Opening Films

by INLANDER STAFF & r & & r & AUGUST RUSH & r & & r & An orphaned boy named Evan (Freddie Highmore) connects his main love of music to his parents as he tries intently to find them on his own. His parents, a talented cellist from Juilliard and an Irish rock star (Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers) briefly meet, fall in love, and are torn apart by an overpowering parent. Eleven years down the road, the parents are still unaware of Evan's existence until the musical prodigy ventures out to find them on his own. The acting of a few of the minor characters is unimpressive but the encouraging storyline and Highmore's ability to win over an audience makes it a movie worthwhile. (AEM) Rated PG





ENCHANTED


Thought merging animation with live action had run its course after Cool World? Think again. Enchanted is Disney's apparently earnest attempt to mock its own culture by taking some heroes and villains and exiling them into modern-day New York. Fish-out-of-water-iness ensues. Even if it's not as clever as it would like, Enchanted has Amy Adams, and she's hot. (LB) Rated PG





HITMAN


I'm 47 ... Agent 47. Nope, this professional assassin doesn't have a proper name. Played by a shaven-headed Timothy Olyphant, and engineered in a lab to make him perfect, he's set up and targeted by -- well, he doesn't know who's done this, but the Russians are chasing him all over creation. Things get more complicated when he falls for the lovely Nikka (Olga Kurylenko). (ES) Rated R





MY KID COULD PAINT THAT


This documentary examines the abstract paintings of 4-year-old Marla Olmstead and the controversy over whether she's a prodigy or a money-seeking manipulator. Olmstead's art received enormous publicity and generated thousands of dollars for her family. But did Mommy and Daddy paint Marla's pictures for her? (TLM) Rated PG-13





NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN


When Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds the remnants of what looks like a drug deal gone bad -- lots of heroin, money and dead bodies -- he decides to take the money. Bad choice: That puts a psychopath (Javier Bardem) on his trail. And while Tommy Lee Jones' sheriff provides some help, Llewellyn has now plunged himself into a world in which everyday things -- a coin toss, a dog, a phone call -- turn lethal. Joel and Ethan Coen return to the violent black comedy of Fargo. (ES) Rated R





THE MIST


Working in collaboration with horrormeister Stephen King himself, director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) has produced a low-budget horror film worthy of being categorized with Psycho and Night of the Living Dead. When fog enshrouds a strip mall and a father and son are threatened by scary monsters, groupthink hysteria and individual responses to the unknown are put to the test. (CS) Rated R





THIS CHRISTMAS


A Home for the Holidays-esque film, This Christmas follows the Whitfield siblings as they troop home for Christmas, each of them bringing their dramas. Lisa (Regina King) is coping with her cheating husband, Claude Whitfield (Columbus Short) is a soldier gone AWOL, and Michael "Baby" Whitfield (Chris Brown) is struggling to become a singer. The matriarch of the family (Loretta Devin), while coping as her children's inner secrets continually become revealed and nearly tear them all apart, is just happy to have everyone home for the holidays. (TLM) Rated PG-13