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In this film, Leo Tolstoy says that the one unifying element in all religions is love. That’s the unifying theme of this film, which tells two love stories. The first romance is between Tolstoy and his wife Sofya, who seem to have grown in opposite directions. The second love story is between Valentin Bulgakov, who is completely dedicated to the Tolstoyan way of life, and Masha, who seems dedicated to Tolstoy’s way of life.

Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy and Helen Mirren as Sofya both received Oscar nods. Plummer makes the writer of WAR AND PEACE into a Christ-like grandfather type, who allows the leaders of his movement to guide his decisions about what to do with his life’s work once he has past. Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti, SIDEWAYS) is the chief leader who demands strict adherence to the principals of Tolstoyan philosophy and wants the copyrights to the work to go to the people of Russia. This of course put him in direct conflict with the countess who fears a far less comfortable life once her husband has passed if she loses control of his work and parts of their property. Vladimir hires Valentin (James McAvoy, ATONEMENT) to watch the countess and serve as Tolstoy’s secretary. His devotion to the Tolstoyan way is strong, having remained a virgin into his 20s. But his devotion is challenged when he meets the less devout Masha (Kerry Condon, UNLEASHED), who works at a Tolstoyan retreat.
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To get a sense of this actioner take an awesome Bond girl, say like Tatiana, have her train with Jason Bourne and let her loose against the CIA. And one of the main reasons it all works is that you have Angelina Jolie at the helm. She really is the first female action star.

To start Evelyn Salt (Jolie) has been taken prisoner by the North Korean government. When a prisoner swap is arranged, she asks her partner Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber, TAKING WOODSTOCK) why the CIA didn’t just write her off — his answer is that her boyfriend Mike Krause (August Diehl, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS) wouldn’t let them. Now free and married, Salt is looking to take a desk job. But a Russian spy named Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski, BREAK POINT) walks into CIA HQ and wants to defect. He has an elaborate tale of Russian agents planted in the U.S. since they were children and that one is about to assassinate the Russian president on U.S. soil. He says the agent’s name is Evelyn Salt.
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Based on J.M. Coetzee’s Booker Prize-winning novel, this story, on the simplest level, is about it’s title. A white man is disgraced. His black student is disgraced. His daughter is disgraced. A black family is disgraced. Taking place in post-apartheid South Africa, a nation is disgraced. But who and why are not as they seem in this enigmatic tale of regaining some kind of grace.

Prof. David Lurie (John Malkovich, BURN AFTER READING) has a dominating sexual appetite. He is drawn to black women, frequenting a black prostitute. He teaches a class on the romantic poets and develops an infatuation with a black student named Melanie (Antoinette Engel). He uses his position of power to seduce her and when they make love for the first time it’s not technically rape, but technicalities don’t change they way people feel. Lurie aggressively pursues Melanie until the affair is publicly exposed. Instead of trying to defend himself, Lurie arrogantly pleads guilty and flaunts his disgust with the  whole school inquiry against him.
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This indie drama deals with new immigrants to the U.S., but at its core it’s a story of survival. It’s difficult to be new anywhere, but what if you had two kids, didn’t speak the language and didn’t know anyone? Could you make it? How would you do it? This story from the directing/writing team of Gloria La Morte and Paola Mendoza looks at what one mother did.

Mariana (Mendoza) moves from Colombia to New York City with her two kids, 10-year-old Gabi (Sebastian Villada) and six-year-old Andrea (Laura Montana), to reunite with their husband and father Antonio (Andres Munar, CHE). But his life changes too abruptly when they arrive; he’s been use to the single life. Soon he tells them that he must move to Miami for a job and will send for them later. Mariana is set to fend for herself after being in a new country for six days. Antonio never calls; he just disappears.
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A woman controlled by an impresario and a woman controlled by poverty.

