Rowlands, Gena

Persepolis

A fascinating and wholly unexpected take on Iran's Islamic revolution beginning in the 1970s, Persepolis is an enthralling, animated feature about a spirited young woman who spends her life trying to deal with the consequences of her nation's history. Based on an autobiographical comic book by Marjane Satrapi, the story concerns Marji (voiced as a teenager and woman by Chiara Mastroianni), whose natural fire and precociousness are slowly dampened by the rise of religious extremists. Marji grieves over the imprisonment and execution of a beloved uncle, then begrudgingly adapts to ever-tightening rules about dress, social mores, education for women, and expectations about marriage and divorce. Along the way, her grandmother (Danielle Darrieux) and mother (Catherine Deneuve) help keep Marji grounded during her rebellious teens and encourage her to find life beyond Iran's borders, a decision that proves both a blessing and curse. An unique window onto a crucial chapter of 20th century history, Persepolis is graphically engaging with its black-and-white, bold lines and feeling of repressed energy, fit to burst. The emotional content is so strong that after awhile, one almost forgets the film is a cartoon. Satrapi co-wrote the screenplay and co-directed the film along with animator Vincent Paronnaud. --Tom Keogh

Stills from Persepolis (click for larger image)

Beyond Persepolis

On Blu-ray

Paperback

Soundtrack CD

Persepolis is the poignant story of a young girl coming-of-age in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It is through the eyes of precocious and outspoken nine-year-old Marjane that we see a people's hopes dashed as fundamentalists take power forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. Clever and fearless she outsmarts the "social guardians" and discovers punk ABBA and Iron Maiden. Yet when her uncle is senselessly executed and as bombs fall around Tehran in the Iran/Iraq war the daily fear that permeates life in Iran is palpable. As she gets older Marjane's boldness causes her parents to worry over her continued safety. And so at age fourteen they make the difficult decision to send her to school in Austria. Vulnerable and alone in a strange land she endures the typical ordeals of a teenager. In addition Marjane has to combat being equated with the religious fundamentalism and extremism she fled her country to escape. Over time she gains acceptance and even experiences love but after high school she finds herself alone and horribly homesick. Though it means putting on the veil and living in a tyrannical society Marjane decides to return to Iran to be close to her family. After a difficult period of adjustment she enters art school and marries all the while continuing to speak out against the hypocrisy she witnesses. At age 24 she realizes that while she is deeply Iranian she cannot live in Iran. She then makes the heartbreaking decision to leave her homeland for France optimistic about her future shaped indelibly by her past.System Requirements:Running Time: 95 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ANIMATION/ANIME Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396225251 Manufacturer No: 22525

The Notebook (New Line Platinum Series)

A boy from the wrong side of the tracks falls in love with a rich girl, and it seems no one approves of the relationship.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 3-JAN-2006
Media Type: DVD

When you consider that old-fashioned tearjerkers are an endangered species in Hollywood, a movie like The Notebook can be embraced without apology. Yes, it's syrupy sweet and clogged with clichés, and one can only marvel at the irony of Nick Cassavetes directing a weeper that his late father John--whose own films were devoid of saccharine sentiment--would have sneered at. Still, this touchingly impassioned and great-looking adaptation of the popular Nicholas Sparks novel has much to recommend, including appealing young costars (Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams) and appealing old costars (James Garner and Gena Rowlands, the director's mother) playing the same loving couple in (respectively) early 1940s and present-day North Carolina. He was poor, she was rich, and you can guess the rest; decades later, he's unabashedly devoted, and she's drifting into the memory-loss of senile dementia. How their love endured is the story preserved in the titular notebook that he reads to her in their twilight years. The movie's open to ridicule, but as a delicate tearjerker it works just fine. Message in a Bottle and A Walk to Remember were also based on Sparks novels, suggesting a triple-feature that hopeless romantics will cherish. --Jeff Shannon

Paris, Je T'Aime (Paris, I Love You)

