May 2008

Movie lovers are in for quite a treat this month, as May’s Books into Movies feature boasts one of the first and biggest “summer blockbusters” of the season, as well as a couple of lesser-known independent films that promise to pack quite an emotional punch for cinephiles in the mood for something a bit more dramatic and innovative.

Hitting the big screen on May 16th is the eagerly anticipated Prince Caspian, the second installment in C. S. Lewis’s beloved The Chronicles of Narnia series that is sure to bring out the bedtime story-loving child in all of us. Also not to be missed is Fugitive Pieces, the emotionally wrought war drama based on Anne Michaels’s acclaimed novel, and The Tracey Fragments, Ellen Page’s post-Juno indie arthouse film.

New on DVD this month is the heartwarming tear jerker P.S. I Love You, and Youth Without Youth, Francis Ford Coppola’s philosophical study on life, love and the passage of time.

Fugitive Pieces
Cast: Stephen Dillane, Rade Sherbedgia, Rosamund Pike, Ayelet Zurer, Robbie Kay, Ed Stoppard, Rachelle Lefevre
Director: Jeremy Podeswa
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Company
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: May 2nd (limited)
Based on: FUGITIVE PIECES by Anne Michaels

Fugitive Pieces is a poetic and emotionally charged film about love, loss and redemption. The film, written and directed by Jeremy Podeswa and produced by Robert Lantos, tells the story of Jakob Beer, a man whose life is haunted by his childhood experiences during World War II. As a child in Poland, Jakob is orphaned during wartime only to be saved by a compassionate Greek archaeologist. Over the course of his life, he attempts to deal with the losses he has endured. Through his writing and the discovery of his true love, Jakob is ultimately freed from the legacy of his past.


The Tracey Fragments
Cast: Ellen Page, Ari Cohen, Max McCabe-Lokos, Erin McMurtry, Zie Souwand, SlimTwig, Julian Richings
Director: Bruce McDonald
Distributor: ThinkFilm
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated
Release Date: May 9th (limited)
Based on: THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS by Maureen Medved

Fifteen-year-old Tracey Berkowitz is riding around a pre-blizzard urban wasteland on the back of a city bus, naked except for the tattered curtain she’s wrapped in, and looking for her missing brother (whom she has hypnotized to think he’s a dog).


The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Cast: Ben Barnes, Lian Neeson, Tilda Swinton, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Eddie Izzard, Warwick Davis, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes
Director: Andrew Adamson
Distributor: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
MPAA Rating: PG
Release Date: May 16th (wide)
Based on: THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN by C. S. Lewis

The characters of C. S. Lewis’s timeless fantasy come to life once again in this newest installment of The Chronicles of Narnia series, in which the Pevensie siblings are magically transported back from England to the world of Narnia, where a thrilling, perilous new adventure and an even greater test of their faith and courage await them.

One year after the incredible events of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, the Kings and Queens of Narnia find themselves back in that faraway wondrous realm, only to discover that more than 1,300 years have passed in Narnian time. During their absence, the Golden Age of Narnia has become extinct, Narnia has been conquered by the Telmarines and is now under the control of the evil King Miraz, who rules the land without mercy.

The four children will soon meet an intriguing new character: Narnia’s rightful heir to the throne, the young Prince Caspian, who has been forced into hiding as his uncle Miraz plots to kill him in order to place his own newborn son on the throne. With the help of a kindly dwarf, Trumpkin, a courageous talking mouse named Reepicheep, a badger named Trufflehunter and a Black Dwarf, Nikabrik, the Narnians, led by the mighty knights Peter and Caspian, embark on a remarkable journey to find Aslan, rescue Narnia from Miraz’s tyrannical hold, and restore magic and glory to the land.

New on DVD:

April 2008

The films spotlighted in April’s Books into Movies feature each promise to tell some memorable tales, with truly heartfelt, emotional and even bone-chilling performances from their star-studded casts, including the likes of Jodie Foster, Jena Malone, Uma Thurman, Colin Firth, Helen Hunt and Matthew Broderick.

Lovers of horror will delight in The Ruins, based on the acclaimed thriller by Scott Smith, whose previous novel inspired the 1998 Oscar-nominated crime drama, A Simple Plan. This heart-pounding roller-coaster ride follows six friends who get far more than they bargained for during an archaeological trip to the Mexican jungle.

Delivering far less bloody but equally heavy doses of drama are the films The Life Before Her Eyes --- in which a 30-something woman still struggles to make peace with a tragic event she experienced in high school --- and Helen Hunt’s directorial debut, Then She Found Me, about a schoolteacher who longs for a child of her own in the face of her crumbling marriage, the death of her adopted mother and the discovery of her biological one.

Nim’s Island, based on the children’s book by Wendy Orr, offers a family-friendly breath of fresh air as a young girl calls upon her literary idol to help rescue her missing father, unaware that her hero is --- in fact --- a reclusive agoraphobe.

Movie and book lovers will have the perfect excuse to spend a Saturday night in on April 12th, when the small-screen adaptation of Kim Edwards’s bestseller and book club fave, THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHTER, premieres on Lifetime Network. Dermot Mulroney, Gretchen Mol and Emily Watson bring to life this heart-wrenching story of a doctor who --- upon discovering that one of his newborn twins suffers from Down syndrome --- makes an impulsive decision that will forever alter the lives of everyone involved.

And last but certainly not least, we have a brand new addition to our Books into Movies feature. Each month we will now let you know about the films based on books that are being released on DVD. April’s lineup includes Reservation Road, Charlie Wilson’s War and The Golden Compass. See our complete list here.


Nim’s Island
Cast: Abigail Breslin, Jodie Foster, Gerard Butler
Directors: Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett
Distributor: Fox Walden, Summit Entertainment, LLC
MPAA Rating: PG
Release Date: April 4th (wide)
Based on: NIM’S ISLAND by Wendy Orr

Anything can happen on Nim’s Island, a place where imagination runs wild and adventure rules. Here, a feisty young girl named Nim, surrounded by her exotic animal friends and inspired by legends and books, leads an amazing tropical existence that mirrors that of her favorite literary hero: Alex Rover, the world’s greatest adventurer. When her island is threatened she reaches out to her hero for help.

But what Nim doesn’t know is that the acclaimed author of the Rover books is, in fact, Alexandra Rover, a retiring, fainthearted recluse locked away in a big city apartment. Now, as Alexandra nervously ventures forth into the world and Nim faces the biggest challenge of her exciting young life, they must both draw courage from the fictional gallantry of Alex Rover and find strength in one another to save Nim’s Island.


The Ruins
Cast: Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore, Laura Ramsey, Joe
Anderson, Dimitri Baveas
Director: Carter Smith
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: April 4th (wide)
Based on: THE RUINS by Scott B. Smith

Based on the terrifying bestseller by Scott Smith, The Ruins follows a group of friends who become entangled in a brutal struggle for survival after visiting a remote archaeological dig in the Mexican jungle where they discover something deadly among the ruins.


Life Before Her Eyes
Cast: Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood, Eva Amurri, Oscar Isaac
Director: Vadim Perelman
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: April 18th (limited)
Based on: THE LIFE BEFORE HER EYES by Laura Kasischke

Imaginative, impetuous and wild Diana can’t wait for her adult life to begin. Whiling away the final days of high school in the lush springtime, Diana tests her limits with sex and drugs as her more conservative friend Maureen watches with concern. But Diana’s aura of invincibility is shattered when a senseless act of violence erupts at school, forever changing the lives of the two best friends.

Fifteen years later, a grown Diana is still trying to come to terms with the traumatic events of that fateful day.

On the surface, the adult Diana has made a picture perfect life for herself. She’s still living in the sleepy Connecticut suburb she grew up in with her husband Paul, a professor at the local college. Her beautiful young daughter, Emma, is smart and creative, and possesses a fiercely independent streak reminiscent of her mother. But all is not well. As the anniversary of her adolescent trauma approaches, the darkness that Diana has tried to escape closes in. Meanwhile, her husband has become increasingly absent, her daughter has taken to hiding from teachers, and worst of all, Diana’s own grip on reality is starting to falter.


