Have a reel good Christmas

Christmas is that time of the year when studios set aside the ‘after you’ policy that normally dictates film scheduling and go for the jugular. Even during the hot competitive summer months, you won’t see Pirates Of The Caribbean; Dead Man’s Chest receiving a release on the exact same date as, say, Superman Returns. Come December and the big hitters are much less likely to put aside their differences.
We’ve become used to the festive showdowns: King Kong versus The Chronicles Of Narnia; Harry Potter versus Lord Of The Rings. Sadly, however, there are no such stand-offs this year. With the fluke exception of the frankly awful Pirates Of The Caribbean; Dead Man’s Chest, this was a bad year for box-office and everybody appears to be licking their wounds.
Lord Of The Rings fanatics will have to make do with Eragon. Religious types, meanwhile, will almost certainly make The Nativity Story a smash hit. But there are no event films to quite match those of previous years. Still, we can take heart – it is, after all, the time of year when Oscar contenders start popping up all over the place.
Clint Eastwood’s Flags Of Our Fathers is unlikely to go home empty-handed from any of the up-coming award ceremonies. The Big Serious Performances featured in Babel are sure to win trophies and trinkets. While Employee Of The Month, starring Jessica Simpson, may well sweep the Golden Raspberries if The Covenant doesn’t get there first.
But away from the frenzy of the award season, there are bigger questions. Battered by piracy and a distinct lack of imagination, is the ailing studio system finally on its last legs? In the coming years will we simply skip the theatrical experience in favour of downloads? And, more importantly, will the remake of Black Christmas be any good?
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Babel
Directed by Alejandro González Inárritu. Starring Gael Garcia Bernal, Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett. Mohamed Akhzam, Peter Wight. Opens January 5
It’s Crash for smart people. Tackling the impossibility of real communication, global realpolitik and suicidal tendencies, Alejandro González Inárritu’s mournful drama lives up to the biblical allusion of its title. A daisy-chain stretching between Morocco, America, Mexico and Japan, Babel completes a trilogy that includes Amores Perros and 21 Grams. Like those titles, the film plays with chronology and multiple narrative strands. Cate Blanchett is an American tourist in Morocco who becomes the accidental victim of two boys playing with a gun in the mountains. The history of the weapon brings us to Japan where a troubled teenager struggles to come to terms with the death of her mother. A fine ensemble cast includes Gael Garcia Bernal and, looking all of his 42 years, Brad Pitt. That Angelina must really take it out of you.
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Flags Of Our Fathers
Directed by Clint Eastwood. Starring Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach, Jamie Bell, John Benjamin Hickey. Opens December 22
Clint Eastwood’s WW2 drama promises to do for the war film what Unforgiven did for the western. Pivoting around Joe Rosenthal’s famous photograph of the Battle of Iwo Jima, this thoughtful film ponders the nature of heroism, political rhetoric and propaganda. Early in the battle, while thousands are being slaughtered, an American flag is raised above Mount Suribachi. The image becomes an inspiration to war-weary Americans and the three surviving flag-bearers (Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach) are brought home to be greeted as heroes. There, they face discomfort and guilt as they realise their contribution to the battle was purely symbolic. Hang on, didn’t you used to be Dirty Harry?
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The Holiday
Directed by Nancy Meyers. Starring Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black. Opens December 8
You wait around for a Kate Winslet movie, then three come along at once. Following her impressive turn in Todd Field’s Big Serious Drama, Little Children and a vocal stint on Aardman Studios’ Flushed Away, Ms. Winslet rounds off 2006 with an unashamedly mushy rom-com. She’s an English bird with Man Troubles and Cameron Diaz is her American equivalent. When they swap houses, they inevitably fall for local boys Jack Black and Jude Law. It’s Tara Road for the go-go noughties. Surprisingly, Richard Curtis does not direct.