Even with the impressive talent involved, Paris, je t'aime could've ended up like a fallen soufflé. Though all 18 films aren't equally successful, they hit the mark more often than not. Romantics anticipating happy love stories set amongst the City of Lights may be disappointed to find that many are quite sad and that some parts of Paris are less inviting than others (each takes place in a different district). Further, the shorts aren't all en Français, since the actors and directors hail from around the world, but their outsider perspectives lend the project depth. The strongest entries are provided by Gurinder Chadha (Quais De Seine), Gus Van Sant (Le Marais), Oliver Schmitz (Place des Fêtes), and Alexander Payne (14ème Arrondissement), but all find interesting ways to explore cultural misunderstandings. In Joel and Ethan Coen's tragic-comic Tuileries, tourist Steve Buscemi angers a couple simply by making eye contact. Like Miranda Richardson in Isabelle Coixet's heartbreaking Bastille, he does all his acting with his expressive face. And while Maggie Gyllenhaal speaks the language adroitly in Olivier Assayas's intriguing Quartier des Enfants Rouges, Nick Nolte (purposefully) mangles it in Alfonso Cuarón's surprisingly weak Parc Monceau. The anthology ends with Payne's audio-postcard, in which Margo Martindale's postal carrier narrates her vacation in awkward, but endearing French. Instead of another person, she falls in love with Paris, simply for allowing her to be herself. It's the perfect finish to a poignant repast, like strawberries dipped in chocolate--sweet, but not cloyingly so. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

In PARIS, JE T'AIME, celebrated directors from around the world, including the Coen Brothers, Gus Van Sant, Gurinder Chadha, Wes Craven, Walter Salles, Alexander Payne and Olivier Assayas, have come together to portray Paris in a way never before imagined. Made by a team of contributors as cosmopolitan as the city itself, this portrait of the city is as diverse as its creators' backgrounds and nationalities. With each director telling the story of an unusual encounter in oe of the city's neighborhoods, the vignettes go beyond the 'postcard' view of Paris to portray aspects of the city rarely seen on the big screen. Racial tensions stand next to paranoid visions of the city seen from the perspective of an American tourist. A young foreign worker moves from her own domestic situation into her employer's bourgeois environs. An American starlet finds escape as she is shooting a movie. A man is torn between his wife and his lover. A young man working in a print shop sees and desires another young man. A father grapples with his complex relationship with his daughter. A couple tries to add spice to their sex life. These are but a few of the witty and serendipitous narratives that make up PARIS, JE T'AIME.

Hope Floats

Cute-as-a-button Sandra Bullock is a homemaker who learns that her husband and best friend are having an affair. The so-called best friend reveals this information on a national chat show, leaving Bullock devastated and disgraced. Heading back to her small hometown in Texas, she seeks refuge with her eccentric mother. Laconic Harry Connick Jr., a former high-school classmate, attempts to bring Bullock out of her depression and win her heart. He has, you see, been carrying a torch for her since they were kids.

You will not need a crystal ball to see where this is going. It works as a middling romance, but is an annoying waste of potential. The script has much to say about finding your true identity, but does so with all the sentimentality and depth of a Hallmark card. --Rochelle O'Gorman

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 9-JAN-2007
Media Type: DVD

Something to Talk About

This well-intentioned but strangely cold tale concerns an emotionally repressed Southern belle (Julia Roberts) who separates from her husband (Dennis Quaid) after discovering he is an unabashed philanderer. Pressed by her dominating father (Robert Duvall) into reconciling with her spouse, Roberts's character chafes against so much male control over her destiny. Defended by a fiercely independent sister (a catchy performance by Kyra Sedgwick), the heroine develops the nerve to plot her own course in life while her mother (Gena Rowlands) finds the gumption to throw her own mate out of the house. The script by Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise) is intelligent but hardly clear, and direction by Lasse Hallström (Once Around) can't keep Khouri's unfocused scenes and uncertain purpose from dissolving like sand castles in the rain. --Tom Keogh

Grace has a picture-perfect life. And it goes dizzyingly out of focus the day she discovers her husband Eddie has been unfaithful. Julia Roberts headlines this acclaimed movie that aims for the heart and funnybone - and scores a bull's eye. In her best screen role yet Roberts is Grace whose reaction to the infidelities of Eddie (Dennis Quaid) turns the lives and loves of the people around her into something like falling dominoes. Robert Duvall Gena Rowlands Kyra Sedgwick and others in "the years best ensemble of characters" (Jack Matthews Newsday) join Roberts for this juicy truthful story written by Callie Khouri (Thelma and Louise) and directed by Lasse Hallstrom (What's Eating Gilbert Grape?). Folks are talking about Grace. You owe it to yourself to see why.Running Time: 106 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 085391421726

Taking Lives - Director's Cut (Widescreen Edition)

