Movie Reviews

A smart coming-of-age seduction drama

Jenny (Carey Mulligan) waits for the rain to stop and for adult life to begin. 

(Sony Pictures Classics)

An Education

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Running time: 100 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (mature thematic material involving sexual content, smoking)

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"An Education"

"An Education," the perfectly titled older man/teenage girl British seduction drama, differs greatly from Stanley Kubrick's classic "Lolita" of 1962.

While both embrace the basic theme of an adult male drawn to a much younger female, "An Education" examines the seduction of an entire family in still buttoned-up, thrifty Great Britain circa 1961.  World War II is fading from memory, yet the first teenage squeals upon experiencing The Beatles still loom in the future.

In both versions of "Lolita," the much preferred Kubrick original and  Adrian Lyne's 1997 remake, I often wondered who was seducing whom.  

That's never the case with gifted, daring Dutch director Lone Scherfig's "An Education."  Inquisitive, attractive, somewhat bored 16-year-old Twickenham schoolgirl Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is an A+ student (except for a slight problem with Latin) when a charming 30ish stranger named David (Peter Sarsgaard) offers her a ride in the rain.

David appears harmless enough; offering the ride not to Jenny, but to her cello.  Jenny, growing increasingly impressed by the moment by the suave guy in the Bristol roadster, actually asks her new adult friend if she can get in the car as well.

Adapted from Lynn Barber's 10 or 12 page magazine memoir by accomplished novelist Nick Hornby ("High Fidelity," "About a Boy"), "An Education" will likely fascinate those in the audience as David carefully circles his teen "prey."

The reason?  Jenny is no devious flirty teen sexpot as the girls of "Lolita" were.  She's a little annoyed with the slow pace of waiting for womanhood to arrive.  And she's quite aware that the bumbling attempts of affection from a boy in her class is, well, not of her advanced class of maturity and poise.

Jenny is portrayed to perfection by Mulligan, who at 22 passes just fine for 16.  The British actress who appeared in Johnny Depp's "Public Enemies," plays her schoolgirl as  bright and forthright.

She's amazed at first that David, a man of free-flowing money and dubious means of income, can so easily convince her conservative parents (outstanding actor Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour) that she'll be looked after by David's "Aunt Helen" every time she ventures out of the house with her much-older suitor.

In reality, Helen (Rosamund Pike of "Pride & Prejudice") is the fun-loving, but mentally shallow companion of David's business partner Danny (Dominic Cooper).  

From this aisle seat, I appreciate the way clever director Scherfig ("Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself") carefully reveals the nuance of seduction involving more than one character.

"An Education" fascinated me and drew me into the characters and situations from the moment it first brightened the screen in dreary Great Britain.

Isn't that what a drama of seduction is supposed to do?

The other major 'save the Earth' documentary

Stewart Brand with the button that launched Earth Days.  (Zeitgeist Films)

Earth Days

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Running time: 102 minutes

No MPAA rating: (brief nudity)

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"Earth Days"

A lot of us are going increasingly "green" these days.

In the name of saving the environment and -- among the more cynical of us, trading corporate printing expenses for our own -- we're forgoing paper bank statements and the like for on-line versions.

Have you ever wondered where and when all this business about protecting Mother Earth from us humans began?

Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Robert Stone did.  "Earth Days," generously peppered with U.S. presidents vowing to clean up the environment before it's too late, traces the movement back to what Stone refers to as "post-war rustlings in the 1950s."

The impressive array of concerned citizens facing Stone's camera includes Stewart Udall (Secretary of the Interior under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson), Earth Day organizer Denis Hayes, environmentalist Hunter Lovins, Apollo 9 astronaut Russell Schweickart and others.

"Earth Days" doesn't feel as, shall we say, lecturery as Davis Guggenheim's global warming doomsday documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" featuring Professor (and former vice president) Al Gore.

This renewed cinematic effort by Stone ("Radio Bikini," "Oswald's Ghosts") to light a fire under all of us to do more to save the only planet we have is just as scholarly, however.  Perhaps more so.  Concerned citizens, many of whom are experts in their respective fields, interest, even fascinate at first.  As the films rolls across the screen, however, a certain tediousness sets in.

