Current Roger Ebert Movie Reviews

A. EVER AFTER The older woman has had problems of her own. ``Did you love my father?'' Danielle asks her. Rodmilla conceals much in her answer: ``I barely knew him. Now, go away--I'm ' Henry is played by Dougray Scott with a certain complexity; he is not simply a knight. Drew Barrymore has been in the movies for 19 years now (she was in `` States'' when she was 4. ... she has put together a series of sound, performances: As a runaway teenager on a shooting spree in ``Guncrazy'' (1992), as a druggie's girlfriend in ``Boys on the Side'' (1995) I liked that movie for its human comedy and romantic energy, and the same qualities are abundant in ``Ever After''--along with lush scenery, locations and luxuriant costumes B. THE GOVERNESS The film tells the story of an , spirited Jewish girl from London who, in the 1840s, finds work as a governess on a remote Scottish island to support her family.. The father (Tom Wilkinson) is a man with the new science of photography, and spends long hours in his studio and darkroom, as indeed anyone to his ignorant and wife (Harriet Walter) would have great inspiration to do.. The governess is by Cavendish's photography Tom Wilkinson (the proud foreman in ``The Full Monty'' and the Marquess of Queensberry in ``Wilde'') shows Cavendish to this young woman despite his own best efforts The claustrophobic, Victorian household is a stage on which every nuance, however small, is noticed. And there are rich ironies, not least that by denying their places in society .. they are able for a time to function freely... C. HENRY FOOL Simon's family includes his mother, Mary (Maria Porter), who is on a lot of pills, and a sister named Fay (Parker Posey), who is an idle slattern quickly attracted to Henry. Sometimes he has a character do some-thing odd and , and you think of a chess player making an unorthodox move just to make the game a little more .	D. HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK The movie stars Angela Bassett as Stella, a mom and high-powered San Francisco trader who, as the movie opens, is promising a client a 65 percent return on some Russian bonds .. I couldn't find any genuine common ground for the two of then, except for physical passion, which can be wonderfully , yes, but is not invariably the best reason to get . Is a 20-year age difference surmountable? Sure, but maybe not when the man is still . .. the material is thinner and less , and the movie is . Angela Bassett is an actress with aggressive intelligence, and when she plays a capable, smart woman, she can be . ... it's been smoothed down into suspense about whether these two nice people will find true love. E. THE MASK OF ZORRO The back story, involving the first Zorro's love for the daughter who was stolen from him, is pure melodrama ``The Mask of Zorro'' is as well as . I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. F. LETHAL WEAPON 4 Mel Gibson and Danny Glover star once again, as Riggs and Murtaugh, two cops who alternate between nonstop banter and dangerous action. Along the way, they've picked up a cast: ... Captain Travis (Steve Kahan), their officer, and, new this time, Lee .. Also one of those sequences (man in armor sprays city with flame-thrower and automatic rifle fire, and ... A corrupt Chinese general has brought the Four Fathers of crime to the States, Oh, and there's a sequence where all of the good guys are tied up on the floor of a house.. All done very well, you understand. Director Richard Donner is a master of what might be called action.
G. MARIE BAIE DES ANGES It takes place on the French Riviera, which is pictured here as an Eden in which the film's adolescent lovers gambol and pose ... She is the pornographer's dream, an nubile teenager who exists only as she is. ``Get me the gun you can find,'' Orso tells Marie, who steals it... The movie is yet one more evocation of youth, destined for a brief flash of happiness and a taste of eroticism before they collide with the ending. The filmmaker is Manuel Pradal, who in addition to recycling cliches, also fancies himself at the cutting edge of narrative. ... We get glimpses and fragments of actions; flash-forwards and flashbacks; , self-conscious artiness. H. A MERRY WAR .. his hero, Gordon Comstock, seems to find out how much neglect he can endure. Comstock is a version of Orwell with many autobiographical parallels, I suspect, and as played by Richard E. Grant has the same long face, deep eyes, brow and morose demeanor. He gets a job in a ratty -book store in the slums of Lambeth ``I was called `' by the Times Literary Supplement,'' he tells his publisher. ``I know,'' says the publisher. ``I wrote it.'' As played by Carter, she is a and serious young woman who has her standards. ``Do you have any books on pregnancy?'' he asks. ``Not for the general public!'' she snaps. ``I'm not the general public,'' he corrects her, . ``I'm the father of an unborn child.'' ``A Merry War'' is the kind of movie that doesn't reach large audiences, but some will find it . I. POLISH WEDDING The movie tells the story of a Polish-American family awash with secret romance, passion and fierce pride. ... which is not impossible--but a thrifty Polish-American family who has had two parents for more than 20 years is more likely, I think, to be living in a larger house by now, .. Jadzia and Bolek are not happily . Jadzia says she married her husband for a good reason, but just at the moment she can't remember what it was. .. the entire Pzoniak family marches on Russell's house for a singularly confrontation.	J. SAVING PRIVATE RYAN In Steven Spielberg's ``Saving Private Ryan,'' thousands of and seasick men, most of them new to combat, are thrown into the face of German fire. The movie's sequence is as graphic as any war footage I've ever seen. The scene is filled with countless pieces of time, as when a soldier has his arm blown off. He staggers, , standing exposed to further fire, not sure what to do next, and then he bends over and picks up his arm, as if he will need it later. Kaminski handles the attack on the machinegun nest, and a sequence involving the defense of a bridge, in a way that keeps us . .. for me the key performance in the movie is by Jeremy Davies, as the little interpreter. ... Eventually he arrives at his personal turning point, and his action writes the words of Spielberg's philosophical argument. K. THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY ``There's Something About Mary'' is an exercise in bad taste, and contains five or six explosively funny sequences. There's such freedom in laughing so loudly. I feel . I won't reveal how the scene develops, apart from noting the perfect timing involved with the closeup. In the TV ads, you may already have seen the moment when the dog of Mary's deeply neighbor needs to have its heart restarted. I will simply observe in admiration that after the scene explodes in , laughter, the Farrellys find a way to blindside us with a completely consequence that sets us off all over again. L. TITANIC We see it in the shots of ``Titanic,'' encrusted with the silt of 85 years; a TV camera snakes its way inside, down corridors and through doorways, showing us staterooms built for millionaires and inherited by crustaceans. She was ``the largest work of man in all history,'' a character boasts, neatly dismissing the Pyramids and the Great Wall. It is flawlessly , intelligently , strongly and . She has been forced by her penniless mother to become to marry a rich, supercilious snob named Cal Hockley ... they find themselves first in the awesome engine room, with pistons as tall as churches, and then at a Irish dance in the steerage. Their exploration is intercut with scenes from the command deck, where the captain consults with Andrews, the ship's designer and Ismay, the White Star Line's director. The technical difficulties are so that it's a wonder when the filmmakers are also able to bring the drama and history into proportion. I found myself by both the story and the saga.