Where The Heart Is offers charming, folksy fun; homespun wisdom; and an obstacle course of plot development (if the Wal-Mart angle weren't enough, there's also a kidnapping, a tornado, and at least half a dozen other major events thrown in). Director Matt Williams, who produced the popular sitcoms Roseanne and Home Improvement, takes television's cut-to-commercial route to make giant leaps in space and time from scene to scene. It's disorienting, but the remarkable female cast (which includes Sally Field in a cameo) lends plausiblilty to the muddle, even when you don't think anything more could possibly happen. --Shannon GeeAcademy Award winner Natalie Portman ("Black Swan") in an "utterly fearless performance" (Rob Nelson, Variety) stars as a newlywed trying to cope with guilt and loss in this sensitive and compelling modern drama adapt! ed by writer-director Don Roos ("The Opposite of Sex") from th! e novel by Ayelet Waldman. Portman plays Emilia, a law-school graduate who falls in love with her married boss, Jack (Scott Cohen, "The Understudy"). After Emilia marries Jack, her happiness turns unexpectedly to grief following the death of her infant daughter. Devastated, Emilia nonetheless carries on, attempting to forge a connection with her stepson William (Charlie Tahan, "I Am Legend") and to resist the interference of Jack's jealous ex-wife (Lisa Kudrow, "Easy A," "The Opposite of Sex"). Don Roos ("Happy Endings," "Bounce") demonstrates his keen eye for the nuances of love, loss, and rebuilding life in this heartfelt and touching drama.Director Don Roos (Happy Endings) and actress Natalie Portman (Black Swan) turn to Ayelet Waldman's novel for a fresh take on the other-woman melodrama. In adapting Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Roos starts after the affair and the marriage between two well-heeled New Yorkers, but there's no happily ever after for Emi! lia (Portman), a legal associate, and Jack (Scott Cohen), an attorney, because their baby succumbed to sudden infant death syndrome. Through an extended flashback, Roos fills in their story. Now their lives revolve around his sensitive 8-year-old son, William (Charlie Tahan), with his chilly ex-wife, Carolyne (Lisa Kudrow in her third outing with the filmmaker). If Emilia has trouble dealing with the loss, William has no such qualms, and can't understand her inability to move on. Then again, every time Emilia thinks she's made a breakthrough with the lad, something goes wrong, leading him to declare, "You're not sophisticated like me and my mom." Fortunately, Emilia has her mother (Debra Monk), sister (Elizabeth Marvel), and friends (Lauren Ambrose and Anthony Rapp) for support, though they're no match for Carolyne, whose resentment of Emilia would be more understandable if the screenplay didn't make her so unlikable--but she does get to reveal a flicker of humanity towards! the end. Still, this is Portman's show, and she's very good i! n depict ing the various stages of Emilia's grief, particularly in her scenes with Tahan. If The Other Woman lacks the director's customary humor, that adds to the sweetness of the resolution. --Kathleen C. FennessyA BALLET DANCER WINS THE LEAD IN SWAN LAKE AND IS PERFECT FOR THE ROLE OF THE DELICATE WHITE SWAN - PRINCESS ODETTE - BUT SLOWLY LOSES HER MIND AS SHE BECOMES MORE AND MORE LIKE ODILE THE BLACK SWAN, DAUGHTER OF AN EVIL MAGICIAN.Feverish worlds such as espionage and warfare have nothing on the hothouse realm of ballet, as director Darren Aronofsky makes clear in Black Swan, his over-the-top delve into a particularly fraught production of Swan Lake. At the very moment hard-working ballerina Nina (Natalie Portman) lands the plum role of the White Swan, her company director (Vincent Cassel) informs her that she'll also play the Black Swan--and while Nina's precise, almost virginal technique will serve her well in the former role, the latter will re! quire a looser, lustier attack. The strain of reaching within herself for these feelings, along with nattering comments from her mother (Barbara Hershey) and the perceived rivalry from a new dancer (Mila Kunis), are enough to make anybody crack… and tracing out the fault lines of Nina's breakdown is right in Aronofsky's wheelhouse. Those cracks are broad indeed, as Nina's psychological instability is telegraphed with blunt-force emphasis in this neurotic roller-coaster ride. The characters are stick figures--literally, in the case of the dancers, but also as single-note stereotypes in the horror show: witchy bad mommy, sexually intimidating male boss, wacko diva (Winona Ryder, as the prima ballerina Nina is replacing). Yet the film does work up some crazed momentum (and undeniably earned its share of critical raves), and the final sequence is one juicy curtain-dropper. A good part of the reason for this is the superbly all-or-nothing performance by Natalie Portman, who pa! cks an enormous amount of ferocity into her small body. Kudos,! too, to Tchaikovsky's incredibly durable music, which has meshed well with psychological horror at least since being excerpted for the memorably moody opening credits of the 1931 Dracula, another pirouette through the dark side. --Robert HortonSet against the futuristic landscape of totalitarian Britain, V For Vendetta tells the story of a mild-mannered young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman) who is rescued from a life-and-death situation by a masked man (Hugo Weaving) known only as "V." Incomparably charismatic and ferociously skilled in the art of combat and deception, V ignites a revolution when he urges his fellow citizens to rise up against tyranny and oppression. As Evey uncovers the truth about V's mysterious background, she also discovers the truth about herself - and emerges as his unlikely ally in the culmination of his plan to bring freedom and justice back to a society fraught with cruelty and corruption."Remember, remember the fifth of November," for on ! this day, in 2020, the minds of the masses shall be set free. So says code-name V (Hugo Weaving), a man on a mission to shake society out of its blank complacent stares in the film V for Vendetta. His tactics, however, are a bit revolutionary, to say the least. The world in which V lives is very similar to Orwell's totalitarian dystopia in 1984: after years of various wars, England is now under "big brother" Chancellor Adam Sutler (played by John Hurt, who played Winston Smith in the movie 1984), whose party uses force and fear to run the nation. After they gained power, minorities and political dissenters were rounded up and removed; artistic and unacceptable religious works were confiscated. Cameras and microphones are littered throughout the land, and the people are perpetually sedated through the governmentally controlled media. Taking inspiration from Guy Fawkes, the 17th century co-conspirator of a failed attempt to blow up Parliament on November 5, 1605! , V dons a Fawkes mask and costume and sets off to wake the ma! sses by destroying the symbols of their oppressors, literally and figuratively. At the beginning of his vendetta, V rescues Evey (Natalie Portman) from a group of police officers and has her live with him in his underworld lair. It is through their relationship where we learn how V became V, the extremities of the party's corruption, the problems of an oppressive government, V's revenge plot, and his philosophy on how to induce change.
Based on the popular graphic novel by Alan Moore, V for Vendetta's screenplay was written by the Wachowski brothers (of The Matrix fame) and directed by their protégé, James McTeigue. Controversy and criticism followed the film since its inception, from the hyper-stylized use of anarchistic terrorism to overthrow a corrupt government and the blatant jabs at the current U.S. political arena, to graphic novel fans complaining about the reconstruction of Alan Moore's original vision (Moore himself has dismissed the film). Many are val! id critiques and opinions, but there's no hiding the message the film is trying to express: Radical and drastic events often need to occur in order to shake people out of their state of indifference in order to bring about real change. Unfortunately, the movie only offers a means with no ends, and those looking for answers may find the film stylish, but a bit empty. --Rob Bracco
Beyond Vendetta
 The graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd |  More by Alan Moore |  Fro! m Graphic Novel to Big Screen |
 More by Natalie Portman |  More by Hugo Weaving |  More by the Wachowski Brothers |
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