Sincere interviewees, some presented too often, tend to morph into talking heads after a while.  The message is no less dire, of course.  It's just that "Earth Days" can't quite stoke the interest as much as "An Inconvenient Truth" managed three years ago.

I'm guessing I won't be the only one sitting in the dark feeling a little guilty about letting my mind wander to mundane matters as "Earth Days" reminds us that "society dropouts" frolicked (sometimes sans clothing) to rage against technology's machine in the 1960s.

Eventually, of course, "Earth Days" gets around to the source of the environmentally friendly first Earth Day of 1970.

There are some things to learn there.  But if this environmentally aware British filmmaker (raised both in Great Britain and the U.S.) has his facts straight, a little matter like saving the world is a dilemma too long-term for most politicians to embrace.

We live in a world of constantly decreasing attention spans, according to many experts in such matters.

What "Earth Days" reminds us of right now, right here is that grave environmental issues are not likely to go away.  At least not until we, or whatever human population is alive at the time, go away with them. 

Michael Jackson's posthumous curtain call

Michael Jackson in his last spotlight.  (Columbia Pictures)

Michael Jackson's This Is It

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Running time: 111 minutes

MPAA rating: PG (suggestive choreography, scary images)

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"Michael Jackson's This Is It"

An odd, macabre posthumous curtain call-in-song, "Michael Jackson's This Is It" celebrates M.J. the meticulous, totally in-charge fallen musical genius.

"On Michael's signal, we begin," a voice (presumably that of director/producer Kenny Ortega) says reverently from the mostly dark Staples Center, a massive rehearsal hall for a concert series that would never be.

Except in this surprisingly powerful, dare I say enticing, raw cinematic form.

Some will say the appeal here is akin to slowing down to a traffic-halting crawl on the freeway to get a good look at a motorist whose life ended suddenly and without warning in a very public forum.  The King of Pop died in a similarly bizarre, only slightly more private manner on June 25.

This is not a review of a fallen pop star with issues (to put it mildly).  This is a review of what is basically a concert movie in rehearsal form.  "This Is It" is a documentary only because cameras were rolling during the long rehearsal process that began in April and ended tragically in June.  

Don't expect any revelations about  Jackson's final hours.  There's no crusading reporter firing probing questions at anyone involved. There's no hospital or funeral footage. "This Is It" amounts to a rare, final valentine to one of the world's most heralded pop sensations.

Frankly, no one should expect  anything else in a movie hitting theaters so soon after his death, especially a film "produced with the full support of the Estate of Michael Jackson."

Jackson and his gifted farewell concert collaborators (dancers, musicians, crew) were only eight days away from leaving for London, the site of Jackson's planned concerts, when a long summer afternoon slowly confirmed the shocking news of Jackson's death.

Ortega ("High School Musical 3:  Senior Year"), a filmmaker who understands music and live theater, worked with Jackson for 20 years.  It couldn't have been easy to shift gears from creatively directing Jackson's on-stage swan song to picking up the pieces -- technically and emotionally -- of shattered plans and reshaping them into a posthumous big-screen tribute.

It doesn't matter if you're a Michael Jackson fan (music or otherwise) or not.  "This Is It" is a surprising must-see for anyone who appreciates the tremendous power the marriage of music, film and a dynamic performer out front can stir deep within.

Rousing at times when the first notes of Jackson staples like "Beat It" or "Thriller" rock the house, this is also a movie experience ripe in nuance.   Every breath, every sound, every head bob and, yes, even every crotch grab in the upbeat tunes and soulful ballads like "Human Nature" have the distinctive Michael Jackson spin.

Look closely, though, and you'll see a severely thin, gaunt 50-year-old behind the dark sunglasses trying, in vain more than once, to find his breath alongside his younger principal dancers.

More importantly from this aisle seat, this is a rare first look at Jackson's meticulous creative process.  Frankly, the man's dedication and quiet insistence on doing things his way, or "The way I wrote it," Jackson says, makes for an enlightening, toe-tapping nearly two hours of odd cinema that is constantly revealing and, for the most part, quite brilliant.

So bravo, Mr. Ortega.  You have pulled off the ultimate definition of making lemonade out of lemons.