Then She Found Me
Cast: Helen Hunt, Bette Midler, Colin Firth, Matthew Broderick, Ben Shankman
Director: Helen Hunt
Distributor: ThinkFilm
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: April 25th (limited)
Based on: THEN SHE FOUND ME by Elinor Lipman

Adapted from Elinor Lipman’s novel of the same name, Helen Hunt makes her feature debut with Then She Found Me, a touching story of schoolteacher April Epner and her very unlikely pat towards personal fulfillment. Following the separation from her husband and the death of her adopted mother, April is contacted by her apparent birth mother, who turns out to be local talk show host Bernice Graves. As Bernice tries to become the mother to April that she was never able to be, April seems to find solace in the arms of the parent of one of her students, only to find that the mystery to life’s questions cannot be solved by a simple revelation.


Made-for-TV movie:

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
Cast: Dermot Mulroney, Gretchen Mol, Emily Watson
Air Date: April 12th at 9pm ET/PT on Lifetime Network
Based on: THE MEMORY KEEPER’S DAUGHER by Kim Edwards

The birth of a child should be the happiest moment in a couple's life. But when a doctor's wife has twins, one of whom has Down syndrome, this physician makes the difficult decision to send one of his babies away. An attending nurse discovers his plan and intervenes, putting into motion events that will haunt the doc, his wife and his son for the next 20 years.

New on DVD:

March 2008

In case you’re in the mood for something with a little more substance than Hollywood blockbusters featuring superhero spoofs or scantily dressed people on the run from woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers, March’s Books into Movies feature offers a handful of literary alternatives for lovers of drama, independent films and even whimsical fairy tales. From the flashy 21 --- based on the true events of how MIT math whizzes turned high rollers scammed Vegas casinos out of millions --- and the edgier Gus Van Sant-ified adaptation of Blake Nelson’s YA novel PARANOID PARK, to the star-studded big-screen version of Dr. Seuss’s beloved HORTON HEARS A WHO!, this month’s movies based on books promise to be intense and thought provoking, as well as lighthearted and uplifting.

Relationship woes abound this month with the release of Married Life --- an offbeat, dark dramedy about a man’s bumbling attempts to kill his wife in order to be with a younger woman --- as well as Snow Angels, an emotionally wrought examination of two established marriages that crumble as a new romance begins to blossom. Providing a much lighter perspective on matters of the heart is Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, an adult Cinderella story based on the 1938 novel by Winifred Watson, in which a down-and-out nanny and her new boss help each other to straighten out their tangled love lives.


Married Life
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, Rachel McAdams
Director: Ira Sachs
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: March 7th (limited)
Based on: FIVE ROUNDABOUTS TO HEAVEN by John Bingham

Harry decides he must kill his wife Pat because he loves her too much to let her suffer when he leaves her. He and his much younger girlfriend Kay are head over heels in love, but his best friend Richard wants to win Kay for himself. As Harry implements his awkward plans for murdering his wife, the other characters are occupied with their own deceptions. Like Harry, they are overwhelmed by their passions, but still struggle to avoid hurting others.

Married Life is an uncommonly adult film that surprises and confounds expectations. While it plays with mystery and intrigue, its ultimate concern is: “What is married life?”


Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Cast: Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Lee Pace, Ciaran Hinds, Shirley Henderson
Director: Bharat Nalluri
Distributor: Focus Features
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: March 7th (limited)
Based on: MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY by Winifred Watson

In 1939 London, Miss Guinevere Pettigrew is a middle-aged governess who finds herself once again unfairly dismissed from her job. Without so much as a severance pay, Miss Pettigrew realizes that she must --- for the first time in two decades --- seize the day. This she does, by intercepting an employment assignment outside of her comfort level --- as “social secretary.” Arriving at a penthouse apartment for the interview, Miss Pettigrew is capitulated into the glamorous world and dizzying social whirl of an American actress and singer, Delysia Lafosse.

Within minutes, Miss Pettigrew finds herself swept into a heady high-society milieu --- and, within hours, living it up. Taking the “social secretary” designation to heart, she tries to help her new friend Delysia navigate a love life and career, both of which are complicated by three men in Delysia’s orbit: devoted pianist Michael, intimidating nightclub owner Nick and the impressionable junior impresario Phil. Miss Pettigrew herself is blushingly drawn to the gallant Joe, a successful designer who is tenuously engaged to haughty fashion maven Edythe --- the one person who senses that the new “social secretary” may be out of her element, and schemes to undermine her.

Over the next 24 hours, Guinevere and Delysia will empower each other to discover their romantic destinies.


Paranoid Park
Cast: Taylor Momsen, Gabe Nevins, Dan Liu, Jake Miller, Lauren McKinney
Director: Gus Van Sant
Distributor: First Take (IFC)
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: March 7th (limited)
Based on: PARANOID PARK by Blake Nelson

An unsolved murder at Portland’s infamous Paranoid Park brings detectives to a local high school, propelling a young skater into a moral odyssey where he must not only deal with the pain and disconnect of adolescence but the consequences of his own actions.


Snow Angels
Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, Michael Angarano, Jeannetta Arnette, Griffin Dunne, Nicky Katt, Tom Noonan, Amy Sedaris, Olivia Thirlby
Director: David Gordon Green
Distributor: Warner Independent Pictures
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: March 7th (limited)
Based on: SNOW ANGELS by Stewart O’Nan

High school student Arthur plays trombone in the marching band, busses tables at the local Chinese restaurant and avoids his squabbling parents. At work, he flirts with Annie, who used to be his babysitter. Annie is trying to build a new life for herself and her daughter after splitting with high school sweetheart Glenn. A man with a troubled past, Glenn hopes to make a new start by getting a job and reconnecting with his family.

At school, Arthur meets a pretty girl, Lila, who is just as nerdy as he is, and they quickly develop a crush on each other. Though Lila makes her feelings for Arthur painful obvious, Arthur is reluctant to accept her advances as he watches his father move out of the family home while his mother struggles to keep things together. Determined to find happiness, Arthur begins to fall for the irresistible Lila, even as he witnesses Annie and Glenn tear each other apart in a series of distressing encounters at the same time as his parents begin separate lives.

Then, on a cold winter morning, Glenn and Annie’s past catches up with their future. In one shocking moment, all of the pain and struggle comes to a screeching halt. For them, and everyone who knows them, nothing will ever be the same.


Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!
Cast: Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Seth Rogen, Dane Cook, Amy Poehler, Jesse McCartney, Will Arnett, Carol Burnett
Directors: Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
MPAA Rating: G
Release Date: March 14th (wide)
Based on: HORTON HEARS A WHO! by Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! is about an imaginative elephant who hears a cry for help coming from a tiny speck of dust floating through the air. Suspecting there may be life on that speck and despite a surrounding community that thinks he has lost his mind, Horton is determined to help.


21
Cast: Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Spacey
Director: Robert Luketic
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: March 28th (wide)
Based on: BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich

Ben Campbell is a shy, brilliant MIT student who --- needing to pay school tuition --- finds the answers in the cards. He is recruited to join a group of the school’s most gifted students that heads to Vegas every weekend armed with fake identities and the know-how to turn the odds at blackjack in their favor. With unorthodox math professor and stats genius Micky Rosa leading the way, they’ve cracked the code.

By counting cards and employing an intricate system of signals, the team can beat the casinos big time. Seduced by the money, the Vegas lifestyle, and his smart and sexy teammate Jill Taylor, Ben begins to push the limits. Though counting cards isn’t illegal, the stakes are high, and the challenge becomes not only keeping the numbers straight, but staying one step ahead of the casinos’ menacing enforcer: Cole Williams.

