Some are shocked, other traumatized. But to their rescue comes Anne Hathaway, who plays a highly qualified therapist named Claire who seeks to engage the survivors in conversation about their feelings.

She cares about their fears and asks them to look inside themselves and to discuss their inner thoughts.

One ecstatic survivor, however, brushes aside any concerns that he might have been emotionally damaged by the crash and refuses to be treated, or looked upon, as Claire’s patient. He is unsullied by the event, he says, and is more interested in pursuing a relationship with Claire than seeking any kind of rehabilitation.

Eventually Eric the charming survivor, played by Patrick Wilson, gets his way, calling Claire’s ethical credentials into question.

If in the beginning Passengers comes across as slow, almost mechanical, just sit tight. Yes, there seem to be repetitions of the contention that Claire is simply trying to help and that the airline is trying to cover up the real cause of the crash and even trying to intimidate her. The thought does cross one’s mind, too, that the beautiful Anne Hathaway’s bursting, natural smile seems somehow unsuited at times to sympathizing with people who are depressed and shocked.

But when the truth dawns that what you are seeing is not just a fictional account of a plane crash but a low-key supernatural thriller with a touching message about the real world then everything changes.

It becomes apparent that the path chosen by the director Rodrigo García and the writer Ronnie Christensen to slowly reveal the movie’s real intent has worked like a charm, and that the cast has played its parts to near-perfection.

Because of its very nature, the movie presents as mystifying, intriguing and highly original. There are also moments of shock, as the engine does indeed explode onscreen with a frightening force.

There are also moments of sexuality, as Patrick and Anne enjoy each other’s company beneath the blankets.

However, to reveal the way the film moves from one plane of reality to another would be to spoil it completely. It is a movie designed to reveal itself in a quietly unrolling kind of way, set against wonderful background music.

Passengers presents a view of life, and death, that adds to the theories about those subjects that already abound.

Enough to say that Eric learns that a career choice in finance might not have been his best path to pursue, and that Claire comes to understand that prolonging a dispute with her sister can only hurt, not help.

It’s a movie that asks of its viewers just one thing: suspend your belief and enjoy.

Clint Eastwood has once again created a film of complex issues and themes, as he did in Mystic River and Unforgiven. In Changeling, themes of decency, parental love and righteousness are explored, as well as issues of police corruption, false accusations and the rights of women are examined.

The film begins with the words, “a true story” and what a story it is! Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) is a single mother in Los Angeles in 1928. On a day when she unexpectedly has to work, she leaves her 9 year old son Walter at home alone. She arranges for a neighbor to look in on him and reminds him to not go outside. Working later than she expected, she returns home at dusk to the nightmare – Walter has disappeared! She notifies the police, who tell her that Walter will probably show up soon. As days go by - no Walter. Months pass and finally she is informed by the police that they have found her son. She goes to the train station to be reunited with him only to see upon their meeting that this boy is not her son. In an attempt to put the case to rest and gain some positive press coverage (sorely needed) the LA Police Dept. has devised this scheme in which they believe Christine will take part. Feeling sorry for the boy she takes him into her home. As time passes Christine becomes insistent that this boy is not her son. The police chief, Capt. J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) has her admitted to a mental institution stating that she doesn’t know her own son. Eventually Rev. Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich) and the press become aware of what’s happening with Christine. Briegleb takes on her cause as a means to bring the corruption of the LA Police Dept. to light. He along with an attorney do succeed  in aiding Christine and blowing open the door on the wrongs that have been done to her and other women in the asylum.

This is all fine, except where is Walter? Christine doggedly continues her search for her son. As she does, a story of a serial killer in LA erupts on the audience like a volcano. We are shocked as the film veers in another direction. There are taut and harrowing sequences of kidnapping, child molesting, murder and retribution. The film has become a thriller. Somehow all of this is connected to the disappearance of Walter. There is so much more that happens before the case of Walter Collins concludes that you surely will be shocked.

The performances by everyone here are excellent. Jeffrey Donovan and  Amy Ryan shine, but it is Michael Kelly as the cop who puts together the pieces of the puzzle who carries the last part of the film. Angelina Jolie is wonderful. Eastwood shoots her in numerous close-ups, showing a face that is at times distraught, fearful and vengeful and at rare times satisfied. She demands the camera and it is given to her and she knows what to do with it. This is a star role in the vein of A Mighty Heart, a movie she carried. In Changeling she one ups herself, it’s a great performance.