And your lemonade rocks!  Judging from the raw ingredients, Jackson's first concert in a decade would have been a hell of a show.

'Hair' grows on you, but lingers too long

Chris Rock untangles the mysteries of African-American hair. 

(Roadside Attractions)

Good Hair

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Running time: 95 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (profanity, sex and drug references, brief partial nudity)

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"Good Hair"

Comedian Chris Rock picked the right guy to narrate and make cutting remarks throughout the documentary "Good Hair."

That would be Chris Rock.

It'll come as no surprise that "Good Hair" is a comic-documentary.  What else could it be with rapid-fire comedian Rock out front?

Frankly, I was startled, however, at just how much I learned about the culture of maintaining, straightening and enhancing African-American hair and the sacrifices some women (and girls as young as 3) go for "good hair."

Rock, accenting that lilting speech pattern he's famous for, says he was inspired to do this film by one of his young daughters.  When she was only 5, she asked him, "Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?"

"Hair is a woman's glory," near-legendary poet/autobiographer Maya Angelou tells beaming interviewer Rock, "unless, of course, it starts growing out from between her toes."

"Good Hair" features spotty rich moments like that.  Unfortunately, there's also too much filler. Even when Rock shocks us (or at least me) with the dangers and burning pain of enduring applications of sodium hydroxide "relaxers" (called "creamy crack"), he doesn't just make the point and move on.

Rock and his film-making team (director Jeff Stilson and two writers from his Emmy Award-winning HBO concert specials) have no problem securing notable celebs to speak candidly about the technique, logic, price and torture of attaining straight African-American hair.

In addition to the aforementioned Dr. Angelou, Rev. Al Sharpton waxes on about the time the late James Brown treated him to his first "relaxing" session before a visit to the White House.  Ice-T (TV's "Law & Order:  Special Victims Unit") is especially open and candid in his remarks.  

To his credit, Rock spends time with common folks; hanging out in a Harlem barber shop to get the male side of the story and joking around with a woman who's putting her $1,000 hair weave on layaway.  Everywhere he goes, however, Rock lingers too long.

That and a running time of around two hours suggests that "Good Hair" could use a trim of its own.  Rock travels to a Hindu temple in India to investigate tonsuring, a ceremony where hair is sacrificed for God but often winds up in trendy Beverly Hills hair salons.  He also untangles the fascinating modern, big business state of hair weaves.

"Good Hair," winner of a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in January, cuts loose with a big finish in Atlanta.

Hair stylist "rock stars" (including Freddie J from Dallas) snip and clip for a $20,000 prize.  It's anti-climatic, though, because by the time the documentary makes it to the bombastic stretch run, you might feel -- as I did -- that you've been there long enough to need a haircut yourself.

Monaghan dynamic as long-haul mom

Michelle Monaghan as a long-distance hauler and a stand-offish mom. 

(Monterey Media)

Trucker

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Running time: 93 minutes

MPAA rating: R (harsh profanity, violence, adult situations)

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"Trucker"

"Trucker" is one of those gritty little films that arrives unceremoniously without the benefit of a media blitz, yet delivers more of a one-two dramatic punch than many will expect.

It's a gender-bender.  Michelle Monaghan, who shared the screen with Patrick Dempsey in the somewhat ridiculous romantic-comedy "Made of Honor" last year, hops behind the wheel as long-haul trucker Diane Ford.

Diane wears a constant scowl in the early going.  When we first meet the divorced gear-jammer, Diane is enjoying (but not really) a little heated cheap motel down time with a young guy who can't even afford the room.

So where does a drama that starts out in such an emotional abyss expect to transport us?

Written and directed by James Mottern, a relative newcomer with some TV writing and producing experience, "Trucker" falls short of delivering an emotional roller coaster ride with redemption intended as the final stop.

Monaghan, an actress of at least some true grit, should bear none of the blame, however.

The plot is contrite, predictable and, frankly, a little hard to go along with at times.  The looming stumbling block for many in the audience is likely to be the lack of an embraceable character to like.

Diane is, as the hippies used to say, like man.  She works hard, plays hard and drinks hard.  Her only ally is Runner (Nathan Fillion, Dr. Mayfair on "Desperate Housewives"), a married VFW drinking buddy who follows Diane around like a love-sick puppy.    