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Eragon
Directed by Stefen Fangmeier. Starring Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Edward Speleers, Robert Carlyle. Opens December 15
Where’s Orik? Based on the first instalment of Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance trilogy, Eragon has already inspired fantasy nuts to complain that certain beloved characters have been ditched from the original text. Mind you, the same people came out in force five years ago to bemoan Peter Jackson axing Tom Bombadil, and that seems to have worked out okay. For those of you who don’t spend all your time reading bullet-stopping tomes about elves and knights, the plot demands that a young hero (Edward Speleers) must leave his homeland of Alagaesia to meet his destiny as a dragon-rider and defeat John Malkovich’s evil and dependably camp king. This directorial debut from special effects wizard Stefen Fangmeier (Signs, Small Soldiers, Master and Commander) is unlikely to be mistaken for Lord Of The Rings, but, happily, it’s no Dungeons And Dragons either. Jeremy Irons plays the mentor. Many ‘r’s are rolled theatrically. Watch out, scenery.
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The Nativity Story
Directed By Catherine Hardwicke. Starring Keisha Castle-Hughes, Oscar Isaac, Hiam Abbass, Ciarán Hinds, Shaun Toub. Opens December 8
By now, you’ve probably heard that Catherine Hardwicke, the director of Thirteen, has turned her hand to the story of Mary and Joseph’s trek to Bethlehem. Chances are, you’ve also heard that the film will premiere at The Vatican and that Keisha Castle-Hughes, its star and currently expecting her first child at 16, will not be in attendance. Odd that. Expect bus loads of school children to be taken to a cinema near you... whether they like it or not.
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Breaking And Entering
Opens December 1
Jude Law plays a snooty London architect who, having relocated to an increasingly gentrified King’s Cross, embarks on an affair with Bosnian immigrant Juliette Binoche. Worlds collide, etc. An awkward, yet worthy middle-class drama from director Anthony Minghella.
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Deck The Halls
Opens December 1
For years, New England optometrist Matthew Broderick has been the leading Christmas Nazi in his neighbourhood. Every December, his long suffering family must go through elaborate rituals for the Christmas photograph, the family card and a vast repertoire of carols. Then, Danny DeVito moves in with a festive light display that can be seen from space. Can the neighbours end their rivalry in time to learn the true meaning of the holiday season? Go on. Guess.
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The US vs John Lennon
Opens December 8
Marrying talking heads and archive footage, David Leaf and John Schienfeld’s film juxtaposes the life of the former Beatle with that of Richard Nixon between the years 1966 and 1976. Though possibly better suited to VH1 (who helped produce), this documentary offers an intriguing portrait of contemporary American turmoil and features Lennon’s superb stand-off with New York Times writer Gloria Emerson, who insists on calling the songwriter “my dear boy” during a debate on the role of art in politics.
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Happy Feet
Opens December 8
Eight years have elapsed since Mad Max director George Miller presided over the criminally underrated Babe: Pig In The City. Like that film, Happy Feet has a vaguely apocalyptic feel as a tap-dancing penguin (Elijah Wood) chases after marauding ‘aliens’ to persuade them to quit over-fishing the seas. Sadly, the movie does feature the, erm, vocal talents of Robin Williams and a chilling Marilyn Monroe impersonation from the always scary Nicole Kidman. But as animated eco-parables with dancing animals go, this is one of the year’s better contenders.
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Deja Vu
Opens December 22
Tony Scott! Directs! Denzel Washington! Stars! Laws of physics! Defied! Space folds! Or something! Murder prevented! Maybe! Romantic(ish) subplot! Action! Action! Action! We hope! Has to be an improvement on Domino!
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Miss Potter
Opens January 5
Renee Zellweger stars as Beatrix Potter in a Victorian love story that promises to reveal the author’s darkest secret. I can’t imagine what that might be. The only scandalous fables I know about small animals involve Richard Gere.
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It's A Boy Girl Thing
Opens December 26
Two teenage next door neighbours have a Freaky Friday moment and awaken in each other’s bodies in this smart high-school rom-com. Being lifelong enemies, each immediately sets off to destroy the other’s reputation. Fur flies impressively.
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Employee Of The Month
Opens January 5
First week of 2007 and already we have a contender for worst film of the year. Slackers working in a Walmart clone fall in love with spectacularly unfunny consequences. Inevitably, the movie stars Jessica Simpson. So useless you’ll want to cry.