EASY VIRTUE ****
The droll poise of playwright Noel Coward is returned to the screen in Stephan Elliot's "Easy Virtue." A firecracker of a period comedy brought to life by some of today's most elegant actors, "Virtue" possesses marvelous edge, wit, and pace, yet this latest incarnation of the 1924 play should be defined by one single, utterly shocking element: Jessica Biel. Turns out the young lady can act some, keeping up with the tempo of this culture comedy like seasoned pro.
Returning to his childhood estate in rural England, John Whittaker (Ben Barnes) is eager to show off his new wife, daredevil American race car driver Larita (Jessica Biel), to his dysfunctional family, including his uptight Mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) and disconnected Father (Colin Firth). Without even trying, Larita's brash American ways strike fear into the heart of the family, leaving the young woman a bored, confused outcast halfheartedly attempting to fit in with traditions she wants nothing to do with. Fearing her marriage is in jeopardy, Larita makes a concentrated effort to befriend her nervous mother-in-law, finding the emotional ice between them indissoluble, and the old-fashioned interaction of the estate's residents too constricting for comfort.
A production by the world-famous Ealing Studios, "Easy Virtue" endeavors to depict a bygone oral rhythm to its screen comedy. Using Coward's acidic social criticism as a starting point, Elliot burns through the material with extraordinary speed, imagining Larita's sudden entrance into the imposing Whittaker household as a psychological Normandy invasion, with verbal bullets fired in every direction as the family struggles to take in the extravagance of Larita and her crude foreign ways.
It's a constant juggling act for Elliot, who's required to find a sense of depth to the story while making sure the comedy is served up with a mind-spinning tartness as the golden one-liners roll out one after the other. Elliot handles the substantial workload quite satisfactorily, paying careful attention to scene transitions and performance velocity to help grease the way for the ornate dialogue and eventual arrival of melodrama. It's shot and edited beautifully by the production, setting a snappy pace early on, enlivened by the dramatic possibilities of frustrated feminist Larita trapped in the viper's nest of conservative England.
On one hand there's Thomas and Firth finding delicious beats to play as the bewildered parental figures, with Mrs. Whittaker chiefly cramped between an allegiance to her dear son and her natural offense to anything American. Still, Biel comes off the strongest, partially because she's never delivered this accomplished a performance before. As a platinum-blonde bombshell that places her adventures on hold to try on marriage for a second time, Larita is a tricky character used by Coward to define the slapstick, heartbreak, and social defiance of the period. Biel gets to Larita's soul quickly, and she's able to verbally joust with her co-stars seamlessly. It's a role that fits Biel well, nicely showcasing nuances and confidence she's rarely offered the camera before. The bonus features include audio commentary by director  Stephan Elliott and screenwriter Sheridan Jobbins, deleted scenes and a blooper reel.  Go behind the scenes of Easy Virtue Jessica Biel talks about what it felt like being a fish out of water among her English co-stars in the adaptation of Noel Coward's play Easy Virtue, playing an American who takes the wealthy British Whittaker family by storm, impetuously marrying the family's handsome son, John (played by Ben Barnes).  Read more

FUNNY PEOPLE *****
A touching and rewarding insight into the mind of the stand-up comic at his most game, blistered, and vulnerable, while remaining true to the spirit of solitude the occupation all but demands.
With "40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up," writer/director Judd Apatow created a special comedic identity that combined slacker geek sentimentality with crude, winding improvisational stings. It suited him well at the box office, but "Funny People" bravely detaches from Apatow's comfort zone, though in a crafty manner that perhaps doesn't provide an intensive genre-shifting challenge for the filmmaker. However, there's just enough of a shove into uncharted waters of callous behavior to maintain an intriguing bite to the essential rolls of laughter.
George Simmons (Adam Sandler) is a stand-up comic who's made it to the big time, becoming a worldwide celebrity through a battery of box office smashes and stage dominance. Diagnosed with a rare blood disease, George is left to contemplate his lonely existence, looking back on ex-girlfriend Laura (Leslie Mann) as a major point of unfinished business in his life. Stumbling upon Ira (Seth Rogen, doing a delightful take on starry-eyed surprise), a struggling stand-up, George finds a makeshift comedic soul mate, taking the inexperienced funny man into his life for jokes and companionship. Still holding onto medical hope, George decides to seek out Laura and sever her seemingly unhappy marriage to Aussie bully Clarke (Eric Bana), while Ira stands in firm protest, but unable to challenge his boss and unwilling to torpedo his amazing show business education.
"Funny People" isn't precious and its luxurious 145 minute running time just flies by. Thankfully, there's a bundle of laughs to help ease into the hazy psychological discomfort, with the entire cast getting in their fair share of punch lines, including amusing supporting work from Jason Schwartzman, Jonah Hill, and Aubrey Plaza. It's wonderful to watch the cast interact so fluidly, yet committed to an awkward sense of detachment that plagues the vocation. "Funny People" nails some priceless clumsy moments through improvs and situational uneasiness, but it's never a sitcom. Apatow finds reality as much as possible, though he indulges his mischievous sense of humor here and there, always to uproarious results.
It's not a head-snapping change of pace for Judd Apatow, yet "Funny People" is far more acidic and remorseless than anything he's attempted before.
The Bonus features includes the extended cut which is highly recommended.