A weary road warrior at this point, Diane is forced to look after the son she abandoned when he was just a baby.  They are so distanced emotionally that she can only call Peter (Jimmy Bennett), now 11, "Dude."  What he calls her can't be printed in a family newspaper.

Reluctant mom and estranged son slowly bond, of course, as Peter's dad (Benjamin Bratt in a brief, cup-of-coffee performance) withers away in the hospital.

I'm split right down the middle when it comes to recommending "Trucker" or not.  Certainly, it wouldn't be my first choice if I were headed to the movies this weekend.

On the other hand, if you're caught up on on brighter marquee entries, "Trucker" is worth a go just for the dynamic Monaghan and  Bennett conjure up as deeply troubled mother and son.  

Both are actors to watch.  Monaghan ("Eagle Eye," "Gone Baby Gone") is a rising star on brink of igniting.

Sadly, Bennett was pretty much wasted in Robert Rodriguez's disappointing "Shorts" recently.  He proved he could hold an audience's attention for a few fleeting moments as young James T. Kirk in the recent "Star Trek" re-boot, however.  In this one, Bennett takes a major acting leap forward.

Flying first class with 'Amelia'

Hilary Swank and Richard Gere as pioneers in flight and public relations. 

(Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Amelia

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Running time: 111 minutes

MPAA rating: PG (profanity, mild adult situations, thematic elements, smoking)

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"Amelia"

"Who wants a life imprisoned in safety," cavalier aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart says in the soaring historical adventure "Amelia."

Luckily for director Mira Nair ("Vanity Fair," "Salaam Bombay!"), Academy Award winner Hilary Swank is in the pilot seat as the fearless, free-thinking aviatrix.

Filmmakers forging screen biographies that end in tragedy, whether they profile ill-fated singers Buddy Holly, Patsy Cline or politicians John or Robert Kennedy, know the appeal must be in the journey, not the conclusion.

For the most part, "Amelia" navigates that tricky plot territory well.  Drawing on a couple of Earhart biographies (Susan Butler's "East to the Dawn" and Mary Lovell's "The Sound of Wings"), able screenwriters Ron Bass (an Oscar-winner for "Rain Man") and Anna Hamilton Phelan ("Gorillas in the Mist") hone in on 10 key years in the unbridled adventurer's life.

Many who take their seats for "Amelia" will already know, of course, that Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic (as a disgruntled passenger) in 1928.  Who doesn't know that the daring aviatrix perished in the summer of 1937 trying to become the first woman to fly around the world.  

What you might not know, however, is the freedom-at-all-costs woman who had three great loves in her life.  If "Amelia" unveils the true Earhart, husband George Putnam (Richard Gere) and lover Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor) both had to line up behind Earhart's sense of freedom and adventure.

This is the Amelia Earhart that Swank reveals so well  in layers.  That's nothing new for the actress known for diving far enough into her characters to reveal the intimacies of a stranger's soul.

Twice Swank has walked away from the Academy Awards ceremony with a Best Actress golden statuette in hand for doing just that; as Brandon Teena in "Boys Don't Dry" (1999) and as a determined boxer in Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" (2005).

She could very well put herself in the Oscar race again as this woman of tremendous spunk and courage, but also one who's a little goofy at times and foolishly in love with humanity.

Gere, toned down a little by Nair, is a good choice to portray Earhart's dream weaver.  Putnam, a pioneer himself, can be thanked -- if you're so inclined -- for navigating uncharted promotional and public relation waters.

Amelia was the daring one flying the plane.  But it was Putnam who came up with clever product endorsements and speaking tours to finance his wife's itch to explore above the clouds.

McGregor seemed oddly cast as "the other man" to me at first.  Thankfully, the Scottish actor of the "Star Wars" prequels and "Trainspotting" fame dispelled any concern by diving into his character as well.

If there's any disappointment in this lavish production, it's the unavoidable letdown when fate and history step in to spoil the party.

Raising vengeful citizen Cain

The assistant DA (Jamie Foxx, right) gets tough with the mastermind played by Gerard Butler.  (Overture Films)

Law Abiding Citizen

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Running time: 108 minutes

MPAA rating: R (profanity, extreme violence, torture, a scene of rape, adult situations, nudity)

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On the Web

"Law Abiding Citizen"

"Law Abiding Citizen" stinks up the authenticity smell test.

