the big picture
Now in Theatres
November 2
MARTIAN CHILD
Who’s In It? John Cusack, Bobby Coleman
Who Directed? Menno Meyjes (Max)
What’s It About? After his fiancée dies, a sci-fi writer (Cusack) adopts a strange boy (Coleman) who says he’s from Mars.
BEE MOVIE
Voices: Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellweger
Who Directed? Steve Hickner, Simon J. Smith
What’s It About? Brainy bee Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld) faces the grim prospect of spending his short life making honey for the Honex Corporation in New Hive City. But when he befriends a human florist (Zellweger) he discovers people have been stealing honey from bees for centuries. Incensed, Barry takes legal action and sues the human race.
AMERICAN GANGSTER
Who’s In It? Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe
Who Directed? Ridley Scott (A Good Year)
What’s It About? This ’70s-set drama poses an interesting question: Is it okay to respect — even admire — a ruthless drug dealer? The film is based on the exploits of real-life drug lord Frank Lucas (Washington), who smuggled heroin into his Harlem neighbourhood inside the coffins of dead U.S. soldiers returning from Vietnam, but who also served as a community leader. Crowe plays cop Richie Roberts, who intends to take down a man he grudgingly admires. See Russell Crowe and
Denzel Washington interview.
LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
Who’s in it? Ryan Gosling, Patricia Clarkson
Who directed? Craig Gillespie (Mr. Woodcock)
What’s it about? When a socially awkward man (Gosling) orders a rubber doll off the internet, names it Bianca, and makes it his girlfriend, his therapist (Clarkson) advises his friends and family to go along with the delusion. But what will Lars do when a real girl (Kelli Garner) shows interest in him?
November 9
FRED CLAUS (pictured above)
Who’s In It? Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti
Who Directed? Dennis Dugan (Wedding Crashers)
What’s It About?
Santa (Giamatti) gives his troublemaking older brother Fred (Vaughn) a
final chance to clean up his act by bringing him home to the North Pole
where he’s expected to help the family prepare for Christmas. But
Fred’s more interested in partying with the elves than assembling toys.
POOR BOY’S GAME
Who’s In It? Danny Glover, Rossif Sutherland
Who Directed? Clément Virgo (Lie With Me)
What’s It About? In this Halifax-set story of racism and redemption, Sutherland plays Donnie, a white boxer who went to jail for nine years after beating a black kid so brutally it left him handicapped. Once Donnie’s released, he has to deal with a very angry community.
JIMMY CARTER MAN FROM PLAINS
Who’s In It? Jimmy Carter, Rossalyn Carter
Who Directed? Jonathan Demme (Neil Young: Heart of Gold)
What’s It About? Demme follows the 39th President of the United States across the States on a promotional tour for his controversial new book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
LIONS FOR LAMBS
Who’s In It? Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep
Who Directed? Robert Redford (The Legend of Bagger Vance)
What’s It About? America’s war on terror once again takes centre stage in this drama that interconnects three storylines: a liberal college professor (Redford) trying to inspire a privileged, politically apathetic student; the rescue of two of the prof’s former pupils, who’ve enlisted in the military and are shot down while on mission in Afghanistan; and finally the attempt of an ambitious right-wing Senator (Cruise) to persuade a TV journalist (Streep) to air a story focusing on his party’s strategic plan to end the war. See Meryl Streep interview.
DARFUR NOW
Who’s In It? Don Cheadle, Hillary Rodham Clinton
Who Directed? Ted Braun (debut)
What’s It About? Braun, an assistant professor in screenwriting at the University of Southern California, spent four months in Sudan’s Darfur region documenting the area’s humanitarian crisis. He puts the spotlight on a group of individuals who are trying to stop the suffering, including actor Cheadle, politician Clinton and International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.
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November 16
BEOWULF
Who’s In It? Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie
Who Directed? Robert Zemeckis (Polar Express)
What’s It About?
Directors love their filmmaking toys, and Zemeckis has been championing
PC (Performance Capture) animation ever since he used it — with limited
success — to make Polar Express.
The good news is that the technology has evolved, and now the eerie
effect, which manipulates time and space and gives actors a
plastic-looking sheen, is being used to tell the age-old tale of
warrior Beowulf (a slimmed down Winstone), who is summoned by King
Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) to kill the monster Grendel (Crispin Glover)
and dispose of Grendel’s demonic mom (Jolie). Also playing in IMAX 3D and Digital 3D where available.