January and February 2008

With the likes of Marley & Me, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Inkheart and the second installment of The Chronicles of Narnia among the many films scheduled to be released in the months ahead, this year is shaping up to be a fantastic one for movies based on books. January and February boast a couple of highly anticipated films of the blockbuster variety, as well as some thought-provoking, spine-tingling, brow-raising and heart-wrenching flicks that will start ’08 off with a bang.

Hitting the big screen in wide release on January 4th is One Missed Call, based on the Japanese horror novel CHAKUSHIN ARI, which was also adapted for Japanese cinema in 2003. Following in the footsteps of The Ring, The Grudge and Dark Water, this American remake follows a woman who witnesses the deaths of two close friends whose final, horrifying moments were predicted in cell phone messages they each received prior to their murders.

Already receiving quite a bit of hype before their February release dates are The Other Boleyn Girl --- based on Philippa Gregory’s bestselling historical fiction novel about two sisters’ feud for the affections of King Henry VIII --- and The Spiderwick Chronicles, adapted from the hugely popular children’s series about a family who comes to live with their uncle and discovers a world of magic within the parameters of his dilapidated Victorian mansion.

Also coming to theaters in February are Jumper, a sci-fi adventure about a young man gifted with the ability to teleport; The Counterfeiters, based on the true story of the largest money-counterfeiting operation in history that took place during the Third Reich; and The Duchess of Langeais, a period romance based on Honore de Balzac’s novella about unrequited love.


January

One Missed Call
Cast: Shannyn Sossamon, Ed Burns, Ana Claudia Talancon, Ray Wise, Azura Skye
Director: Eric Valette
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: January 4th (wide)
Based on: CHAKUSHIN ARI by Yasushi Akimoto and Mayumi Shihou

Beth Raymond is traumatized when she witnesses the gruesome deaths of two friends just days apart. Even more disturbing, she knows that both of them received chilling cell phone messages --- actual recordings of their own horrifying last moments. Impossibly, the calls were received days before they died. But each death occurred precisely when and how the messages foretold.

The police think Beth is delusional --- except for Detective Jack Andrews, whose own sister was killed in a freak accident that bears a strange similarity to the deaths of Beth’s friends. Together, Jack and Beth work feverishly to unravel this mystery behind the ominous calls.

But even as they get closer to the truth, Beth’s cell phone begins to ring with an eerie tune, and the readout says One Missed Call…


February

Jumper
Cast: Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Bell, Diane Lane, Rachel Bilson, Michael Rooker, Katie Boland, Louie Torrellas
Director: Doug Liman
Distributor: 20th Century Fox Distribution
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: February 14th (wide)
Based on: JUMPER by Steven Gould

A genetic anomaly allows a young man to teleport himself anywhere. He discovers that this gift has existed for centuries and finds himself in a war that has been raging for thousands of years between "Jumpers" and those who have sworn to kill them.


The Spiderwick Chronicles
Cast: Freddie Highmore, Mary-Louise Parker, Nick Nolte, Joan Plowright, David Strathairn, Seth Rogen
Director: Mark Waters
Distributors: Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies
MPAA Rating: PG
Release Date: February 15th (wide)
Based on: The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black

Peculiar things start to happen the moment the Grace family (Jared, his twin brother Simon, sister Mallory and their mom) leave New York and move into the secluded old house owned by their great, great uncle, Arthur Spiderwick. Unable to explain the strange disappearances and accidents that seem to be happening on a daily basis, the family blames Jared. When he, Simon and Mallory investigate what’s really going on, they uncover the fantastic truth of the Spiderwick estate and the creatures that inhabit it.


The Counterfeiters
Cast: Karl Markovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Martin Brambach, August Zimer, Sebastian Urzendowsky
Director: Stefan Ruzowitsky
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: February 22nd (limited)
Based on: THE DEVIL’S WORKSHOP by Adolf Burger

It is shortly after the end of the war. A man sits on the beach in glamorous Monte Carlo, the gamblers' paradise. It is Salomon Sorowitsch, 45, who wears a shabby, threadbare suit, but carries a suitcase full of money. We can see a concentration camp number tattooed on his arm.

Flashback: Berlin, 1936. Sorowitsch, the King of Counterfeiters, moves in a world of swindlers, gigolos and easy women. For him, life is a game for which you need money --- and the money he needs, he prints himself. With a solid portion of pragmatism and an even greater portion of creativity, he manages to stay on the bright --- and safe --- side of life. But perhaps it only seems like it...

The Duchess of Langeais
Cast: Jeanne Balibar, Guillaume Depardieu, Michel Piccoli, Bulle Ogier, Barbet Schroeder
Director: Jacques Rivette
Distributor: First Take (IFC), Les Films du Losange, Artificial Eye Company, Ltd.
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated
Release Date: February 22nd (limited)
Based on: The novella "La Duchesse De Langeais" by Honore De Balzac

Antoinette is the Duchess of Langeais, a married coquette who frequents the most extravagant balls in 1820s Paris during the Restoration, where hypocrisy and vanity reign. Upon the handsome general, Armand de Montriveau’s first meeting with her, he realized it was true love from that moment on. Flattered by his attentions, the alluring Antoinette orchestrates a calculating game of seduction, but she repeatedly refuses Montriveau. Despite his sincere romantic declarations, Montriveau’s passion remains unfulfilled. When the humiliated Montriveau eventually seeks his revenge, Antoinette’s love awakens, but it may well be too late for the star-crossed lovers.


The Other Boleyn Girl
Cast: Natalie Portman, Eric Bana, Scarlett Johansson, Rue McClanahan, Kristin Scott Thomas
Director: Justin Chadwick
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing, Focus Features
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: February 29th (wide)
Based on: THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL by Philippa Gregory

Based on the bestselling novel by Philippa Gregory, The Other Boleyn Girl is an engrossing and sensual tale of intrigue, romance and betrayal set against the backdrop of a defining moment in history. Two sisters, Anne and Mary Boleyn, are driven by their ambitious Father and Uncle to advance the family’s power and status by courting the affections of the King of England. Leaving behind the simplicity of country life, the girls are thrust into the dangerous and thrilling world of court life --- and what began as a bid to help their family develops into a ruthless rivalry between Anne and Mary for the love of the King.

November and December 2007

Now that November is finally here, there’s much to look forward to --- frosty weather, belt-busting festive meals and a fantastic lineup of buzzworthy movies perfect for the end-of-the-year blockbuster holiday season. With such an influx of literary adaptations hitting the box office, we thought we’d get ahead in this latest Books into Movies feature and spotlight all of the upcoming films in the next couple of months based on some of our favorite reads --- ranging from Stephen King’s eerie exploration of the darker side of human nature in The Mist to the charming, lighthearted and family-friendly tale about the origins of the infamous Loch Ness monster in The Water Horse.

Literary fiction lovers will need to make multiple trips to the theater in November and December, as four highly anticipated movies based on the works of true literary heavyweights are hitting the big screen. The Kite Runner, Love in the Time of Cholera, Atonement and No Country for Old Men are already causing quite a stir, and these poignant and provocative films are bound to inspire a few tears, as well as shatter some box office records in the process.

Not to be missed by moviegoers of any age is The Golden Compass, the first film in Philip Pullman’s award-winning His Dark Materials trilogy. This epic fantasy features a star-studded cast and chronicles the adventures of a young orphan in an alternate universe who sets out to save her best friend from a mysterious organization and learns she must save the world as well.

Those in the mood for something a little more innovative and offbeat will delight in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly --- based on the awe-inspiring true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, who penned his memoirs entirely through blinking after he suffered from stroke-induced paralysis --- and Persepolis, an animated autobiographical film adapted from Marjane Satrapi’s bestselling graphic novels about her experiences growing up in Iran.