Just a word for the faint of heart, there are scenes of disturbing violence involving children. That aside, the film is moving, gripping and memorable.

But, the best way to enjoy I’ve Loved You So Long is in a state of complete innocence, without a clue. At least the first time, it’s better not to know the somber secret that drives the plot. It’s more satisfying not to anticipate the small revelations that slowly, organically peel away the truth. So, no spoilers in this review – please!

The camera observes as if it had been behind bars for fifteen years – like the main character, Juliette, a pitch-perfect role for Kristin Scott Thomas. As if rediscovering a world that was lost to her, the eye is trained upon the smallest details, a fragment of amber glass, a few red wildflowers framed in the corner of a field, the twitch of an eyelid. Cinematographer Jerome Almeras gets credit for making I’ve Loved You So Long so visually eloquent.

Direction, also by Philippe Claudel, is never arch or heavy-handed. He does not underline or force important scenes as the difficult tale unfolds. Silence, almost a character in its own right, speaks volumes. It dominates the first ten minutes of the film, echoes to the very end, and is never used as a device to wring more emotion out of a shot than it deserves. This liberates the viewer to experience small events the way the characters do, moment-by-moment, sometimes delightfully, sometimes painfully, always rich with surprise.

As Juliette’s sister Léa, Elsa Zylberstein is no less extraordinary. The relationship between the two women was violently severed long ago leaving a raw wound that each has covered in a completely different way. What drives Léa to persevere in reaching her “absent” sister is as powerful as the grip on survival Juliette has maintained during her incarceration. The healing will not be easy.

Léa’s husband, his ambivalence beautifully drawn by Serge Hazanvicius, provides an abrasive but positive influence. Two adorable, adoptive daughters are like potent lucky charms. A coterie of warm and predictably “intellectual” academic friends forms the therapeutic crucible for healing, and offers a good deal of wry humor. Two very compassionate men whose own darkness helps Juliette to emerge from the shadows include Frederic Pierrot (as a corrections officer) and Laurent Grévil (as book-worm). Watch these actors’ exquisite work illuminate the background of a fine addition to this cinema season.

I’ve Loved You So Long demonstrates that redemption – like fine acting – is unlikely to appear in a bolt out of the blue. Each involves the long, slow and utterly worthwhile process of attending to every moment and fulfilling it.

There is no pride and there is no glory among the police officers of the fictitious 31^st precinct in New York City.It’s Christmas time in the Big Apple and things are not merry. Four cops are killed during a drug bust and the Chief Inspector in charge, Francis Tierney (Jon Voight), asks his son, Detective Raymond Tierney (Edward Norton) to lead  the investigation.

Ray is hesitant: the murdered police officers are under the command of his brother, Frannie (Noah Emmerich), Commander of the Precinct; his brother-in-law, Jimmy Egan, (Colin Farrell) is a sergeant in the same command.  But his father pulls out all the stops and Ray reluctantly accepts the assignment.  What follows between Christmas and New Year’s is a continual blood bath as Ray, and everyone else, tracks down the drug dealer behind the murders, Angel Tezo (Ramon Rodriguez), and tries to get to him first.  Surprise! Some of the cops are dirty, and guess who they are?

So the dilemma begins, which pits brother against brother, family against family and ultimately cop against cop.

We learn that Ray dutifully played the game eight years ago when he did what his father asked him to.  He upheld the police ethic to protect their own and lied to a grand jury to save a fellow police officer.  This move cost him his marriage and he’s steered clear of such dilemmas since by burying himself at the Missing Persons Desk.  Now he’s right back where he did not want to be.  If he does the right thing and exposes the crooked cops under his brother’s command, he threatens to bring down the house of Tierney.

While Ray struggles with his conscience, there is a steady stream of killings, beatings, and riots in New York.   Hello — this is not the New York we’re familiar with and we have to ask ourselves when this movie is supposed to take place?! It has the feel of New York in the 70’s and not today’s safer city. Unless we’re living in a bubble…?