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LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
Who’s In It? Javier Bardem, Benjamin Bratt
Who Directed? Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
What’s It About? Florentino (Bardem) has been in love with Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) since he was a boy. But Fermina marries the very upright Doctor Urbino (Bratt), and for the next 50 years the lovesick Florentino continues to court and woo the only woman he’s ever loved. The movie, filmed in Cartagena, Colombia, is based on the novel by Gabriel García Márquez. See Jarvier Bardem interview.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Who’s In It? Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem
Who Directed? Joel and Ethan Coen (Intolerable Cruelty)
What’s It About? Hot Spanish actor Bardem pops up as the killer with the worst haircut since Chucky in this moody morality tale/modern western helmed by the Coen Brothers. Set in Southwest Texas, the film stars Brolin as a young buck who stumbles across a pickup truck, two dead bodies, a load of heroin and $2-million in cash. He takes the money, thus becoming the target of the oh-so nasty Bardem.
MR. MAGORIUM’S WONDER EMPORIUM
Who’s In It? Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman
Who Directed? Zach Helm (debut)
What’s It About? Stranger than Fiction scribe Helm makes his directorial debut with this family flick about a toy shop populated with magical toys and run by the eccentric Mr. Magorium (Hoffman). When the 243-year-old Magorium decides to retire, he hands the shop over to his clerk (Portman), which sends the store’s playthings into a tizzy.
BREAKFAST WITH SCOT
Who’s In It? Tom Cavanagh, Ben Shenkman
Who Directed? Laurie Lynd (House)
What’s It About? Closeted former Toronto Maple Leaf player-turned-sportscaster Eric (Cavanagh) and his partner Sam (Shenkman) unexpectedly become the guardians of Scot, a gay 11-year-old who’s partial to wearing makeup and has absolutely no interest in sports. Will Scot’s arrival force Eric and Sam out of their cozy closet?
November 18
WWE-PAY-PER-VIEW
Survivor Series
Countdown Show starts at 7 p.m. ET, live show at 8 p.m. ET. Who will survive when WWE Superstars collide? Edge returns to the ring joining WWE Champion John Cena, Triple H, Batista, Undertaker, Rey Mysterio and more. Check www.cineplex.com for a list of theatres where you can watch it live, and to buy tickets.
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Kerri Russell and Terrence Howard in August Rush
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November 21
AUGUST RUSH
Who’s In It? Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell
Who Directed? Kristen Sheridan (Disco Pigs)
What’s It About?
Talented musician Lyla (Russell) and talented musician Louis (Jonathan
Rhys Meyers) have a brief affair, Lyla gets pregnant, and then gives
her baby up for adoption. Flash forward 11 years when their orphan son
August (Highmore), a musical prodigy, heads to Manhattan to search for
his parents. Terrence Howard plays a social worker.
ENCHANTED
Who’s In It? Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey
Who Directed? Kevin Lima (102 Dalmatians)
What’s It About?
Poor Princess Giselle (Adams), an evil Queen (Susan Sarandon)
transforms her from a cartoon character into a flesh-and-blood woman
and deposits her onto the mean streets of New York. Although her fairy
tale lover, Prince Edward (James Marsden), follows her to the Big Apple, Giselle may have found herself a new Prince Charming in the form of a handsome lawyer (Dempsey). |
HITMAN
Who’s In It? Timothy Olyphant, Olga Kurylenko
Who Directed? Xavier Gens (Frontier(s))
What’s It About? The popular videogame series is locked and loaded for its big-screen debut. Olyphant stars as the genetically engineered assassin Agent 47, and while in the videogame the merciless Agent 47 would never fall for a gal, it seems on screen the killer feels a stirring of emotion for one of his targets, the Russian beauty Nika (Kurylenko).
November 23
MARGOT AT THE WEDDING
Who’s In It? Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Who Directed? Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale)
What’s It About? Baumbach channels the spirit of the late Ingmar Bergman for this black comedy focusing on the critical, nitpicking Margot (Kidman) and her teenage son Claude (Zane Paris), who travel to her sister Pauline’s (Leigh) wedding to the underachieving Malcolm (Jack Black).
THIS CHRISTMAS
Who’s In It? Columbus Short, Regina King
Who Directed? Preston A. Whitmore II (Crossover)
What’s It About? Sparks fly when the Whitfield clan reunites to celebrate their first Christmas together in four years.
THE MIST
Who’s In It? Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden
Who Directed? Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption)
What’s It About? From the mind of Stephen King comes this creepy, claustrophobic tale about a group of people trapped inside a store enveloped by a deadly mist. Some of the folks think they should try to escape, others believe the mist is God’s punishment against humanity and prepare for the end. It doesn’t take long before the opposing groups are at each other’s throats.
November 30
I’M NOT THERE
Who’s In It? Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger
Who Directed? Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven)
What’s It About? Believing he could never neatly encapsulate the life of troubadour Bob Dylan, director Haynes takes the unconventional approach of casting six different actors — Blanchett, Ledger, Richard Gere, Christian Bale, Marcus Carl Franklin and Ben Whishaw — to portray Dylan during various stages of his life. The result is a cinematic potpourri that keeps your head spinning and re-invents the bio-pic for good measure. See Todd Haynes interview.