November

Martian Child
Cast: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Joan Cusack, Sophie Okonedo, Oliver Platt, Bobby Coleman, Richard Schiff
Director: Menno Meyjes
Distributor: New Line Cinema
MPAA Rating: PG
Release Date: November 2nd (wide)
Based on: THE MARTIAN CHILD: A Novel About a Single Father Adopting a Son by David Gerrold

A recently widowed science fiction writer forms an unlikely family with a close friend and a young boy he adopts who claims to be from Mars. The new couple ignores some sage parenting advice from the widower’s sister and gets more than they bargained for when a series of strange occurrences leads them to believe that the child’s claim may be true.


No Country for Old Men
Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Kelly MacDonald, Woody Harrelson, Stephen Root
Directors: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Distributor: Paramount Vantage, Miramax Films
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: November 9th (limited)
Based on: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN by Cormac McCarthy

The story begins when Llewelyn Moss finds a pickup truck surrounded by a sentry of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back. When Moss takes the money, he sets off a chain reaction of catastrophic violence that not even the law --- in the person of aging, disillusioned Sheriff Bell --- can contain. As Moss tries to evade his pursuers --- in particular a mysterious mastermind who flips coins for human lives --- the film simultaneously strips down the American crime drama and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible, and as bloodily contemporary as this morning’s headlines.


Beowulf
Cast: Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Hellion Glover, Alison Lohman, Angelina Jolie
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: November 16th (wide)
Based on: BEOWULF
Movie Tie-in: BEOWULF by Caitlin R. Kiernan and Neil Gaiman

In the age of heroes comes the mightiest warrior of them all, Beowulf. After destroying the overpowering demon Grendel, he incurs the underlying wrath of the beast’s ruthlessly seductive mother, who will use any means possible to ensure revenge. The ensuing epic battle resonates throughout the ages, immortalizing the name Beowulf.


Love in the Time of Cholera
Cast: Javier Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Benjamin Bratt, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Hector Elizondo, Liev Schreiber, Fernanda Montenegro, Laura Harring, John Leguizamo
Director: Mike Newell
Distributor: New Line Cinema
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: November 16th (wide)
Based on: LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Florentino Ariza is a poet and telegraph clerk who discovers his life’s passion when he sees Fermina Daza through the window of her father’s villa. Through a series of passionate letters, Florentino gradually awakens the young beauty’s heart, but her father is furious when he learns of the affair and vows to keep them apart forever.

As the years go by, Fermina marries the sophisticated aristocrat Dr. Juvenal Urbino, who has brought order and medicine to Cartagena, stemming the waves of cholera that mysteriously besiege the city. He sweeps her away to Paris for years, and when they start their life together back in Cartagena, she has all but forgotten her first love.

But Florentino has not forgotten her. Now a wealthy shipowner, he engages in a series of affairs but still yearns for Fermina. His heart is patient, and he will wait a lifetime for his chance to be with her again.


The Mist
Cast: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones, Bill Sadler, Jeffrey Demunn, Frances Sternhagen, Alexa Davalos, Nathan Gamble, Chris Owen, Sam Witwer, Robert Treveiler, David Jensen
Director: Frank Darabont
Distributor: MGM Distribution Company
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: November 21st (wide)
Based on: THE MIST by Stephen King

David Drayton and his young son Billy are among a large group of terrified townspeople trapped in a local grocery store by a strange, otherworldly mist. David is the first to realize that there are things lurking in the mist…deadly, horrifying things…creatures not of this world. Survival depends on everybody in the store pulling together. But is that possible, given human nature? As reason crumbles in the face of fear and panic, David begins to wonder what terrifies him more: the monsters in the mist --- or the ones inside the store, the human kind, the people who until now had been his friends and neighbors?

In this legendary tale of terror from master storyteller Stephen King, the thin veneer of civilization is stripped away, the masks are discarded and the true horror is revealed as us.


Starting Out in the Evening
Cast: Frank Langella, Lauren Ambrose, Lili Taylor, Adrian Lester
Director: Andrew Wagner
Distributor: Roadside Attractions
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: November 23rd (limited)
Based on: STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING by Brian Morton

All that remains for Leonard Schiller is his work. His one enduring goal in life is to finish the novel whose completion has eluded him for 10 years. With his earlier books out of print, he has learned to starve himself of the desire for the success he was once so close to, though beneath this practice lies a pull for his work to be rediscovered. Schiller’s main contact to the world is through his daughter, Ariel, with whom he has settled into an amiable relationship, though he must hide his disappointment that at 39 she remains befuddled by life, still looking for love and a father for a longed-for child. Schiller’s world is shaken when Heather Wolfe, a smart, ambitious graduate student, convinces him that she can use her thesis on his work to bring him back into the literary world spotlight.


Chronicles of an Escape
Cast: Rodrigo de la Serna, Nazareno Casero, Lautaro Delgado, Matias Marmorato, Pablo Echarri
Director: Israel Adrian Caetano
Distributor: First Take (IFC)
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: November 28th (limited)
Based on: PASE LIBRE by Claudio Marcello Tamburrini

Buenos Aires, 1977. A task force working for the fascist Argentine military government kidnaps Claudio Tamburrini, goalkeeper of a B-league soccer team, and takes him to a clandestine center known as Sere Mansion: a forbidding old building in the suburban neighborhood of Moron. Claudio enters a living hell of interrogations, beatings, humiliations and betrayals. A nightmare world of arbitrary lunatic rules and relentless violence, mental and physical. Alongside other young detainees, he battles to survive while awaiting his fate to be decided. After four months of imprisonment, with execution looking certain, Claudio and three other prisoners make their desperate move. Forcing open a window in the middle of a thunderstorm, completely naked, they jump into the void. Their flight into the future begins.


The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josee Croze, Anne Consigny, Patrick Chesnais, Niels Arestrup, Olatz Lopez Garmendia, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Marina Hands, Max von Sydow
Director: Julian Schnabel
Distributor: Miramax
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: November 30th (limited)
Based on: THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY: A Memoir of Life in Death (LE SCAPHANDRE ET LA PAPILLON) by Jean-Dominique Bauby

Jean-Dominique Bauby, aka "Jean-Do," the high-flying editor of French Elle and father of two, was renowned for his sense of humor and style, his joie de vivre and amorous energy, when, in an instant, his world was plunged into the depths of catastrophe. Faced with a harrowing predicament, Jean-Do will use enormous courage and determination but, most of all, his soaring imagination to escape from his trap. Tapping into the limitlessness of his memories, fantasies, wit and wishes, he finds a way to race through experiences of wonder and grief, sex and love, fatherhood and childhood, faith and questioning, ecstasy and absurdity --- and touches the very essence of what it is to be human.

Along the way he is buoyed by a quintet of remarkable women: Céline, the mother of his children who remains devoted to him despite his betrayal; Inés, the girlfriend who still haunts him; Henriette and Marie, who give Jean-Do the power to re-connect with the world and his loved ones; and Claude, who becomes his ravishing literary assistant.



December

Atonement
Cast: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave, Brenda Blethyn, Vanessa Redgrave, Saoirse Ronan
Director: Joe Wright
Distributor: Focus Features, Universal Pictures International
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: December 7th (limited)
Based on: ATONEMENT by Ian McEwan

The film opens in England in 1935, on the hottest day of the year. In the looming shadow of World War II Briony Tallis and her family live a life of wealth and privilege in their enormous Victorian Gothic mansion. As the family gathers for the weekend, the combination of the oppressive heat and long suppressed emotions coming to the surface create an ominous sense of threat and danger.

Briony, a fledgling writer, is a girl with a vivid imagination. Through a series of catastrophic misunderstandings, she accuses Robbie Turner, the housekeeper’s son and lover of her sister Cecilia, of a crime he did not commit. The accusation destroys Robbie and Cecilia’s newfound love and dramatically alters the course of all their lives.