All this movie offers is a tired, familiar story that’s been told many times over and much more powerfully (Mystic River, the Departed). The actors are all very capable but are given nothing to do.  In fact, actresses Jennifer Ehle, Lake Bell, Carmen Ejogo and Leslie Denniston could just as well have been left out of the movie without jeopardizing the plot one bit.  Is there something we’re supposed to be learning here?  If so I think we just flunked this course!

The question would be good and fair, and to some extent so is the Oliver Stone film. Unlike the Stone films we’ve become used to, however, this one lacks the fire in the belly that has distinguished his previous work.

Overall there is a flatness to the film that is punctuated, at times, with laughter, sadness, religious beliefs, determination and failure. It’s a pity the film ends in 2004, however, knowing what most of us know happened from then until today.

It’s clear Stone is not a Bush fan, and with the lowest approval ratings of any president since Harry Truman, he is obviously not alone.

Starting with Bush’s induction into a Yale fraternity, through his alcoholism, some womanizing, his failures at a whole raft of things he tried to do, one thing stands out: his need, and constant failure, to impress Daddy, George H. W. Bush.

Somehow, the movie makes clear, Bush felt himself constantly overlooked by his father in favor of the younger son, Jeb. Even his mother, Barbara, is seen telling him not to run for the White House because he had her short-fused temperament, something the White House didn’t need.

Josh Brolin does a fairly good job in the title role, from carousing and poker playing in Texas bars in his cowboy hat, to wooing Laura (Elizabeth Banks), to finding God, from beating the Democrat Ann Richards to become state governor, to winning the White House.

He is also convincing when he reminds Dick Cheney (referred to throughout as “Vice”) that he, Bush, is the president; and when he shows his anger at a White House meeting after learning that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, and that a failure of intelligence was to blame.

These scenes alone, and there are others, show Bush in a sympathetic light, so it’s not altogether one-sided.

Three things, however, play a prominent role, in the movie and in Bush’s life: being born into a family of privilege, Daddy, and the maneuverings of Karl Rove, both to get Bush elected Texas governor and president of the United States. Neither one seemed a pushover at the time, but Rove is always there, political data in hand, in the movie and, again, in life figuring out the odds and telling Bush he can do it if his sticks to the script Rove provides.

Is the movie a documentary? Sort of, and then again no, because the inner White House meetings and other scenes it portrays have hardly been put on the record. Is it a comedy? Yes, sometimes, in a weak sort of way.

Is it an historical record? We would guess yes, to some extent, but it’s one few would want to see repeated, as history is said to do. The public events portrayed are things most people are aware of, but a meeting of all the senior administration officials agreeing that gaining access to Iraq’s oil (oh, and Iran’s, too) is a good reason to go to war is conjecture, at least until proved otherwise.

The film uses a succession of flashbacks, back and forth from one decade and year to another, to show Bush’s failures (losing a Texas Congressional race), as well as his successes (giving up drinking and finally coming out from brother Jeb’s shadow).

That technique can be confusing at times, and as we all know how events played out after the ending point in 2004, it’s difficult to know what overall point Stone was trying to make.

Unless it was to prove that even a man of privilege should be given the right to make bad choices, tick off his Daddy, refuse to listen to Mom, and prepare the country for God knows what.

Regarding history, “The Secret Life of Bees” is admirably restrained.  Any more full-throated replay of racial violence would have overwhelmed the delicate coming-of-age-story from which the film is drawn.  It would have eclipsed the magnificent quartet of African-American women whose inter-dependent strength its main message.  And, it would have drowned out the metaphor of the aviary that hums through the tale.

At the center of the beehive is the queen, in this case Queen Latifah as August Boatright, an Earth Mother from whom sweetness and profound spiritual wisdom flows.  August takes in fourteen-year-old Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning), an imaginative and desperate runaway from her rage-aholic redneck father’s abuse.  Lily drags along a fellow-sufferer Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson), her friend, nanny and surrogate mom, and lies their way into the bosom of August’s highly functional family.