This is a jam-packed week. We have a Blu-ray and DVD Pick of Week. Some great classics coming from Criterion. There’s also a long list of films I’m curious to hear from readers about, some got trashed by other critics and some our critical darlings.
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An idea can change the world. In Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending thriller, big ideas are vulnerable to be stolen within a person’s dreams. Powerful businessmen spend millions on setting up projections in their minds to protect them from extractors who are hired by competitors to steal secrets. But what’s infinitely more difficult is to put an idea they did not think of in their mind. This is inception.

Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio, BLOOD DIAMOND) is a skilled extractor who has been hired to steal company secrets from billionaire Saito (Ken Wantanabe, THE LAST SAMURAI). While Cobb ultimately fails, Saito is impressed with his skills and hires him to attempt an inception on the son of his rival. The mission seems impossible, but Saito promises to use his connections to allow Cobb to return to the U.S. where there is a warrant out for his arrest.
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Controversy surrounded this production when it was trying to secure distribution in the U.S. Major studios were afraid of the subject matter. So what is this shocking film about? The life of Charles Darwin whose work on evolution, an accepted scientific fact. This is still too hot to touch 150 years after the publication of his revolutionary book ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIE? If this movie about a man who loves his daughter is dangerous than we’re in danger from something bigger than this film.

In the film, Charles Darwin (Paul Bettany, A BEAUTIFUL MIND) is suffering great physical and mental pain on whether to publish his findings or not. Alfred Wallace has published an essay that proposes the same theory of species evolving over time, but he doesn’t have the facts that Darwin has. Nonetheless Darwin is torn. Part of his hesitation is with his wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly, A BEAUTIFUL MIND), a devout Christian, who worries about Charles not spending eternity with her in heaven. But for Charles the facts are too clear and he won’t deny them.
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The NATIONAL TREASURE trio of star Nicolas Cage, director Jon Turteltaub and producer Jerry Bruckheimer come together to try and strike magic again. But with a title SORCERER’S APPRENTICE, the film actually has little magic. There are a lot of pyrotechnics and visual effects, but none of it brings the whimsy or awe that the title suggests.

In one of those opening voice over sequences that quickly explains the mythology of the world, we learn that Merlin (James A. Stephens, SHERLOCK HOLMES) had three apprentices to help him protect his sorcery secrets from archenemy Morgana (Alice Krige, TV’s DEADWOOD). Balthazar (Cage) and Veronica (Monica Bellucci, THE MATRIX RELOADED) were Merlin’s faithful servants, but Horvath (Alfred Molina, AN EDUCATION) betrayed him to Morgana. In a move of self-sacrifice, Veronica bonded herself with Morgana, forcing Balthazar to lock her in a nesting doll called the Grimhold, where he later imprisons other Morgana followers like Horvath. Before Merlin dies, he tells Balthazar to search the globe for the Prime Merlinean (really?), a sorcerer who would inherit all the abilities of the great one.
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Great week for overlooked cinema

This week I’ve selected a Blu-ray and DVD Pick of the Week. One is a little seen Robert Altman film starring HAROLD & MAUDE star Bud Cort and an underrated gem of a dark comedy actioner for a few years back. There is also a quad of releases that I’m interested in checking out and hope to hear more about from fellow fans who have seen them.
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Based on the international bestseller from Stieg Larsson, this murder mystery thriller from Sweden does something that few murder mystery thrillers ever do — center its story on its main characters. We are compelled to find out the solution to the crime, (more so the why rather than the who), but we are even more compelled with the investigators and how the case affects them. Again the why is the most important part.

Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist, DOWNLOADING NANCY) is a disgraced journalist, who has just been convicted on libeling a powerful businessman. Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) is a gothic hacker who has been hired by the powerful businessman Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube, THE EAGLE HAS LANDED) to look into whether Mikael is really guilty or not. It seems Mikael has been set up, but is too beaten down by the power structure to fight against the set-up. While Mikael waits the six months before this jail sentence begins, Henrik wants to pay him to look into the 40 year old disappearance of his beloved niece Harriet. She disappeared after a family party and Henrik is convinced that one of his family members is the killer.
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