The Golden Compass
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Dakota Blue Richards, Sam Elliott, Eva Green, Daniel Craig, Tom Courtenay, Christopher Lee
Directors: Chris Weitz and Robert Shaye
Distributor: New Line Cinema
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Release Date: December 7th (wide)
Based on: THE GOLDEN COMPASS: His Dark Materials, Book 1 by Philip Pullman

Based on author Philip Pullman's novel, The Golden Compass is an exciting fantasy adventure set in an alternative world where people's souls manifest themselves as animals, talking bears fight wars, and Gyptians and witches co-exist. At the center of the story is Lyra, a 12-year-old girl who starts out trying to rescue a friend who's been kidnapped by a mysterious organization known as the Gobblers --- and winds up on an epic quest to save not only her world, but ours as well.


I Am Legend
Cast: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Dash Mihok, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith, Charlie Tahan
Director: Francis Lawrence
Distributor: Warner Brothers Pictures Distribution
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Release Date: December 14th (wide)
Based on: I AM LEGEND by Richard B. Matheson

Robert Neville is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable and man-made. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and maybe the world. For three years, Neville has faithfully sent out daily radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. But he is not alone. Mutant victims of the plague --- the infected --- lurk in the shadows…watching Neville’s every move…waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind’s last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But he knows he is outnumbered…and quickly running out of time.


The Kite Runner
Cast: Khalid Abdalla, Homayon Ershadi, Shaun Toub, Atossa Leoni, Said Tashimaoui
Director: Marc Forster
Distributor: Paramount Vantage
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: December 14th (limited)
Based on: THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini

In a divided country on the verge of war, two childhood friends, Amir and Hassan, are about to be torn apart forever. It's a glorious afternoon in Kabul and the skies are bursting with the exhilarating joy of a kite-fighting tournament. But in the aftermath of the day's victory, one boy's fearful act of betrayal will mark their lives forever and set in motion an epic quest for redemption. Now, after 20 years of living in America, Amir returns to a perilous Afghanistan under the Taliban's iron-fisted rule to face the secrets that still haunt him and take one last daring chance to set things right.


Youth Without Youth
Cast: Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Granz, Andre Hennicke, Marcel Iures
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: December 14th (limited)
Based on: YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH by Mircea Eliade

Dominic Matei is an aging professor of linguistics who survives a cataclysmic event to find his youth miraculously restored. Dominic’s physical rejuvenation is matched by a highly evolved intellect, which attracts the attention of Nazi scientists, forcing him into exile. While on the run, he reunites with his lost love, Laura, and works to complete his research into the origins of human language. When his research threatens Laura’s well being, Dominic is forced to choose between his life’s work and the great love of his life.


P. S. I Love You
Cast: Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Gina Gershon, Lisa Kudrow, Harry Connick Jr., Jeffrey Dean Morgan, James Marsters, Kathy Bates, Marcus Collins
Directors: Richard LaGravenese and Steven Rogers
Distributor: Warner Brothers Pictures Distribution
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: December 21st (wide)
Based on: P. S. I LOVE YOU by Cecelia Ahern

Holly Kennedy is beautiful, smart and married to the love of her life --- a passionate, funny and impetuous Irishman named Gerry. So when Gerry’s life is taken by an illness, it takes the life out of Holly. The only one who can help her is the person who is no longer there. Nobody knows Holly better than Gerry. So it’s a good thing he planned ahead.

Before he died, Gerry wrote Holly a series of letters that will guide her, not only through her grief but in rediscovering herself. The first message arrives on Holly’s 30th birthday in the form of a cake and to her utter shock, a tape recording from Gerry, who proceeds to order her to get out and “celebrate herself.” In the weeks and months that follow, more letters from Gerry are delivered in surprising ways, each sending her on a new adventure and each signing off in the same way --- P. S. I Love You.

With Gerry’s words as her guide, Holly embarks on a touching, exciting and often hilarious journey of rediscovery in a story about marriage, friendship and how a love so strong can turn the finality of death into new beginning for life.


Charlie Wilson’s War
Cast: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Ned Beatty
Director: Mike Nichols
Distributor: Universal Pictures
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Release Date: December 25th (wide)
Based on: CHARLIE WLSON’S WAR: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times by George Crile

Charlie Wilson’s War is the true story of how a playboy congressman, a renegade CIA agent and a beautiful Houston socialite joined forces to lead the largest and most successful covert operation in history. Their efforts contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, with consequences that reverberate throughout the world today. Oscar winners Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman team with Academy Award-winning director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin to bring George Crile’s bestselling book to the screen.


Persepolis
Cast: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Simon Abkarian, Gabrielle Lopes, Francois Jerosme
Directors: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: December 25th (limited)
Based on: PERSEPOLIS: The Story of a Childhood and PERSEPOLIS 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis is the poignant story of a young girl in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It is through the eyes of a precocious and outspoken nine-year-old Marjane that we see a people’s hopes dashed as fundamentalists take power --- forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. Clever and fearless, she outsmarts the “social guardians” and discovers punk. Yet when her uncle is senselessly executed in the Iran/Iraq war, the daily fear that permeates life in Iran is palpable.

As she gets older, Marjane’s boldness causes her parents to worry over her continued safely. And so, at age 14, they make the difficult decision to send her to school in Austria. Vulnerable and alone in a strange land, she endures the typical ordeals of a teenager. Over time, she gains acceptance and even experiences love, but after high school she finds herself alone and horribly homesick. Though it means putting on the veil and living in a tyrannical society, Marjane decides to return to Iran to be close to her family.


The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep
Cast: Emily Watson, Alex Etel, Ben Chaplin, David Morrissey, Brian Cox
Director: Jay Russell
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
MPAA Rating: PG
Release Date: December 25th (wide)
Based on: THE WATERHORSE written by Dick King-Smith, illustrated by David Parkins

Rooted in one of the most enduring and intriguing legends of our time, The Water Horse begins with an enchanted egg. What hatches will set in motion an adventure that will take a young boy on the unforgettable journey of a lifetime.


There Will Be Blood
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciaran Hinds, Kevin J. O’Connor, Dillon Freasier
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Distributor: Paramount Vantage, Miramax International
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: December 26th (limited)
Based on: OIL! by Upton Sinclair

There Will Be Blood is set on the incendiary frontier of California’s turn-of-the-century petroleum boom. The story chronicles the life and times of one Daniel Plainview, who transforms himself from a down-and-out silver miner raising a son on his own into a self-made oil tycoon. When Plainview gets a mysterious tip-off that there’s a little town out West where an ocean of oil is oozing out of the ground, he heads with his son, H.W., to take their chances in dust-worn Little Boston. In this hardscrabble town, where the main excitement centers around the holy roller church of charismatic preacher Eli Sunday, Plainview and H.W. make their lucky strike. But even as the well raises all of their fortunes, nothing will remain the same as conflicts escalate and every human value --- love, hope, community, belief, ambition and even the bond between father and son --- is imperiled by corruption, deception and the flow of oil.

October 2007

The films in October's Books into Movies feature aren't of the haunted-house or slasher-fest variety that you'd expect so close to Halloween, but this month’s lineup still packs quite a treat for moviegoers of all ages and interests, ranging from the profound history of O Jerusalem! to the bizarrely uplifting dramedy of Wristcutters: A Love Story.

Provoking goose bumps for entirely different reasons than your typical Hollywood serial killers and supernatural creatures, The Girl Next Door --- based on Jack Ketchum's nonfiction account of the same name --- details the shocking and cringe-worthy true events of a young girl’s torture at the hands of a foster parent gone mad. Much less graphic but equally as heart-wrenching are the gritty police procedural Gone Baby Gone --- about the abduction of a four-year-old girl in one of the toughest neighborhoods in Boston --- and the dark drama Reservation Road, a film that captures every parent's worst fear as two families are irrevocably changed after a hit-and-run accident.

For lighter fare, take the kids to see The Seeker, which brings Susan Cooper's YA novel THE DARK IS RISING to the big screen. This sci-fi/fantasy adventure promises a breathtaking battle of epic proportions between the forces of good and evil in the tradition of The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.