I mean, come on, Jamie Foxx as a Philadelphia assistant district attorney who spends all his time in the field playing cop trying thwart a madman killer already in custody who vows explosive revenge on those he feels wronged him.

Don't you suppose an assistant DA would have a little paper work to do back at the office?  I could have it wrong, but I thought the police go out and round up bad hombres and assistant DAs take over in the courtroom.

Not in this volatile psychological thriller that tosses everything from "Saw" (gleeful torture) to David Fincher's "Se7en" into the plot pot and swings for the entertainment fences.  If you find yourself thinking, "Whoa, this could never go down like this," you've chosen the wrong serial-killer thriller.

Director F. Gary Gray, who last hopped into the big chair to call the shots on the crime-comedy "Be Cool," obviously hopes that you'll get so wrapped up in the tension-building plot that you won't bother to think about little things like cinematic credibility.

Actually, "Law Abiding Citizen" is more revenge-thriller than serial killer actioner.  Most of the action unfolds 10 years after an inventor named Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) watched his wife and young child die during a home invasion and subsequently saw the scales of justice tipped in favor of a brutal killer via a plea bargain.

Clyde, cool, perhaps a little nuts and brilliant (we learn) at killing people from a distance, unveils a sinister plot to murder everyone involved in what he considers a grievous travesty of justice.

That means assistant DA Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) resides at the pinnacle of his list.  With a sometime laughably unauthentic screenplay by writer-director-producer Kurt Wimmer ("Ultraviolet," "Equilibrium"), Clyde goes to prison.  People keep dying anyway.

It helps that Gray has two very capable actors in his lead roles.  Foxx, who has an Academy Award on his mantel for his portrayal of Ray Charles in "Ray," is an excellent dramatic actor.   (Forget the "Soloist" failure.  It was out of his control.)

Butler ("300") is getting there, but  he needs to be a little more choosy in picking projects.

Attached to this project early on, Butler has a suitable character to explore here, though, as does Foxx.  And I like the fact that Texan Bruce McGill ("W.," "Elizabethtown"), one of my favorite character actors, landed the sizable role of DA Jonas Cantrell.

Lawyers beware:  You'll laugh too much as this mutated jurisprudence rolls across the screen to really get into it.

The rest of the popcorn-munching populace can have an edge-of-your-seat good time, though.

If you don't mind holding your nose, that is.

Where the odd, moody woolly bullies are

Max Records goes on a wild ride in his feature film debut.
(Warner Bros. Pictures)

Where the Wild Things Are

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Running time: 100 minutes

MPAA rating: PG (action violence, thematic elements, brief language)

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"Where the Wild Things Are"

Know this about "Where the Wild Things Are," eclectic director Spike Jonze's big-screen transformation of Maurice Sendak's children's book:

What Jonze brings to the screen is a film about children; not necessarily a movie for children, especially really young kids.

Dreary and moody, "Where the Wild Things Are" offers insight into a troubled child's tangled thought process.  In the movie that includes terrorizing the family dog, disrupting his divorced mom's "adult time" with a new boyfriend -- a threatening intruder from the child's point of view -- and, ultimately, an enraged dash to the Island Where the Wild Things Are.

Does it work as a movie?  Well, yes and no.  

"Where the Wild Things Are" reminds me of the dilemma that faced "A Christmas Story" of 1983 and yours truly, a young (at the time) movie critic trying to get a critical handle on a complex slice of cinema being marketed as comical entertainment.  Both films involve troubled young boys with too much churning inside their brains to fully enjoy what should be the carefree frolics of youth.  

Both boys spend time dressed in animal costumes, I might add.  Young Ralphie (Peter Billingsley, who grew up to direct "Couples Retreat") squirmed in his hot pink bunny suit in "A Christmas Story."

Max (newcomer Max Records) relishes the wolf costume he wears throughout "Where the Wild Things Are."  In fact, it seems to suit his fit-throwing nature.  Max's explosive outbursts may be considered a degree of autism by some.  It's described in the film's production notes as just "rambunctious and sensitive" behavior, however.

