Opening Films

by INLANDER STAFF & r & & r & AWAKE & r & & r & It's a really bad sign when a movie delays its release for an entire year. It's even worse when, a month before the film goes wide, there's not even a trailer to be watched. That's the story with Awake. All we know is that it's about a dude (Hayden Christensen) who suffers anesthetic awareness during surgery -- he's awake, he has full feeling, but he's unable to move or scream. Oh, his young wife's in it too. They suffer through the consequences of a tragic accident. (LB) Rated R





BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD


Brothers Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke rob a mom-and-pop jewelry store run by their own mom and pop (Rosemary Harris and Albert Finney). Then things really go awry. Director Sidney Lumet may be 83 now, but he's down with postmodernism enough to tell the brothers' story in jumbled chronology -- perhaps reflecting the film's jumbled relationships. (While Marisa Tomei, for example, plays Hoffman's wife, she's sleeping with both brothers.) We get multiple perspectives on the same screw-ups. The title derives from an Irish toast: "May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead." Well, the devil knows that Lumet's characters are dying. And he's moving in. (MB) Rated R





SLEUTH


Rich old dude (Michael Caine) has a wife who wants a divorce. Her new lover, a young out-of-work actor (Jude Law) stops in to beg him to sign the papers ending the marriage. Old dude relents, but on one condition: The kid's gotta break into his house (while old dude's home) and steal some pricey jewels. That's when things get convoluted. Remake of the 1972 original in which Caine played the younger role, and with a darker screenplay by Harold Pinter. (LB) Rated R