The Girl Next Door
Cast: Blythe Auffarth, Daniel Manche, Blanch Baker, William Atherton, Grant Show
Director: Gregory M. Wilson
Distributor: Modern Ciné
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: October 3rd (limited)
Based on: THE GIRL NEXT DOOR by Jack Kechum

Based on true events, The Girl Next Door is a dark thriller set in 1958 that tells the story of a pair of recently orphaned girls in the care of Ruth Chandler, a woman slowly going mad. Ruth decides that she must discipline the girls and encourages her three young sons to share in the girls' punishments. David, their 12-year-old neighbor, has developed an innocent crush on the older sister. As the summer progresses, he finds himself a witness to her sadistic torture. He wants to stop the abuse, but first he must find an adult who will believe his unlikely story. More importantly, he must find the strength to betray his best friends and their mother --- an adult he has looked up to all his life.


The Seeker: The Dark is Rising
Cast: Amelia Warner, Gregory Smith, Alexander Ludwig, Christopher Eccleston, Ian McShane, Frances Conroy, Jonathan Jackson
Director: David L. Cunningham
Distributor: Fox-Walden Media
MPAA Rating: PG
Release Date: October 5th (wide)
Based on: THE DARK IS RISING by Susan Cooper
 
A young man named Will Stanton discovers that he is the last of a group of immortals dedicated to fighting dark forces of evil. Traveling back and forth through time, Will uncovers a series of clues, some dating back to biblical times, that lead him to a showdown with forces of unimaginable power.


Gone Baby Gone
Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Monoghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, John Ashton, Amy Ryan, Amy Madigan, Titus Welliver
Director: Ben Affleck
Distributor: Miramax Films
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: October 19th (limited)
Based on: GONE, BABY, GONE by Dennis Lehane

The story begins in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester, where the gritty, working-class streets are lined with the wreckage of broken families and dreams. It is here that four-year-old Amanda McCreedy has gone missing without a trace. The police have failed to turn up even the narrowest of leads, so Amanda’s desperate Aunt and Uncle plead with local private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angie Genarro to take the case.

Though they’re wary to jump in, Patrick and Angie know the neighborhood and they also know the truth about Amanda’s drug-addicted mother Helene. As they dig into her story, they find themselves on a trail that winds into the heart of Dorchester and through a chain of drug-dealers, ex-cons and child abusers, but brings them no closer to Amanda. In the glare of the media spotlight, they join forces with a relentless detective Remy Bressant and police captain Jack Doyle --- but just as it appears that the emotionally wrenching case is about to be cracked, in the flash of gunfire, the sad truth of Amanda’s fate is revealed.


Reservation Road
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly, Mira Sorvino, Elle Fanning
Director: Terry George
Distributor: Focus Features
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: October 19th (limited)
Based on: RESERVATION ROAD by Jonathan Burnham Schwartz

On a warm September evening, college professor Ethan Learner, his wife Grace and their daughter Emma are attending a recital. Their 10-year-old son Josh is playing cello --- beautifully, as usual. His younger sister looks up to him, and his parents are proud of their son. On the way home, they all stop at a gas station on Reservation Road. There, in one terrible instant, he is taken from them forever.

On a warm summer evening, law associate Dwight Arno and his 11-year-old son Lucas are attending a baseball game. Their favorite team, the Red Sox, is playing --- and hopefully heading to the World Series. Dwight cherishes his time spent with Lucas. Driving his son back to his ex-wife, Lucas’s mother Ruth Wheldon, Dwight heads towards his fateful encounter at Reservation Road. The accident happens so fast that Lucas is all but unaware, while Ethan --- the only witness --- is all too aware, as a panicked Dwight speeds away.

The police are called, and an investigation begins. Haunted by the tragedy, both fathers react in unexpected ways, as do Grace and Emma. As a reckoning looms, the two fathers are forced to make the hardest choices of their lives.


Wristcutters: A Love Story
Cast: Patrick Fugit, Shannyn Sossamon, Shea Wigham, Will Arnett, Leslie
Bibb, John Hawkes, Clayne Crawford
Director: Goran Dukic
Distributor: Lionsgate
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: October 19th (limited)
Based on: The novella “Kneller’s Happy Campers” by Etgar Keret, from THE BUS DRIVER WHO WANTED TO BE GOD & OTHER STORIES

From the moment Zia cuts his wrists and enters a bizarre afterlife reserved for suicides, this film becomes a strangely uplifting, darkly comic tale about a journey through the hereafter. This is a world where everyone still bears the scars earned from the manner in which they “offed” while the everyday reality is a twisted mirror image of our own mortal world.

When Zia begins his search for his long lost love, he encounters a variety of memorable individuals, be it a disillusioned suicide bomber or an angel in disguise, but it is in Eugene, an inscrutable Russian musician, and Mikal, an accidental tourist, that he finds his closest friends. This trio of lost souls forms an uncommon bond as they set out on a journey across the afterlife in search of what they could not find in their previous lives.


O Jerusalem!
Cast: J. J. Field, Said Taghmaoui, Patrick Bruel, Maria Papas, Ian Holm, Tovah Feldshuh
Director: Elie Chouraqui
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: October 24th (limited)
Based on: O JERUSALEM! by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins

O Jerusalem! meticulously recreates the historic struggle surrounding the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. At the center of these events are two young American friends --- one Jewish, the other Arab. The film is told from the alternating viewpoints of the Jews, Arabs and Brits, all of whom collide in their fight for control of Jerusalem while bringing to the forefront themes of courage, terrorism, deprivation, politics and a strong sense of morality. Their involvement takes them from the streets of New York to the Holy Land, where they risk their lives --- making incredible sacrifices along the way --- to fight for what they believe in, as the city of their dreams teeters on the brink of destruction.

September 2007

With adaptations of reading group favorites like The Jane Austen Book Club and heartwarming young adult novels like December Boys, September’s Books into Movies feature offers an eclectic lineup of introspective, thought-provoking and emotionally-driven films perfect to get the wheels turning after three long and lazy months of summer.

Lovers of literary fiction will have much to enjoy this month, from the seductive historical romance of Silk --- based on the novel of the same name by Italian award-winning author Alessandro Baricco --- and the charming, romantic dramedy Feast of Love, to The Inner Life of Martin Frost, the story within the story of Paul Auster’s THE BOOK OF ILLUSIONS.

Gritty coming-of-age tales abound with the rather twisted Fierce People --- the story of a teenage boy’s first experiences in love, sex, drugs, and more amidst the rich and eccentric --- and Sean Penn’s Into the Wild, which brings to the big screen Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction account of a young man’s journey toward self-discovery that results in tragic consequences.

Fierce People
Cast: Diane Lane, Anton Yelchin, Donald Sutherland, Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Perkins, Paz de la Huerta, Blu Mankuma, Chris Evans
Director: Griffin Dunne
Distributors: Lions Gate, After Dark Films, Autonomous Films
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: September 7th (limited)
Based on: FIERCE PEOPLE by Dirk Wittenborn

Trapped in his mother’s Lower East Side apartment, 16-year-old Finn wants nothing more than to escape New York and spend the summer in South America studying the Iskanani Indians, or "Fierce People," with the anthropologist father he’s never met. But Finn’s dreams are shattered when he is arrested in a desperate effort to help his drug-dependent mother, Liz, who scrapes by working as a masseuse.

Determined to get their lives back on track, Liz moves the two of them into a guesthouse on the vast country estate of her ex-client, the aging aristocratic billionaire, Ogden C. Osbourne. In Osbourne’s close world of privilege and power, Finn and Liz encounter a tribe fiercer and more mysterious than anything they might find in the South American jungle: the super rich. While Liz battles her substance abuse and struggles to win back her son’s love and trust, Finn falls in love with Osbourne’s beautiful granddaughter, Maya, befriends her charismatic older brother, Bryce, and even wins the favor of Osbourne himself.

