mather Zickel, TV’s RENO 911!), whom happens to be Sidney’s best man.

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Eleven years after making one of the best children’s films of all time, BABE, Chris Noonan crafted the true-life tale of one of the best children’s authors of all time, Beatrix Potter. Similar in tone and subject matter as the PETER PAN author J.M. Barrie biopic, FINDING NEVERLAND, MISS POTTER has a sweet love story at its core and the right touch of whimsy throughout.

Beatrix Potter (Renee Zellweger, COLD MOUNTAIN) was a never-married thirty-something living with her parents when she first published “The Tale of Peter Rabbit.” Her publishers, run by the Warne family, were not accustomed to children’s books, and assigned the title to the youngest son Norman (Ewan McGregor, EMMA), who had never worked on a book before. Working together, the newbie writer and inexperienced publisher set out to make the book colorful and inexpensive so children could afford it. After the success of the first book, they continued with other animal filled adventures, striking up a close relationship in the process. Taken by Beatrix’s work, Norman’s sister Millie (Emily Watson, BREAKING THE WAVES), a follow never-married, becomes fast friends with the writer and illustrator. Despite, her fame and eventual fortune, Beatrix struggles with the conservative attitudes of her mother Helen (Barbara Flynn, TV’s ELIZABETH I).

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Georgiana was just a teenager when she became the Duchess of Devonshire. She was young, beautiful, a fashionista of her day. Many Anglophiles compare her to Princess Diana. Only Georgiana was more progressive than Diana. She fought against the double standard between men and women and was active in politics. This movie on her life captures the repressive era toward women and the struggles she had to endure.

When Georgiana (Keira Knightley, PRIDE & PREJUDICE) first learns that the Duke of Devonshire, William Cavendish (Ralph Fiennes, THE ENGLISH PATIENT), plans to marry her, she is excited, believing in an innocent way that the older man has actually fallen in love with her. But in reality all he really wants from her is to keep up appearances and produce him an heir. The affairs with other women start early and Georgiana is early on forced to take in an illegitimate daughter of his and raise her as her own. As someone states, the Duke is the only person in England who doesn’t love Georgina. Lonely, the Duchess finally befriends Bess Foster (Hayley Atwell, 2008’s BRIDESHEAD REVISITED), a woman who has been kicked out of her home by her husband. But with the Duke bedding many women, how can Georgiana resist her feelings for the handsome young politician Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper, MAMMA MIA!), who she has known since she was young.

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Those who know the work of avant-garde French filmmaker Eric Rohmer would not draw a connection to edge-pushing comedian Chris Rock. But here we have Rock putting his own twist on Rohmer’s famed film, CHLOE IN THE AFTERNOON. Minus the artistry (or pretense depending on your point of view), Rock takes the theme of Rohmer’s film and makes it his own, including his own raunchy comedy.

Richard Cooper (Rock) is an investment banker, married with two kids. His wife Brenda (Gina Torres, SERENITY) and he are going through a rough patch in their marriage. The spark is gone and Richard is frustrated that they no longer have sex. Then enters Nikki Tru (Kerry Washington, LAST KING OF SCOTLAND), the sexy former girlfriend of one of Richard’s old friends. She has moved back to New York and is desperate for a friend to help her out. Richard can hardly resist. While the relationship stays platonic, this distraction starts to make waves at Richard’s office that soon break at home.

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With the latest Indiana Jones epic now on DVD, This Weekend’s Film Festival wants to look back on his adventures. Due to only four feature outings, the fifth film in the lineup is clearly influenced by Dr. Jones and the serials that inspired him. The four INDIANA JONES film will play in chronological order (which doesn’t mean in the order of release). While it was recently reviled on the season premiere episode of SOUTH PARK, KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL does have some defenders, myself included. While it has its flaws, the film did capture some of the adventurous fun features in the original RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. So dust off your Fedora, pop some popcorn, check out the opening act and then judge for yourself the merits of the INDIANA JONES series.

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