Movie Guide

Director: Ramona S. Diaz. With Imelda Marcos, Christian Espiritu. (103 min.)

Sterritt *** Nonfiction portrait of the former first lady of the Philippines, from her youth as a beauty-pageant contestant to her adult life as a dictator's wife, a cockamamie philosopher, a collector of shoes galore, and a defendant in scads of lawsuits. She emerges as an energetic, narcissistic, and totally self-deluded woman. In English and Tagalog with subtitles.

Director: Abigail Honor. With Edward DeBonis, Vincent Maniscalco, the Rev. Raymond Lefebvre. (80 min.)

Sterritt *** Documentary about the efforts of a profoundly religious gay couple to get married in the Roman Catholic church. The movie is sociologically rich, if not very memorable in the personalities it depicts.

Directors: Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon. With voices of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz. (92 min.)

Sterritt *** The gentle ogre is dragged by his new spouse, Fiona, to meet her royal mom and dad, stirring up trouble with a fairy godmother who's furious with him for beating Prince Charming in the race for Fiona's hand. At its best, this "Shrek" sequel draws up a brilliant new blueprint for all-ages animation, blending fairy-tale whimsy with edgy social satire. Too bad it ends with worn-out homilies far less imaginative than the story as a whole.

Staff *** Worthy sequel, playful, slam-dunk finish.

Sex/Nudity: 6 instances of innuendo. Violence: 12 scenes. Profanity: None. Drugs: 3 instances of drinking, 1 of drugs.

Director: Jean-François Pouliot. With Raymond Bouchard, David Boutin, Benoît Brière, Lucie Laurier. (110 min.)

Sterritt *** A tiny French-Canadian village desperately wants a factory to set up shop there - but the factory won't cooperate unless a physician opens a practice in the community, so the townsfolk devise an elaborate set of ruses to lure a big-city plastic surgeon who'd much rather stay in Montreal with his girlfriend. The story isn't as funny as it tries to be, but it grows increasingly winning as it goes along. Originally titled "La Grande Séduction." In French with subtitles

Director: Steven Spielberg. With Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stanley Tucci, Kumar Pallana. (128 min.)

Sterritt * Hanks plays an eastern European man whose visit to the United States turns sour when a coup topples his nation's government while he's in the air, making him a man without a country and forcing him to make his home in the New York airport he's forbidden by law to leave. Hanks's character is sentimentalized,and Tucci's lacks all plausibility. A totally false picture of human nature and of what it's really like to be in a security-conscious airport. A Spielbergian bomb.

Director: Tom McCarthy. With Peter Dinklage, Bobby Cannavale, Patricia Clarkson, and Michelle Williams.

Staff ***1/2A comedy/drama that isn't really either, the film makes up for its lack of glamour through its gently sardonic humor and well-drawn characters. Fin, a reclusive 4ft. 5in. man, inherits a rundown train station in Jersey. With his obsession for trains, it fits him perfectly - except for the insufferably friendly neighbors, Joe, who runs a food stand and talks incessantly, and Olivia, who almost runs him over twice in her SUV. The three form an unlikely friendship in this charmingly down-to-earth film. Extras include a commentary by the cast and director. By Crystal Allen

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