While it doesn't rank with such grim classics as The Silence of the Lambs and Seven, D.J. Caruso's Taking Lives offers similarly heavy atmosphere, beginning well before fizzling into absurdity. Freely adapted from the novel by Michael Pye, and set in Montreal (although it was filmed in Quebec City), the plot trades in several familiar tropes of the serial-killer genre, beginning with the FBI agent (Angelina Jolie) who brings her unique skills (and brooding, low-key demeanor) to the vexing case of a killer who, out of apparent self-loathing, steals the identities of his victims and lives their lives until it's time for the next gruesome murder. Ethan Hawke plays the killer's alleged next victim, and in a film filled with twists that grow increasingly unconvincing, Keifer Sutherland is menacingly cast as a shifty suspect. Caruso's previous film was the creepy drug thriller The Salton Sea, so he's well-qualified to infuse Taking Lives with a darkly stylish sense of dread and at least one good shock to keep your adrenaline flowing. The second half essentially betrays the promise of the first, but there's enough going on to hold your interest to the end. --Jeff Shannon

A psychological thriller Taking Lives is the story of an FBI agent who becomes involved with her key witness while tracking a prolific serial killer who assumes the lives and identities of the people he kills. She finds herself surrounded by numerous suspects and no one to trust.Running Time: 103 min.System Requirements:Running Time 106 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating: UNRATED UPC: 012569431829 Manufacturer No: 4318

The Mighty

Caught between the purest of intentions and unimaginative shortcuts to sentimentality, The Mighty is nevertheless rewarding enough to make it worth seeing. Kieran Culkin stars as Kevin, a terminally ill but spirited young boy who befriends a healthy but illiterate social outcast, Maxwell (Elden Henson). They realize that together they are a stronger, braver force than they are as individuals, and the various opportunities they have to confront persecutors and memories of their bad fathers are handled very effectively by director Peter Chelsom (a very original filmmaker who made the terrific Funny Bones). The curious adult casting includes Sharon Stone (a natural scene-stealer even when she doesn't intend it) as Kevin's saintly mother, and Gillian Anderson in a quite-unbelievable supporting role. Chelsom's lapses in judgment are not terribly significant (imaginary appearances by Camelot-era knights on horseback are the most annoying), though one could argue that a plot to kidnap one of the boys is a cheesy way to underscore the kids' redemptive loyalty to one another. Still, all in all, you can laugh and cry at this tale of rare friendship, and admire the sensitive performances by Chelsom's younger players. --Tom Keogh

Award-winning actresses Sharon Stone (SPHERE, CASINO) and Gillian Anderson (THE X-FILES) star in this uplifting motion picture that's received overwhelming critical acclaim! With his loving and supportive mother (Stone), 13-year-old Kevin (Kieran Culkin) moves in next door to another teen, Max. Though both have problems that label them as outcasts, Kevin and Max discover that by proudly combining their strengths and uniting as one, they can overcome their individual limitations and triumph over any adversity! As the two set out on a series of courageous adventures, they find the mightiest treasure of all: friendship! With Gena Rowlands (PLAYING BY HEART) and a stellar supporting cast, THE MIGHTY is truly exceptional entertainment that will lift your spirits and touch your heart!

Playing By Heart

This amiably amorphous comedy-drama about a myriad of articulate and witty people pondering the meaning of love was originally titled Dancing About Architecture. As one of the lovelorn puts it, in trying to explain the elusive nature of desire, "Talking about love is like dancing about architecture." However, with the way the characters in Willard Carroll's film talk, it sounds like they could dance a samba around Frank Lloyd Wright. This undiscovered gem doesn't have a particular destination in mind, as it weaves in and out of the stories of its high-profile ensemble, but it does offer some hilarious, sharp dialogue and quiet surprises. Carroll focuses his film on four couples, all in one way or another battling with the problems of relationships, ranging from long-marrieds (Gena Rowlands and Sean Connery) to Gen-X club-hoppers (Angelina Jolie and Ryan Phillippe). Ostensibly, part of the film is invested in the mystery of how all these characters are interrelated, but keen viewers will be able to discern the connections among everyone. It's the uniformly excellent performances, though, that make Playing by Heart compulsively watchable. Most striking, surprisingly enough, are Jolie and Phillippe, the youngest members of the cast who reveal heretofore hidden depths of talent. Jolie in particular increases her already-soaring stock as an actress. Equally impressive are Gillian Anderson and Jon Stewart, who transcend their yuppie personas in their awkward enactment of the timeless dating rituals. Other cast members, including Dennis Quaid, Anthony Edwards, Ellen Burstyn, Jay Mohr, and the always luminous Madeleine Stowe, are quite good, though saddled with story lines that are occasionally less than compelling. The only complaint you'll have is that once everyone's connections are revealed, you'll wish this cast had more of an opportunity to interact. The journey toward the film's bittersweet end, however, is marvelous in and of itself. --Mark Englehart

