Mega Movie Guide 2005

At the disquieting center of the beautifully shot but somewhat stolid Merchant Ivory film "The White Countess" is Todd Jackson (Ralph Fiennes), a blind and disillusioned American diplomat who fulfills his fantasy of owning a nightclub in 1930s Shanghai. Natasha Richardson plays Russian émigré Countess Sofia, who is hired by Jackson to be his hostess even though he knows she moonlights as a prostitute to support her family. Vanessa Redgrave, Richardson's real-life mother, plays Sofia's aunt, and her real-life aunt, Lynn Redgrave, plays her mother-in-law, making this movie something of a family affair. But Fiennes's performance, tricky and impassioned, is the showpiece. Grade: B
- P.R.

Director: Geoffrey Sax. With Michael Keaton, Deborah Kara Unger, Ian McNeice. (98 min.)

A middle-aged architect believes his recently deceased wife is trying to contact him from "beyond" through VCRs and computer discs operated by a peculiar man he's just met. The story doesn't make much sense, but Keaton is good and McNeice is excellent as his oddball mentor. Grade: C
- D.S.

Sex/Nudity: None.
Violence: 7 scary scenes.
Profanity: 4 profanities, often harsh.
Drugs/Alcohol: 2 scenes with drinking.

Director: Judy Irving. With Mark Bittner, Judy Irving. (83 min.)

A nonfiction portrait of a West Coast eccentric who devotes his life to caring for a particular flock of wild parrots in his neighborhood. Lovely to look at, if not very deep in its thinking about relations between humans and their animal friends. Grade: B
- D.S.

Director: Jia Zhangke. With Chen Taisheng, Zhao Tao, Jing Jue, Jiang Zhong-wei. (139 min.)

The place is the World Park entertainment center in Beijing, which contains scaled-down versions of international landmarks. The characters are people who've come from all over China to work there. The themes are the globalization and homogenization of Eastern and Western cultures. Brilliant, from the sensitively filmed dramatic scenes to the atmospheric animated sequences that fill the screen whenever someone's cellphone receives a text message. In Mandarin and Shanxi dialect with subtitles. Grade: A
- D.S.

Director: Sally Potter. With Joan Allen, Sam Neill. (100 min.)

A laboratory researcher has an affair with a Lebanese physician who's emigrated to London and become a chef. The film tackles everything from geopolitical conflict to relations between science and religion, with all the dialogue in verse. The results are visually striking, but conceptually they oscillate between poetic, pretentious, and philosophically dubious. Grade: B
- D.S.

Director: Raja Gosnell. With Dennis Quaid, Rene Russo. (90 min.)

The film is a remake of a 1968 movie of the same title, starring Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball. But for audiences, the film's slapdash writing and slapstick performances by Quaid and Russo look more like a faithful mimicry of every other "big family" family comedy. Grade: C
- M.B.

Director: Jon Favreau. With Tim Robbins, Jonah Bobo. (113 min.)

Two squabbling brothers, home alone for a few minutes, find an old board game in the basement with mysterious, not to mention dangerous, properties. Once the duo sets the game in motion, they find their home adrift in outer space. Here, appropriately retro effects and family values outweigh an episodic script. Grade: B-
- M.K.T.

Sex/Nudity: 1 instance of mild innuendo.
Violence: 15 scenes.
Profanity: 5 mild expressions.
Drugs/Alcohol: None.

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