La Vie Promise

2002 • Director: Olivier Dahan

Foreign • 93 minutes • Unrated
Empire Pictures
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Pascal Greggory

Is it an art film? The visuals and seductive music make it a lively sensory experience. However, the subject matter is dark and discomfiting: an aging prostitute is on the run with her estranged daughter where they meet a man with his own secrets. Verdict: road movie with a weak script.
Rating: B

Dakota Skye

2008 • Director: John Humber
Indie • 89 minutes • Rated R
Desert Skye Entertainment
Starring Eileen April Boylan, Ian Nelson

Dakota has the uncanny ability to detect any lie. The film crawls along as she tries to determine whether a boy she's met is always truthful or if she is simply unable to detect his fibs. Nonetheless, the pace matches the languid days of adolescence adding a layer of believability. Rating: B

The Browning Version

1994 • Director: Mike Figgis
Paramount Pictures
Starring Albert Finney, Greta Scacchi

I thought that this remake lacking the chilly postwar austerity of the original film would be a snooze. I was surprised, however, by the fantastic performances of Finney and Scacchi as the married couple Andrew and Laura Crocker-Harris. Their portrayal of a mutually venomous relationship is captivating and taut.
Rating: A–

The Browning Version

1951 • Director: Anthony Asquith
Javelin Films
Starring Michael Redgrave, Jean Kent

Michael Redgrave is masterful as a retiring classics professor bound up in his fears and the wreckage of his own distant and severe behavior toward his students. He's tortured by the promiscuities and hatred of his younger wife played with an intelligent coldness by Jean Kent. Psychologically powerful. Rating: A–

Eyes Wide Shut

1999 • Director: Stanley Kubrick

Warner Brothers
Starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman

Is this psycho-sexual drama a stronger film because the lead roles are occupied by a married couple, or is it weaker because it's hampered by the limitations of Cruise and Kidman? Ultimately, both propositions are true. But Eyes Wide Shut transcends expectations, provoking thought and disturbing the emotions.
Rating: A

All the Pretty Horses

2000 • Director: Billy Bob Thornton

Columbia Pictures

Starring Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz

A masterpiece such as the McCarthy novel on which this film is based was always going to be difficult to adapt. When the promised director's cut is released, I will re-review. Skip this leaden distillation; instead, while waiting, read one of the best novels of the last twenty years.
Rating: B–