Reviews

I always enjoy Almodovar movies, but never as much as I think I'm supposed to.

"Volver," like other Almodovar films, has a beautiful story at its core -- this one about mothers and daughters, things left unsaid, secrets to be revealed, wrongs to be righted. All the actors, including Penelope Cruz in the lead role, are wonderful.

But once again, in my opinion, the movie slips away from him (and us), going off on tangents that don't deepen the experience, but rather detract from it. And I can't help but wonder why we had to have Almodovar explain to us once again that the world is made up mostly of wonderful women and worthless men.

At the Toronto Film Festival screening of "Volver" I attended, Almodovar introduced the film and brought his brother out on stage. His brother is also his producer, and Almodovar thanked him for allowing him to make movies the way he wants to.

What Almodovar needs is someone who will occasionally say "No" to him.

Despite smart visuals and sweet performances from Cristina Ricci, James McAvoy and the wonderful Peter Dinklage, "Penelope" is a disappointment. The fable, about a young woman who must break a curse that has given her a physical deformity, never breaks out of the predictable.

I love fables, so I was ready to be charmed. But "Penelope" falls short. Instead of witty and intelligent, the film goes for slapstick and farce. Catherine O'Hara and Richard E. Grant are wasted as the cardboard and needlessly silly parents of Ricci's character.

My partner and I saw it in its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. It received a standing ovation at the end. Either we were crazy or the hall was filled with the producer's family members and friends.

Introducing the film, a festival official praised it somberly as a movie that will inspire young people who face obstacles in their lives.

I don't think so.

I saw this film in its North American premiere in a packed theater at the Toronto Int'l Film Festival this past week and was pleased to be part of a standing ovation at the end for the director and star, who were both on hand.

"The Lives of Others," set in East Germany not long before the fall of the Berlin Wall, tells the moving story of a police investigator forced to confront himself and the work he does. In a society poisoned by secrecy, fear and the abuse of power, a number of the movie's characters -- artists, actors, writers -- must look deep inside and decide what they are made of; none more so than the investigator.

This is a movie that took me to a place and time that felt very authentic, for a tale that was very satisfying.

Ulrich Muhe, who plays the investigator, is mesmerizing, and the young director is to be applauded for this, his first full-length film. Some have compared "The Lives of Others" to Coppola's "The Conversation" but the two have completely different story arcs and are only superficially similar.

Both my companion and I felt this was our favorite of the six films we had a chance to see at the festival.