But when a shocking act of violence shatters Finn’s ascension within the Osbourne clan, the golden promises of this lush world quickly sour. And both Finn and Liz, caught in a harrowing struggle for their dignity, discover that membership always comes at a price…

The Inner Life of Martin Frost
Cast: David Thewlis, Irêne Jacob, Michael Imperioli, Sophie Auster
Director: Paul Auster
Distributor: Gemini Films
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Release Date: September 7th (limited)
Based on: THE BOOK OF ILLUSIONS by Paul Auster

A writer awakens one day to find a strange but beautiful woman in bed with him. He quickly falls in love with her, but as time passes and she becomes more and more unattainable, he’s left to wonder if perhaps she is only a figment of his imagination.

December Boys
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Lee Cormie, Christian Byers, James Fraser, Jack Thompson
Director: Rod Hardy
Distributors: Warner Independent Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures International
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: September 14th (limited)
Based on: DECEMBER BOYS by Michael Noonan

The "December Boys" are a close-knit band of four adolescent orphans all with the same birth month. The boys’ hope of ever being adopted grows slimmer with each passing year, and it isn’t until their first summer away from the orphanage that the fading hope of finding parents becomes a real possibility --- for one of them. The boys are befriended by a young couple who, unable to fall pregnant, decide to adopt one of the boys. They compete to be the most adoptable, severely testing their friendships when long gestating feelings of rejection explode to the surface. The boys’ deep friendship eventually overcomes their rivalries, sealing forever the strong ties that bind them.

Silk
Cast: Keira Knightley, Alfred Molina, Michael Pitt, Koji Yakusho, Sei Ashina
Director: Francois Gerard
Distributors: Picturehouse, New Line International
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: September 14th (limited)
Based on: SILK by Alessandro Baricco

In the mid-19th century, a silkworm merchant travels from France to Japan to locate silkworm eggs that are uncontaminated by the epidemic that threatens Europe's silk supply. The merchant falls in love with the occidental concubine of a Japanese baron, though he has a loyal and doting wife awaiting his return.

Into the Wild
Cast: Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart, Hal Holbrook
Director: Sean Penn
Distributor: Paramount Vantage
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: September 21st (limited)
Based on: INTO THE WILD by Jon Krakauer

Freshly graduated from college with a promising future ahead, 22-year-old Christopher McCandless instead walked out of his privileged life and into the wild in search of adventure. What happened to him on the way transformed this young wanderer into an enduring symbol for countless people. Was Christopher McCandless a heroic adventurer or a naïve idealist, a rebellious 1990s Thoreau or another lost American son, a fearless risk-taker or a tragic figure who wrestled with the precious balance between man and nature?

McCandless’s quest took him from the wheat fields of South Dakota to a renegade trip down the Colorado River to the non-conformists’ refuge of Slab City, California, and beyond. Along the way, he encountered a series of colorful characters at the very edges of American society who shaped his understanding of life and whose lives he, in turn, changed. In the end, he tested himself by heading alone into the wilds of the Great North, where everything he had seen and learned and felt came to a head in ways he never could have expected.

The Jane Austen Book Club
Cast: Kathy Baker, Maria Bello, Emily Blunt, Amy Brenneman, Hugh Dancy, Maggie Grace, Lynn Redgrave, Jimmy Smits, Marc Blucas, Gwendoline Yeo, Miguel Najera
Director: Robin Swicord
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: September 21st (limited)
Based on: THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB by Karen Joy Fowler

Six book club members, six Austen books, six interwoven storylines over six months in the busy modern setting of Sacramento, where city and suburban sprawl meet natural beauty. While the contemporary stories never slavishly parallel the Austen plots, the six characters find echoes, predictions, warnings and wisdom about their own trajectories within Austen’s beloved narratives.

Austen is the thread that runs through their interconnected lives, as the book club members play out their own stories: the dissolution of Sylvia’s settled, married life, and the reinvention of a new Sylvia. The daredevil Allegra who lacks caution in sports and love. The yoga-centered Bernadette, seemingly content to look after everybody else’s emotional well-being. Will Prudie figure out how to be a married grownup, or will she chuck it all for an illicit fling? And will Jocelyn ever get over her literary snobbishness and read the Ursula LeGuin sci-fi classics that Grigg keeps urging her to try?

As always in Austen, marriage, friendship and finding one’s rightful place in the world are the things that really matter.

Feast of Love
Cast: Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear, Radha Mitchell, Billy Burke, Selma Blair, Alexa Davlos, Toby Hemingway, Stana Katic, Jane Alexander
Director: Robert Benton
Distributor: MGM Distribution Company
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: September 28th (wide)
Based on: THE FEAST OF LOVE by Charles Baxter

In a coffee shop in a tight-knit Oregon community, local professor Harry Stevenson witnesses love and attraction whipping up mischief among the town’s residents. From the unlucky in love, die-hard romantic coffee shop owner Bradley who has a serial habit of looking for love in all the wrong places, including with his current wife Kathryn; to the edgy real estate agent Diana, who is caught up in an affair with a married man with whom she shares an ineffable connection; to the beautiful young newcomer Chloe, who defies fate in romancing the troubled Oscar; to Harry himself, whose adoring wife is looking to break through his wall of grief after the wrenching loss of a beloved… they all intertwine into one remarkable story in which one can escape being bent, broken, befuddled, delighted and ultimately redeemed by love’s inescapable spell.

August 2007

Whether your tastes steer you toward the big summer blockbusters, the arthouse films, the family-friendly flicks or just about anything else in between, August’s Books into Movies feature offers a little something for everyone.

Those intrigued by the classics immediately will embrace Becoming Jane --- the story of the great, untold romance that inspired a young Jane Austen --- which is loosely based on Jon Spence's biography BECOMING JANE AUSTEN.

Moviegoers itching for a little action, violence and adventure surely will be satisfied with the highly anticipated The Bourne Ultimatum --- based on Robert Ludlum’s bestselling novel of the same name --- as well as the epic drama The Last Legion and the psychological thriller Death Sentence, all of which promise to keep you on the edge of your seat and your pulse racing. Perfect for a day with the kids are National Geographic Film’s Arctic Tale --- a documentary-style movie on arctic wildlife à la March of the Penguins --- and Stardust, an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s fantasy fairy tale replete with fallen stars, magical kingdoms and evil kings and witches.

The Nanny Diaries, based on the hugely popular insider novel by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, will fit the bill for a night out with the girls, and Ethan Hawke’s raw and introspective indie flick The Hottest State will give audiences something to ponder when it comes to matters of the heart.

Arctic Tale
Cast: Queen Latifah, Katrina Agate, Kwesi Boakye, Michael Huang, Dante Pastula
Directors: Sarah Robertson and Adam Ravetch
Distributer: Paramount Vantage
MPAA Rating: G
Release Date: July 25th (limited); August 17th (wide)
Tie-In Book: ARCTIC TALE by Rebecca Baines

From National Geographic Films, the people who brought you March of the Penguins, and Paramount Classics, the studio that brought you An Inconvenient Truth, Arctic Tale is an epic adventure that explores the vast world of the Great North. The film follows the walrus, Seela, and the polar bear, Nanu, on their journey from birth to adolescence to maturity and parenthood in the frozen Arctic wilderness. Once a perpetual winter wonderland of snow and ice, the walrus and the polar bear are losing their beautiful icebound world as it melts from underneath them.

The Bourne Ultimatum
Cast: Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, Edgar Ramirez, David Strathairn, Paddy Considine, Albert Finney
Director: Paul Greengrass
Distributer: Universal Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: August 3rd (wide)
Based on: THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM by Robert Ludlum

All he wanted was to disappear. Instead, Jason Bourne is now hunted by the people who made him what he is. Having lost his memory and the one person he loved, he is undeterred by the barrage of bullets and a new generation of highly trained killers. Bourne has only one objective: to go back to the beginning and find out who he was.

Now, in the new chapter of this espionage series, Bourne will hunt down his past in order to find a future. He must travel from Moscow, Paris, Madrid and London to Tangier and New York City as he continues his quest to find the real Jason Bourne --- all the while trying to outmaneuver the scores of cops, federal officers and Interpol agents with him in their crosshairs.

