Now playing in Hanover
By The Dartmouth Staff
Published on Monday, October 15, 2007
2 DAYS IN PARIS
"2 Days in Paris" is a romantic comedy dipped in acid. It's about deceitful, self-absorbed people who say nasty, horrible things to each other. Which is not to say that the film isn't absolutely adorable -- just don't go in expecting the sort of sentimental pink fluff promised by the trailer, the title and the effervescent soundtrack. If you're looking for that sort of thing, I believe "The Jane Austen Book Club" is still playing in the next theatre over. -- A.J. Fox
EASTERN PROMISES
There are some great moments in David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises," but you have to wade through an awful lot of carnage to get to them. Set in the London underworld, there seem to be only two states of existence: violence, and the threat of violence. Characters bleed to death in lingering close-ups, their crimson wounds scouring the film's somber gray backdrop. It's unabashed theatre of the grotesque, made doubly disturbing by the narrative revolving around the innocence of a newborn infant. -- A.J. Fox
THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB
What would Jane Austen think of "The Jane Austen Book Club?" Ever the satirist of romantic pretensions, would she wrinkle her nose at the film's goofy sentimentality? Or would she take one look at the parade of adorably lovelorn characters and smile with affectionate solidarity? More likely, she would recognize the film as an elaborate form of flattery. "Book Club" is as much an admiring tribute to the author as it is a delightful dramatization of her enduring fan base. -- A.J. Fox