Movie Guide

Director: Pierre Salvadori. With Daniel Auteuil, José Garcia, Sandrine Kiberlain, Michèle Moretti. (110 min.)

Sterritt *** After saving a stranger from hanging himself, a restaurateur gets involved with the unhappy guy's girlfriend. Garcia is great in this French dramatic comedy, and Auteuil remains one of the great European stars. Maybe the movie does so much dawdling and meandering so we'll have more time to bask in their presence; in any case, the otherwise pleasant picture uses up its ideas long before it uses up its running time. In French with subtitles.

Director: Ron Howard. With Russell Crowe, Renée Zellweger, Paul Giamatti, Paddy Considine. (144 min.)

Sterritt **** See review.

Director: Konstantin Bojanov. With six Bulgarian drug abusers. (90 min.)

Sterritt *** Documentary portrait of several East European heroin addicts. Humane, unsentimental, eye-opening. In Bulgarian with subtitles.

Director: Allan Mindel. With Troy Garity, Alison Folland, Randy Quaid, Bruce Dern. (95 min.)

Sterritt ** Two young swindlers decide to con a backward young Midwestern man, and discover they're not the only ones with a special interest in him and his money. A very uneven dark comedy.

Director: Keren Yedaya. With Ronit Elkabetz, Dana Ivgi, Meshar Cohen, Shmuel Edelman. (100 min.)

Sterritt **** Sad story of a middle-aged Israeli prostitute whose well-meaning teenage daughter wants desperately to get her off the streets and into a legitimate job. Yedaya's prizewinning debut film is acted and directed with uncommon psychological realism. In Hebrew with subtitles.

Director: Ken Kwapis. With Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrara, Alexis Bledel, Blake Lively. (110 min.)

Sterritt *** See review.

Director: Werner Herzog. With Dr. Graham Dorrington, Werner Herzog, Mark Anthony Yhap. (90 min.)

Sterritt **** Herzog's highly personal portrait of a British scientist who's invented a sort of newfangled blimp to explore the canopy of a Guyana rain forest. Like all Herzog's best movies, this more-or-less documentary blurs the boundaries between unpredictable reality and sheer cinematic storytelling. Touching, transfixing, unique.

Director: Christopher Browne. With Pete Weber, Wayne Webb, Steve Miller, Walter Ray Williams Jr. (98 min.)

Sterritt *** Documentary about efforts to turn bowling into a big-time spectator sport. While the movie is strong on the history of its subject, it allows some yawns to enter its own account of a big, heavily hyped tournament. Still, it's very entertaining.

Director: Paul Haggis. With Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Jennifer Esposito, Matt Dillon. (113 min.)

Sterritt *** Interlocking stories of diverse Los Angeles characters, from cops and crooks to folks caught in between. The writer of "Million Dollar Baby" makes his directing debut with a screenplay that often seems rigged and contrived, but comes to life via excellent acting and a philosophical argument that bigotry and benevolence are inextricably intertwined.

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