May Boatright (Sophie Okenedo) is the “special needs” member who draws out the love in everyone.  June Boatright (Alicia Keyes) has a little bit of an attitude, but in her feisty defensiveness represents yet another aspect of the eternal feminine modeled by August’s clan.  Lily and Rosaleen fit right in to life in a big Pepto-Bismol pink Victorian house that seems almost, but not quite, hermetically sealed from the painful struggles beyond their front door.  Lily thrives.  Inexorable Destiny has led her here to unravel the mystery of her mother’s abandonment.

Herein lies the rub.  As pure and simple as the story line is meant to be, the awful circumstances of the mother’s death, which have obviously traumatized Lily, also leave the viewer with distracting questions as the film progresses.   And, while the acting is in every instance superlative, the pacing of “The Secret Life of Bees” produces unnecessary impatience.  It is as if the camera just could not bear to leave the tender exchange, or the offer of wise counsel.  It lingers too long while the virtuoso performers fill these extended moments without ever overplaying (they are amazing).  It is sometimes as if the director/writer (Gina Prince-Blythewood) thought a direct translation could be made from the descriptive language of the novel to visual “poetry”.   Or, maybe it’s the editing (Terilyn A. Shropshire) that could have moved things along a little more briskly and spared us a slightly saccharine aftertaste to this genuinely sweet story.

It’s a vivid image to be sure, invoking the bloody Judeo-Christian history of religious strife, the take-no-prisoners ethics of Hoffman, anticipating the upcoming moral dilemma of Ferris.

It’s also a good warning to the movie audience: Make sure you have the stomach for what’s about to enfold!

With gritty newsreel-worthy action taking place onscreen in about 10 different locales in the Mideast, US and Europe, bodies lying everywhere, and everybody lying, Ferris, our hero, is in danger’s way every second while Hoffman, fat American stay-at-home dad, watches it all on satellite, zooming in to street level, barks orders on his cell phone, disposes of people, manipulate pieces in a war game that’s not a game at all, at the same time calmly escorting his kids to soccer practice.

People are dying left and right, and in another good visual, Hoffman stands untouched on a covered porch in Virginia, dry in his business suit, as torrential rain pours down all around him.  Ferris catches on a few times as he’s battered and bruised and beaten and sent back yet again into the murderous fray:  “Hoffman, you’re a million f—–g miles away!”

Ferris, we want to care about, but we wonder, he’s motivated by what exactly?  Who would want his job?  Does he maybe have thoughts of bringing peace to the Mideast?  Is it the money?  Or is it simply that he’s good at what he does – making fast thinking decisions about whether to off someone?  We’ll never know.  An unconvincing romantic story angle does little to help us out.

Hoffman, by contrast, is the man of no loyalties, no moral compunctions, no nuances.  Remember Kubrick’s Paths of Glory? – the guys at the top have little compassion for their foot soldiers. They’re just “troops,” or in this case, operatives, people on the ground, i.e. cannon fodder.

The acting is top notch.  In addition to diCaprio and Crowe, we have the dapper British actor, Mark Strong (a handsomer version of Ron Silver?), playing Hani Salaam, the head of Jordanian Intelligence, who wants to help his American allies but insists they play by his rules.  When he says, “Never lie to me,” the message is chilling.

The writing, if you listen to the words, is far superior to that commonly found in movie scripts.  Hoffman’s opening remarks about the inability of the technologically superior Westerners to win the battle against the terrorists and avoid the “global conflagration” he senses is coming is very astute and no doubt prescient.

Directed by Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator), the camerawork is superb and the suspense is sustained throughout the cascade of violence that too much resembles actual events of the past decade.  You will sit on the edge of your seat, worried about the fate of Ferris unless you reach the point – as one of us did – that you don’t really care what happens!  There’s not a lot of sympathetic characters to relate to here (see motivation problems above), you shudder to think how accurate this portrayal of US involvement in the Mideast probably is, and hey, whatever happened to escapist entertainment?

9. It’s about family members going home for the holidays.

8. The female lead’s best friend is an African American woman or a gay man.

7. There’s a scene where anywhere from 2 to 6 characters dance to a Motown song.

6. Diane Keaton stars as a divorced mother with at least one daughter, most likely two, and very possibly three, and it takes place in Connecticut!

5. The trailer contains at least two of these phrases: 1. “inspired” by a true story, 2. against all odds, 3. with nothing left to lose.

