sAVE XMAS WITH OUR openings & ratings T-SHIRTS, POSTERS, BUMPER STICKERS & A Christmas Tale (NR) GIFT CERTIFICATES! ((((( As perfect as a movie can be (( Mediocre, but with one or two bright spots Seven Pounds (PG-13) (((( Slightly flawed, but excellent nonetheless ( Poor, without any saving The Tale of Despereaux (G) graces ((( Has its good points, and its Yes Man (PG-13) bad points / La bomba at his command, as demonstrated by ear- through pains to keep viewers in a state of adds up to much less than the sum of its parts. lier, more nuanced, performances in small suspended half-confusion, but it is safe to The animation looks decent enough, but the dramas such as Six Degrees of Separation. reveal that Ben’s work involves helping dam- narrative is a choppy story that bobs among In the last few years, however, Smith the aged souls barely hanging on to society’s human characters in the human kingdom of actor has begun to reassert himself, push- bottom rung, in particular a beautiful young Dor, where soup seems to be its inhabitants’ ing Smith the dazzling, larger-than-life, box- woman (Dawson) who has a congenital main preoccupation, and the rodent residents 112 W ELIZABETH ST office phenomenon into the shadows. First heart defect but enough heart to nudge Ben of the separate municipalities of Mouseworld 609 W 29TH ST came Ali, then The Pursuit of Happyness, toward something resembling absolution. and Ratworld. Despereaux Tilling (voiced by movies that were conspicuously lacking Throughout the film, Smith proves himself Broderick) is a young mouse who is the shame VULCAN in that peculiar blend of goofball sincerity, adept in the art of conflicted melancholy – of his parents and all the rest of Mouseworld. self-mocking street toughness, and Dennis always speaking at the wrong volume, rarely He prefers to read books rather than eat them VIDEO.COM the Menace deviance that defined the Fresh looking people in the eye, all 1,000-yard and is more prone to acts of bravery than the FOREIGN. CULT. CLASSIC. Prince persona. Even his action roles start- stares and forced smiles – and Muccino ed turning noticeably dour: I Am Legend and responds to his star’s seriousness with 87 Hancock may have been marketed as bub- enough darkness and moral ambivalence to bly comic-book trifles, but they were really keep his story from toppling into heartwarm- ® about existential collapse, more concerned ing, pay-it-forward mawkishness. Together with survival than heroism. No longer was they’ve proved the once-unimaginable theory GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATIONS Smith the guy in the room everybody loved; that Smith is more likable the less he tries INCLUDING now he was the only guy in the room, with to make us like him. – Josh Rosenblatt all his imperfections on display – a char- ★★★★■Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, Alamo acter straight out of Camus, if Camus had Drafthouse South, Barton Creek Square, CM ever bothered to write about flesh-eating Cedar Park, Hill Country Galleria, CM Round (DRAMA) zombies. Now, with Seven Pounds, the trans- Rock, Southpark Meadows, Highland, Gateway, BEST PICTURE formation of Will Smith is complete: Gone is Metropolitan, Tinseltown North, Westgate 4 any trace of love-me impishness, replaced by one of the sourest pusses Hollywood has THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX seen since Joaquin Phoenix got his Screen D: Sam Fell, Rob Stevenhagen; with the voices of Actors Guild card. Smith plays Ben Thomas, Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson, “ a once-successful engineer who was ���� Tracey Ullman, Sigourney Weaver, Kevin Kline, William H. involved in an auto accident years before Macy, Stanley Tucci, Ciarán Hinds, Robbie Coltrane, Tony FOUR STARS SIMPLY and who now leads a desperate life of self- Hale, Frances Conroy, Frank Langella, Richard Jenkins, AREN’T ENOUGH FOR THIS loathing and regret. Seeking out the most Christopher Lloyd, Bronson Pinchot. (G, 93 min.) effective and productive means of self-flag- ENTERTAINING MASTERPIECE.” The lesson learned from The Tale of ellation, he devises an elaborate scheme LOU LUMENICK, NEW YORK POST of charity/contrition designed to save Despereaux is that an overabundance of strangers’ lives through the abandonment vocal talent does not a good cartoon make. of his own. I’m reluctant to say too much Adapted for the screen by Pleasantville about the plot of Seven Pounds, as direc- and Seabiscuit director Gary Ross from tor Muccino (reuniting with his Happyness the 2004 Newberry Medal-winning novel ROGER EBERT, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES star) and writer Grant Nieporte have gone by Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux
Seven Pounds CLAUDIA PUIG, USA TODAY
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