For those unfamiliar with Sendak's rather thin 1963 book of the same title, Max sails away to an island where 9-foot-tall giant wild things with sharp teeth and threatening claws do, well, there's no other way to say it, wild things.  

Max, who's 9 (Records is 12) and prone to fits of howling and growling, convinces the wild things to refrain from eating him.  That's quite a feat since a pile of bones is clearly visible. 

 

Whatever magic there is in this screen version comes from the fact that once Max out-roars the monsters and ascends the lofty throne as their king, he slowly gets a better grip on what it's like for humans to co-exist in the real world.

My hat's off to Jonze, who's directing only his third feature, for the emotions generated between a confused boy and his imaginary fiends.  Jonze drew an Oscar nomination for directing the bizarre and brilliant "Being John Malkovich" in 1999.

As co-screenwriter in this one along with first-timer and author Dave Eggers, complicated personalities ooze from the gaggle of wild things in a manner matched only on screen by "The Wizard of Oz" in Hollywood's golden year of 1939.

The vocal performance of James Gandolfini (TV's former Tony Soprano) is inspired as the sensitive-yet-animalistic Carol.  Lauren Ambrose (Claire on HBO's "Six Feet Under") brings a soothing sense of melancholy as KW.  And so it goes down an impressive vocal character list that includes Chris Cooper (Douglas), Forest Whitaker (Ira), Catherine O'Hara (Judith) and Paul Dano (Alexander).

The drawback, from this aisle seat at least, is that "Where the Wild Things" doesn't hit on enough cylinders visually.  Even though the creatures are a marriage of live action, puppetry and computer animation, what we appear to see much of the time is some big furry creatures (from the Jim Henson Creature Shop) that look like a madman's version of sporting event mascots.

I understand that Jonze wanted something Max could actually hug and leap into a huge pile with.  I think going with the Muppets giant monster cousins is a critical mistake, however.

It just doesn't work visually in an age where slick computer-generated creatures can match anyone's wildest imaginations.

Short stories long on love in the Big Apple

Julie Christie, as the former opera singer, and Shia LaBeouf, the bellhop. 

(Vivendi Entertainment)

New York, I Love You

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Running time: 103 minutes

MPAA rating: R (harsh profanity, adult situations, nudity)

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"New York, I Love You"

"New York, I Love You," an anthology of love lost and found in the Big Apple, follows on the heels of "Paris, je t'aime," a similar group of short stories that played out in France two years back.

We get 11 somewhat linked short stories from an equal number of talented filmmakers still fresh enough in their craft to find passion both in their work and the subject matter.

Film buffs will want to know that each segment was limited to just two shooting days, and editing time was confined to one week.  Also, each story was required to deal with some kind of love encounter.  That element could be broadly defined, however, and many of the filmmakers took advantage by pushing the boundary of the definition.

In one story, for instance, an alcoholic artist (Turkish actor, writer, director Ugur Yucel) is fascinated by a reticent Chinese woman (Taiwanese actress Shu Qi of "The Transporter) working in an herbal tea shop.   Will he succeed in making her his muse?

Natalie Portman pulls double-duty both as a debuting filmmaker and the star of an early segment directed by India's Mira Nair ("Vanity Fair," "Salaam Bombay!").

"New York, I Love You" is the brainchild of producer Emmanuel Benbihy.  He's obviously a Portman fan.  The Academy Award nominee for "Closer" in 2004 appeared in "Paris, je t'aime," and she's a major player here.

As a bride-to-be Hasidic Jew, Portman really sells Nair's segment opposite Irrfan Khan of "Slumdog Millionaire." It's a hypnotic, visually playful tale about romantic fantasies.  

Portman also has something to say as writer-director.  She takes her camera to Central Park, where a black "manny" -- Carlos Acosta as a male nanny -- provides loving care to a 6-year-old white girl (Taylor Geare).  This is one of the instances where a filmmaker plays fast, loose and affectionately with the "love encounter (broadly defined)" rule.

A few characters actually appear to mingle into other segments.  Mostly, however, each story stands alone.  The best news is that some of them are worth the price of admission all by themselves.

