By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
Sadly, Brazilian director Walter Salles’ version of “On the Road” fails to capture the elation and awareness run amok that animate the novel. Though faithful to the characters and the narrative, the film cheats the audience on the context that drives the characters to embrace what were in the late 1940s not yet called alternative lifestyles.
"Dead Man Down" _ Danish director Niels Arden Oplev makes his Hollywood debut, re-teaming with his "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" star Noomi Rapace in this lifeless thriller about two lost souls bent on vengeance. Colin Farrell plays a brooding gangster, Victor, who's infiltrated the brutal gang of Alphonse (a typically velvety Terrence Howard) to avenge the deaths of his wife and daughter. He's joined in revenge by Rapace's Beatrice, who spies him from across a neighboring high-rise and blackmails him into killing the drunk driver that crashed into her. Her left eye is surrounded by scars from the accident, and though her beauty is hardly marred, children throw rocks and shout "Monster!" at her. The film either can't stomach having its star actress appear actually maimed, or it's simply too lazy to make Beatrice's motivations plausible. But such things are common in the preposterous dialogue and haphazard plotting in the screenplay by J.H. Wyman ("Fringe"). There's some solid noir atmosphere, courtesy of cinematographer Paul Cameron, but the tension finally bursts as inelegantly as it was manufactured. With, oddly, Isabelle Huppert as Beatrice's ditzy mom. R for violence, language throughout and a scene of sexuality. 118 minutes. One star out of four.
Suspending disbelief is a part of watching most any action film, where bullets fly like birds and mayhem explodes as easily as a shaken soda can. But even in such a contrived movie world, it's asking far too much for us to accept that Noomi Rapace would be hounded as a "monster" for a little scaring around her left eye.
William Shakespeare's comedy "Much Ado About Nothing" benefits from a lighthearted approach and an evenly-matched pair of verbal jousters to conduct a battle of the sexes. An accomplished, zestful production by Theatre for a New Audience that opened Sunday at The Duke on 42nd Street contains all that and more.
Two British royals on a Mini adventure drove through a red light Thursday on a promotional spin near the German capital's Brandenburg Gate.
Britain's royal family is attending Christmas Day church services _ with a few notable absences.
Queen Elizabeth II has hailed the holidays in a new dimension, delivering her Christmas message for the first time in 3D.
Is there such a thing as too much beauty _ as a criticism?
Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones are reuniting onstage to play sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick in Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing," London's Old Vic Theatre announced Monday.
Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones are reuniting onstage to play sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick in Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing," London's Old Vic Theatre announced Monday.
Joss Whedon figures if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be writing superhero stories. Only better ones than Whedon and his colleagues are doing.
Paintings by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Francis Bacon and a work featuring one ton of handmade porcelain sunflower seeds by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei are among the artworks leading a Wednesday night contemporary art sale at Sotheby's.
LONDON
A Virgin Atlantic employee has resigned following allegations she routinely fed information about the airline's celebrity clientele _ from Madonna to Sienna Miller _ to a paparazzi agency.
Queen Elizabeth II emphasized the importance of family in her Christmas message this year and her grandchildren brought some Christmas cheer to her husband, Prince Philip, as he recovered in a hospital after a heart procedure.