A sexy, romantic comedy about modern couples coming together in funny and unexpected ways, PLAYING BY HEART features an amazing cast of hot stars! Paul (Sean Connery -- FINDING FORRESTER) and Hannah (Gena Rowlands -- THE MIGHTY) discover that even after 40 years of marriage, they can still learn some very surprising things about each other! Meredith (Gillian Anderson -- THE X-FILES) is a serious theatre director who isn't looking for a relationship ... but has one looking for her in the person of the funny, persistent Trent (Jon Stewart -- JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK)! Then there's Joan (Angelina Jolie -- TOMB RAIDER) and Keenan (Ryan Phillippe -- GOSFORD PARK), young people searching for love in an L.A. club scene where the rules of dating seem to change every night! A witty, charming motion picture that critics loved -- you, too, will fall for this seductive treat!

Paris, Je T'Aime (Two Disc Limited Collector's Edition)

Fall in love with the most romantic city in the world Paris the City of Light. This critically acclaimed box-office smash combines visions from the world s top directors -- the Coen brothers (Fargo) Alexander Payne (Sideways) Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) -- and some of America s top stars -- Natalie Portman (Closer) Elijah Wood (The Lord Of the Rings) Juliette Binoche (Chocolat) -- who together create a panoramic portrait of this photogenic city. Find yourself transported and maybe transformed by these sexy romantic haunting dramatic and beautiful stories. Paris Je T'Aime goes beyond the "postcard" view of Paris to portray aspects of the city rarely seen on the big screen revealing its Parisian heart and soul and leaving you with a vision that will last long after the film is over.Includes a Bonus Disc with 18 revealing behind the scene featurettes spanning over 2 1/2 hours!System Requirements:Run Time: 110 minutes Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 687797116246

Even with the impressive talent involved, Paris, je t'aime could've ended up like a fallen soufflé. Though all 18 films aren't equally successful, they hit the mark more often than not. Romantics anticipating happy love stories set amongst the City of Lights may be disappointed to find that many are quite sad and that some parts of Paris are less inviting than others (each takes place in a different district). Further, the shorts aren't all en Français, since the actors and directors hail from around the world, but their outsider perspectives lend the project depth. The strongest entries are provided by Gurinder Chadha (Quais De Seine), Gus Van Sant (Le Marais), Oliver Schmitz (Place des Fêtes), and Alexander Payne (14ème Arrondissement), but all find interesting ways to explore cultural misunderstandings. In Joel and Ethan Coen's tragic-comic Tuileries, tourist Steve Buscemi angers a couple simply by making eye contact. Like Miranda Richardson in Isabelle Coixet's heartbreaking Bastille, he does all his acting with his expressive face. And while Maggie Gyllenhaal speaks the language adroitly in Olivier Assayas's intriguing Quartier des Enfants Rouges, Nick Nolte (purposefully) mangles it in Alfonso Cuarón's surprisingly weak Parc Monceau. The anthology ends with Payne's audio-postcard, in which Margo Martindale's postal carrier narrates her vacation in awkward, but endearing French. Instead of another person, she falls in love with Paris, simply for allowing her to be herself. It's the perfect finish to a poignant repast, like strawberries dipped in chocolate--sweet, but not cloyingly so. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

The Skeleton Key (Widescreen Edition)

Steeped in rain, humidity, and eerie bayou atmosphere, The Skeleton Key is an entertaining supernatural thriller that makes excellent use of its Louisiana locations. New Orleans and the rural environs of Terrebonne Parish are crucial in setting up the creepy circumstances that find compassionate caregiver Caroline Ellis (Kate Hudson) newly employed at the backwater plantation home of Violet (Gena Rowlands) and her invalid husband Ben (John Hurt), who's been rendered mute and seemingly helpless by a recent stroke. The place is rife with mystery, shrouded in the secrets of a suspicious past and, under Violet's stern supervision, plagued by superstition involving the use of Hoodoo magic spells (not to be confused with Voodoo, as explored in the similarly suspenseful Angel Heart) intended to protect the house from harm. But Caroline soon discovers the source of the mystery, and why Ben (who can barely utter a word) is so desperate to escape his seemingly comfortable domesticity. There are a few loopholes in the screenplay by prolific horror writer Ehren Kruger (The Ring and The Brothers Grimm), but director Iain Softley (Wings of the Dove) expertly emphasizes the edgy air of mystery, pushing some effective shocks while encouraging fine work from Hudson, Peter Sarsgaard (as Violet's lawyer) and especially Rowlands, who's genuinely disturbing as Skeleton Key nears a twist ending that's undeniably effective. --Jeff Shannon