I love the way, for instance, director Shekhar Kapur takes on the almost impossible task of shooting the late Anthony Minghella's tale.  When Minghella ("Cold Mountain," "The English Patient") fell ill before production began, he hand-picked Kapur ("Elizabeth," "Elizabeth:  The Golden Age") to call the shots in his place.

The result is a mysteriously intriguing encounter between a former famous opera singer (Julie Christie) and a boyish bellhop (Shia LaBeouf of "Transformers") in a Manhattan hotel.

Young filmmaker Joshua Marston takes us to Brighton Beach in a sentimental (but not too much) story of senior love.  Excellent actors Eli Wallach and Oscar-winner Cloris Leachman will win your heart as Abe and Mitzie.

It may take them a while to shuffle off to where they're headed.  But where they're at emotionally is where many of the other characters in this fascinating valentine to New York and love would love to end up.

'Fantasy Island' for lowbrow comedy fans

Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) hope to save their marriage and catch some South Pacific rays.  (Universal Pictures)

Couples Retreat

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Running time: 111 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (profanity, adult situations, brief nudity)

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"Couples Retreat"

There's no little guy yelling, "Da plane, da plane!"

So "Couples Retreat" doesn't officially qualify as a big-screen version of the smaltsy late '70s/early '80s TV series "Fantasy Island."

All the other elements are in place, though.  Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell and Jon Favreau head the cast in a romantic-comedy about four couples in various stages of love, lust and bust on a week-long "couples skill building" retreat on an exotic isle.

This cheese comes with a little more sleaze than was allowed on vintage network TV, though.  And you can bet with old "Swingers" pals Vaughn and Favreau reuniting to co-star and write the script (along with Dana Fox), "Couples" doesn't retreat much.

Instead, it gets pretty frisky at times, right down to one of the characters getting caught on the cusp of a little self-love, if you know what I mean.

The good news is that "Couples Retreat" kicks sand in the face of awful exotic locale flicks.  You know, where the stars obviously took the gig just to bask in the sun without bothering to check out the screenplay before hitting the beach.

"This script is horrible.  Bring me another one of those juicy-fruity drinks with the little straw umbrella to help me forget."

"The Big Bounce," featuring Owen Wilson and Charlie Sheen, certainly fell into that lousy movie/good tan territory in 2004.  And those with longer memories may recall "Club Paradise" in 1986.  Robin Williams fell victim to sunburn and mediocrity in that one.

Lowbrow humor, a passably interesting story line and the clear blue water and glistening white sands of Bora Bora fill the screen in "Couples Retreat."

Cynthia (Bell) and Jason's (Bateman) matter-of-fact eight year marriage is falling apart, and they have a cutesy PowerPoint presentation to prove it.  So they put a guilt trip on their Midwestern pals about needing company to qualify for a group rate to Eden, a luxury island paradise.

Dave (Vaughn) and Ronnie (Malin Akerman) are the alpha couple in the group.  So when they reluctantly agree to go along, Joey (Favreau) and Lucy (Kristin Davis) as well as Shane (Faizon Love) and new 20-year-old girlfriend Trudy (newcomer Kali Hawk) round out the group.

The island is beautiful, of course.  But nothing works out as planned.  I like the way all four couples must endure the up-with-the-sun skill building whether they want to or not.  And accomplished Moroccan actor Jean Reno (Capt. Bezu Fache in "The Da Vinci Code") makes every comic moment count as Monsieur Marcel, the "renowned" couples whisperer.

Former child star-turned-producer Peter Billingsley (Ralphie Parker in "A Christmas Story"), an old friend of Vaughn's, must be given some credit for keeping the plot moving along.  This is Billingsley's feature film directing debut.  It comes in a project that could have easily been taken over by two strong personas like Vaughn and Favreau ( actor/director of the "Iron Man" franchise).

That does happen a little bit.  But this talented ensemble can be forgiven for free-styling.  Everyone from Bateman (the "Juno," "Extract" star), who's subdued and effective, on down in this cast contributes to the fun in their own little way.  

Or, in the case of Faizon Love, not exactly a little way.  I don't know if somebody gave the "Perfect Holiday" co-star one of those juicy-fruity drinks or not, but someone convinced the big guy to drop trow in the interest of this silly, enjoyable romantic-comedy.