Becoming Jane
Cast: Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, James Cromwell, Maggie Smith
Director: Julian Jarrold
Distributor: Miramax Films
MPAA Rating: PG
Release Date: August 3rd (limited); August 10th (wide)
Based on: BECOMING JANE AUSTEN by Jon Spence

Becoming Jane is the story of the great, untold romance that inspired a young Jane Austen. Willful and spirited, Jane is not ready to be tied down to anything but her writing. That is until she meets Tom Lefroy, a charming rogue from London who spends more time drinking and socializing than on his law studies.

Stardust
Cast: Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Sienna Miller, Ricky Gervais, Jason Flemyng, Rupert Everett, Peter O’Toole, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Distributer: Paramount Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: August 10th (wide)
Based on: STARDUST by Neil Gaiman

Stardust begins in the sleepy English village of Wall, so named for the cobblestone wall that has, for eons, kept the villagers safely apart from the supernatural parallel universe that lies just on the other side. It is here that young Tristan Thorne makes a wild-eyed promise to the prettiest girl in the village, whose heart he hopes to win: that he will bring her back a fallen star. Now, in order to make good on his promise, Tristan will have to cross the forbidden wall, and enter a mysterious kingdom lit by unending magic and unfolding legends of which he will quickly become a part.

In this fantastical realm known as Stormhold, Tristan discovers that the fallen star is not at all what he expected but a spirited young woman injured by her cosmic tumble. Now, she is in terrible danger --- sought after by colossal powers including the King’s scheming sons for whom only she can secure the throne; and a chillingly powerful witch desperate to use the star to achieve eternal youth and beauty.

As Tristan sets out to protect the star and bring her back to his beloved on the other side of the wall, his journey will bring incredible encounters with a pirate captain and a shady trader, among other surprises. But if he can survive by his wits and the strength of his newfound love, Tristan will also uncover the secret key to his own identity and a fate beyond his wildest dreams.

The Last Legion
Cast: Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Aishwarya Rai, Thomas Sangster, Peter Mullan
Director: Doug Lefler
Distributor: The Weinstein Company
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: August 17th (wide)
Based on: THE LAST LEGION by Valerio Massimo Manfredi

Twelve-year-old Romulus Augustus is crowned emperor of Rome…but for only one day when the empire falls into terrible anarchy. Banished to the island of Capri to live for the rest of his life, Romulus finds the legendary sword once owned by Julius Caesar that is known as "excaliburnus." With the help of his teacher and the last loyal legionnaire, Romulus escapes the island, goes to Britannia and find soldiers to fight for the final glory of the Roman Empire.

The Hottest State
Cast: Mark Webber, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Josh Zuckerman, Sonia Braga, Laura Linney, Michelle Williams
Director: Ethan Hawke
Distributor: ThinkFilm
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: August 24th (limited)
Based on: THE HOTTEST STATE by Ethan Hawke

William is a good-looking young actor. He may be vain and cocky, but his doubt manifests itself in endearing self-criticism. Sarah is a beautiful singer-songwriter. Coincidence and a divinely wintry day bring them together and they begin a fevered, fitful romance. A few short weeks into their relationship, swept up in the giddy currents of their youthful love, they almost marry. But when Sarah changes her mind, William's world crumbles. They fight, they break up, he is devastated. After numerous desperate bids to win her back, William flees to his Texas homeland in search of answers about relationships and his own past. His trip takes him across the stunning western landscape and sees him reuniting his parents, whose own adolescent romance looms large on the horizons of William's identity and insecurities.

The Nanny Diaries
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti, Nicholas Reese Art, Donna Murphy, Alicia Keys, Chris Evans
Directors: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: August 24th (wide)
Based on: THE NANNY DIARIES by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

The Nanny Diaries tells the story of the emotional and often humorous journey of Annie Braddock, a young woman from a working-class neighborhood in New Jersey, struggling to understand her place in the world. Fresh out of college, she gets tremendous pressure from her nurse mother to find a respectable position in the business world, although Annie would prefer to trade in her blackberry for an anthropologist's field diary. Through a serendipitous meeting, Annie ends up in the elite and ritualistic culture of Manhattan's Upper East Side --- as remote from Annie's suburban New Jersey upbringing as life in an Amazon tribal village.

Choosing to duck out of real life, Annie accepts the position as a nanny for a wealthy family, referred to as simply "the X's." She quickly learns that life is not very rosy on the other side of the tax bracket, as she must cater to the every whim of Mrs. X and her precocious son Grayer, while attempting to avoid the formidable Mr. X. Life becomes even more complicated when Annie falls for a gorgeous neighbor of the X’s who she nicknames Harvard Hottie, and is forced to explore what she wants to do with her life.

Death Sentence
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Kelly Preston, John Goodman, Aisha Tyler, Stuart Lafferty, Garrett Hedlund, Matt O’Leary, Leigh Whannell
Director: James Wan
Distributer: 20th Century Fox Distribution
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: August 31st (wide)
Based on: DEATH SENTENCE by Brian Garfield

Nick Hume is a mild-mannered executive with a perfect life, until one gruesome night he witnesses something that changes him forever. Transformed by grief, Hume eventually comes to the disturbing conclusion that no length is too great when protecting his family.

July 2007

There is no shortage of big blockbusters this summer, and July's Books into Movies feature offers one of the most highly anticipated flicks of the season. To the delight of Potter fans of all ages, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix hits the big screen on July 11th --- a mere 10 days before all our burning questions about the fate of our favorite wizard are finally answered in J.K. Rowling's HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS.

If you're in the mood for something a little more low-key, Alec Baldwin's directorial debut, Shortcut to Happiness, offers a refreshing retreat from the Harry Potter hype. In limited release on July 13th, this offbeat and quirky comedy --- based on the 1937 short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster" --- follows a failed writer and the price he's willing to pay for a little taste of success.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes, Gary Oldman, Helena Bonham Carter, Imelda Staunton, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson
Director: David Yates
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: July 11th (wide)
Based on: HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX by J. K. Rowling

Harry returns for his fifth year of study at Hogwarts only to discover that much of the wizarding community has been led to believe that the story of the teenager's recent encounter with the evil Lord Voldemort is a lie, putting Harry's integrity in question. Worse, the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, has appointed a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, the duplicitous Professor Dolores Umbridge. But Professor Umbridge's "Ministry-approved" course of defensive magic leaves the young wizards woefully unprepared to defend themselves against the Dark forces threatening them, so at the prompting of his friends Hermione and Ron, Harry is convinced to take matters into his own hands. Meeting secretly with a small group of students who name themselves "Dumbledore's Army," Harry teaches them how to defend themselves against the Dark Arts, preparing the courageous young wizards for the extraordinary battle that lies ahead.

Shortcut to Happiness
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Dan Aykroyd, Kim Cattrall
Director: Alec Baldwin
Distributor: Yari Film Group
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: July 13th (limited)
Based on: The short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster" by Steven Vincent Benet, featured in THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER: And Other Writings

Set in contemporary New York's literary world, Shortcut to Happiness is a re-telling of the classic fable of a man who sells his soul to the devil for fame and fortune and ultimately decides that he wants to get it back. Jabez Stone, a down-and-out writer, exchanges his soul for a successful literary career, but soon realizes it was a mistake. Jabez must enlist the help of Daniel Webster in order to win his soul back from the Devil.

June 2007

The films in this month's Books into Movies feature vary considerably in terms of plot and overall theme, but each promises to attract a sizeable audience. Fans of science fiction will not want to miss Day Watch, the second installment of a trilogy based on Sergei Lukyanenko's bestselling sci-fi novels. Moviegoers both young and old will be taking out their magnifying glasses on June 15th when one of America's most popular female detectives, Nancy Drew, comes to life on the big screen. And last but certainly not least is A Mighty Heart, adapted from Mariane Pearl's written account of the disappearance and eventual murder of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

If you prefer watching movies from the comfort of your own home, then we suggest tuning in to