4. It’s the 3rd film in the series, or the 4th or 5th or in Rocky’s case the 25th.

3. It’s about animals who talk and venture on a perilous journey to save the day.

2. It’s based on a Jane Austin novel but Keira Knightley is not in it. (Has that ever happened?)

1. It stars Diane Lane as a middle aged woman looking for Love in NYC, Tuscany, North Carolina, - oh, you pick the place!

Given his background as a political humorist, however, it should come as no surprise that what has been generally marketed as a documentary should emerge overall as a movie that produces more laughs than serious answers.

Maher travels the world to try to persuade followers and leaders to explain in interviews what it is that makes Christians, Jews, Muslims, Mormons and Scientologists so certain that their beliefs are true.

The results are often embarrassing for those being questioned, in the same way that “Borat” left its own trail of chagrin and discomfort. Given that Larry Charles directed both movies, that, too, should not come as a surprise.

What bothers Maher, he says in a conversation with Senator Mark Pryor, Democrat of Arkansas and a fervent evangelist, is that someone who looks forward to the end of the world and believes in a talking snake in a garden should be helping to run the country.

Pryor’s response is an awkward smile and, “You don’t have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate.”

If God is all-powerful, Maher asks a Jesus impersonator at a Christian theme park in Florida, why “doesn’t he obliterate the Devil and therefore get rid of evil in the world?” Assured that “He will,” Maher wants to know, “What’s he waiting for?”

Overall, Maher is making the case that there should be room for doubt, not simply disbelief, citing a survey that he says puts religious skeptics at 16 percent of the U.S. population. His other point is that he sees religions as a collection of myths — a man living in a fish for three days is a particularly hard pill for him to swallow — that have poisoned people’s minds and led to wars and destruction.

Not everyone, of course, will agree with that view. Some will be outraged; others will see that challenges to blind faith can produce humor.

Brought up by a Jewish mother and a Roman Catholic father, he attended church every Sunday with his father and sister until the age of 13, which is also when he belatedly learned he was half-Jewish.

Maher’s technique is to ask people who profess an unwavering belief in God, and a strict adherence to only their religion, simple questions that produce either stumbling, bumbling answers, in a Palinesque-Couric kind of way, or bemused silence.

Or total nonsense.

The prize for sheer wackiness should go to José Luis de Jesús Miranda, a smiling Florida evangelist who firmly maintains that he is the second coming of Christ, and no, not because they share the same name.

Close behind would be the Rev. Jeremiah Cummings, formerly of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, who instructs his congregation to buy his DVDs as he stands before them decked out in a very expensive suit, shoes made from lizard skins and gold rings and bracelets.

Though clearly a man of means, he denies taking a salary from the church, prompting Maher to interject: “You take it right out of their pockets!”

Christianity does come in for most of Maher’s humorous exposure, but Judaism and the others are not left out.

An Israeli businessman, for instance, is seen working at coming up with devices that will skirt the laws that apply to the Sabbath, including using electricity.

Two gay Muslim activists are told, “That is a very rare job description,” adding, “You guys have big ones.”

Here’s a film worth seeing for many a reason.

Rachel Getting Married by Jonathan Demme

It’s the best film this year — and that’s by plenty.

Jenny Lumet has penned this fine story

She’s the daughter of Sidney of filmdom glory.

Her story of Kym going home for a wedding

And on the first night there, the best man she is bedding.

Her problems run as deep as raging rivers

So, laughs, tears and angst her character delivers.

Anne Hathaway is Kym the character described

Who comes home from rehab and disrupts many lives.

It’s a long way here from The Devil Wears Prada

But this role rings classical — it’s Hathaway’s sonata.

An Oscar nom I’m sure she will garner

And should she win, it’ll be a worthy honor.

And speaking of music, it’s significant to the plot

The soundtrack is worldly and plucks at your heart.

Bill Irwin in fine form, so too Debra Winger

Wonderful as the parents put through the wringer.

Rosemarie DeWitt, fab as Kym’s sis

Prays that her wedding will not go amiss.

They comprise a family, volcanic to say the least

Within each of them lies a troubled beast.

This movie has it all — tension, emotion, passion

Be prepared to leave it with a very strong reaction.