The Constant Gardner

The sudden death of his young wife Tess turns, staid diplomat Justin Quayle into a detective. He painstakingly traces the path his wife took and rediscovers the dangers enroute as you are introduced into the murky world of the cut throat pharmaceutical industry. If you have read the book the movie is based, have no fear of having a face put to the characters. John Le Carre continues to have luck when it comes to his writings being made into moving pictures. However, you do lose a few molecules of complexity that inhibit his novel. But in spite of the loss, the movie is time worth spent.

Rating: * * *

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The Whistleblower

Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz), a Nebraska police officer, finds herself far from home working as a peacekeeper for DynCorp International in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina.  But her rose tinted glasses are shattered when an investigation into sex trafficking involving two young girls reveals a malice deep within the UN. A film that focuses on an issue that needs to be brought to the mainstream but fails to pack a punch as it panders to the hero worshipping syndrome that is so popular in the USA.

Rating: * *

The Fountain

Past, present and future collide in this film as each time stream's protagonist searches for eternal life to save his love. The doctor races against time to find a cure for brain tumors so that his wife can be saved. A warrior trudges through the jungles of Peru to find the tree of eternal  life to save his country. An astronaut flies through space in an encapsulated bubble with  an aged tree in hope that a dying star can save it. A film that explores man's thirst for eternal life but yet doesn't examine the meaning of having it.

Rating: * * +

The Brothers Bloom

There are con men and then there are these brothers, Bloom (Adrien Brody) and Stephen (Mark Ruffalo). Honing their skill since early childhood, the two crooks have taken the art of the con to the next level. Add the silent Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi), mistress of all things boom, they are unstoppable. Bloom though has hit the end of his tether and wants some reality in his life. Like always there is that last con before retirement and they set their sites on an beautiful and eccentric millionairess (Rachel Weisz). By now I am sure you can guess what is to follow...

Rating: * *

Constantine

The hordes of hell are ripping at the fabric between Hell and Earth. Only one man holds them back... John Constantine!!! I have to grudgingly admit that Keanu Reeves does pull this role off in this movie based on the graphic Kevin Brodbin, Mark Bomback and Frank Capello. Dark, brooding and eminently watchable.

Rating: * * *

My Blueberry Nights

Wong Kar-wai's first English feature burns, splutters and slowly dies out. With his regular ingredients of leading men who smoke, mysterious women, fractured relationships, blossoming love and cops; the featured strained to be ethereal, beautiful and melancholic but something was lost in translation.

The casting was poor and the acting was abysmal other than for David Strathairn. The music was listless in spite of the presence of Ry Cooder or rather his absence. But what was missed the most were the saturated hues of Christopher Doyle and that melancholic streak which usually graces all of Kar-wai's flicks.

Rating: * +