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THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE *****
The Time Traveler's Wife" is based on the best-selling book about a love that transcends time.
Clare (Rachel McAdams) has been in love with Henry (Eric Bana) her entire life.  She believes they are destined to be together, even though she never knows when they will be separated: Henry is a time traveler--cursed with a rare genetic anomaly that causes him to live his life on a shifting timeline, skipping back and forth through the years with no control.  Despite the fact that Henry's travels force them apart with no warning, and never knowing when they will be reunited, Clare desperately tries to build a life with her one true love.
"The Time Traveler's Wife" was directed by Robert Schwentke ("Flightplan") from a screenplay by Academy Award^® winner Bruce Joel Rubin ("Ghost"), based on the novel by Audrey Niffenegger.
The Bonus Features include interviews with Rachel McAdama, Eric Bana, director Robert Schwentke and screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin recounting the popular journey, and a feature on 'Love Beyond Words'.  Go behind the scenes of The Time Traveler's Wife

GRACIE *****
If you are a fan of BBC drama, this superb romantic drama is an absolute must.
Filmed as part of the BBC's Women We Loved season, featuring a trio of excellent performances from Jane Horrocks, Tom Hollander, and David Dawson, this excellent television film - which would have been better titled Gracie and Monty, gently portraying the oft troubled marriage and courtship of singing superstar, Gracie Fields, and Italian filmmaker, Monty Banks - proves to be a thoroughly entertaining, quietly eye-opening, and really rather moving work
In 1939 Gracie Fields, the 'Queen of Hearts', is at the height of her success as a singer and actress and the whole nation seems to wish her a speedy recovery from cervical cancer. When World War Two breaks out, Gracie sings for the troops despite poor health, to the dismay of her fussy husband, film director Monty Banks, an Italian, born Mario Bianchi. With Italy's entry into the war Monty is in danger of being interned so Gracie consents to his moving to America whilst she tours Canada, fund-raising for the war effort. She is accused of deserting the country which made her famous and booed offstage, though she later tours battlefields as a singer. With the war over she regains popularity, performing 'Take Me To Your Heart Again' at the London Palladium

PUBLIC ENEMIES *****
No other filmmaker has explored the psyches of people caught in extreme circumstances with the dominating consistency and cinematic power of MICHAEL MANN.  For three decades, Mann has remained one of cinema's most compelling filmmakers, and his level of artistry has created an indelible influence on the medium.  From Thief, Manhunter, Ali and Heat to The Last of the Mohicans and The Insider, as well as Collateral and Miami Vice, his lasting dramas have brought to the screen a series of tough, iconic figures embodied by the most commanding actors of our time. 
Now, in his most ambitious and timely project to date, the seminal gangster saga Public Enemies, Michael Mann directs one of our most gifted contemporary actors (JOHNNY DEPP of Pirates of the Caribbean series, Sweeney Todd) in the story of the fast and dangerous life of John Dillinger.
In the film, Mann teams with Depp to examine the man whose criminal exploits captivated a nation besieged by financial hardship and ready to celebrate a mythic figure who robbed the banks that had impoverished them and outsmarted the authorities who had failed to remedy their hard times, who inspired the first nationwide war on crime, who led a band of accomplished armed robbers on a cascade of dazzling heists and improbable breakouts, and whose dashing manner and charisma entranced not only a special woman but an entire country: legendary Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger.
For the epic action-thriller, Mann directs Depp, CHRISTIAN BALE (The Dark Knight, Terminator Salvation) and Academy Award winner MARION COTILLARD (La Vie en Rose, A Good Year) in the story of Dillinger, whose well-choreographed bank robberies made him the number-one target of J. Edgar Hoover's (BILLY CRUDUP of Watchmen, The Good Shepherd) fledgling FBI and its top agent, Melvin Purvis (Bale).
No one could stop Dillinger and his gang.  No jail could hold him.  His charm and audacious jailbreaks endeared him to almost everyone--from his girlfriend Billie Frechette (Cotillard) to Americans who were looking for a symbol to divert them from their everyday hardships.  They found it in the man who took from the banks the monies they felt the banks had wrongly taken from them.
But while the adventures of Dillinger's gang--later including the sociopathic Baby Face Nelson (STEPHEN GRAHAM of Gangs of New York, Snatch) and robber/kidnapper Alvin Karpis (GIOVANNI RIBISI of Cold Mountain, Lost in Translation)--thrilled many, Hoover planned to exploit the outlaw's capture as a way to elevate his Bureau of Investigation into the national police force that became the FBI.  He made Dillinger America's first Public Enemy Number One and sent in Purvis, the dashing "Clark Gable of the FBI," to snare him.  Read more about the film

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