The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 176

MOVIE LISTINGS CD I that are unintentionally creepy. (106 R) (Ty Burr) Vi "The Squid and the Whale" An exquisitely observed, darkly comic tale of divorce from writer-director Noah Baumbach. The sense of time and place Park Slope, Brooklyn, 1986 is spot-on, and the writing is ruthlessly honest about the romantic delusions of post-60s yuppie bohemians. Jeff Daniels gives a career-peak performance as the imposing dad a faded novelist and literate bully. With Laura Linney and Jesse Eisenberg.

(80 R) (Ty Burr) kkk "Syriana" An ambitious, overcrowded affair from "Traffic" screenwriter Stephen Gaghan, this time about oil and global politics. The actors are playing positions more than characters, but the film has a weirdly enthralling power. It's only a movie and seems utterly woebegone that it can't be more. With George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, and Alexander Saddig. 1 2 6 R) (Wesley Morris) "The Talent Given Us" A long-married New York couple drives to Los Angeles to see their estranged son, Andrew Wagner, who happens to be this movie's writer, producer, cinematographer, and director.

Judy and Allen Wagner are his actual parents, and the surreal psychodrama they've made, with the on-camera help of Andrew's two sisters, is ultimately poignant. (97 unrated) (Wesley Morris) Vi "Ushpizin" A roistering, rather lightweight comic fable set among the Breslau Hasidim of Jerusalem. The hero (screenwriter Shuli Rand) is a good Jew but a lousy homemaker, and when he prays for divine assistance, God answers in prankish ways. In Hebrew, with English subtitles. (91 unrated) (Ty Burr) Vi "Walk the Line" James Mangold's account of Johnny Cash's early life has the ups and downs of a country ballad.

What makes it special is the intensely romantic love story between Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) and June Carter, whom Reese Wither-spoon plays with rare emotional completeness. Watching these two work their way toward marriage feels like a two-hour honeymoon. (136 PG-13) (Wesley Morris) Vi "Wallace Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" A small plasticine masterpiece from Nick Park of "Chicken Run," set in a corner of the animation world that's forever England. Gormless inventor Wallace and his silent, long-suffering dog save the vegetable gardens of Britain from a marauding monster bunny; it's achingly funny for kids and even more so for grown-ups. (85 G) (Ty Burr) Vi "Wolf Creek" Riffing off of some of the most notorious serial-killer cases in Australia, this disturbing slasher flick tracks three tourists abducted in the Outback.

It's tense and harrowing as intended, but also gratuitously sadistic, skin deep, and full of plot holes the size of Ayers Rock. Unlikely to be shown on Qantas flights. (95 R) (Janice Page "Yours, Mine Ours" The movie equivalent of a box of generic macaroni and cheese: bland, easily digested, forgettable. Dennis Quaid is a ramrod Coast Guard admiral with eight kids, Rene Russo an earth-mother with 10. They get married; slapstick and bickering ensue.

It's a remake of the 1968 Henry Fonda-Lucille Ball comedy. (88 PG) (Ty Burr) deepening quicksand of paranoia. Despite a forced ending (again), Spielberg's filmmaking gifts are in full flower, and the movie sidesteps notions of moral equivalency to focus on the futility of the cycle of violence. (160 R) (TyBurr) Vi "North Country" In the tough new movie from Niki Caro Charlize Theron shames her daddy when she takes a job at the same Minnesota iron mine where he works. Male co-workers mistreat her, and eventually she takes the mine to court.

This is heartbreaking and powerful moviemaking. It's remarkably unsentimental, too. With Frances McDormand, Woody Har-relson, Richard Jenkins, and Sissy Spacek. R) (Wesley Morris) "Pride Prejudice" After too many moth-eaten roles, Keira Knightly finally gets to bring it home as Elizabeth Bennet in a whooshing and jubilantly performed adaptation of the Jane Austen classic. Everyone appears to be having a great time, except Mr.

Darcy (Matthew Mac-fadyen). But when he comes around he'll be as incandescently happy as we are. (127 PG) (Wesley Morris) "The Producers" The latest iteration of Mel Brooks's comedy about the worst play ever and the two schlemiels who stage it has been airlifted in from Broadway with everything but the ushers. As a movie, it's a mess, but see it with an audience and it lights up. Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick sell it hard, and Uma Thurman is an unexpected pleasure as a singing, dancing Ulla.

With Will Ferrell. (134 PG-13) (Ty Burr) kk "Rent" It's taken them nine years to get there, but the East Village junkies, drag queens, and activist urchins have finally made it to Hollywood, with most of the original cast still intact. Except for a handful of lively musical production numbers, Chris "Home Alone" Columbus directs without much zip. The result: a batch of cuddly bohemians right out of "Muppets Take Manhattan." (135 PG-1 3) (Wesley Morris) Vi "The Ringer" Johnny Knox-ville stars as a meek office clerk who pretends to be mentally challenged so he can enter a Special Olympics competition and cash in on a bet. Since this is a movie produced by the fearless Farrelly brothers, you'd expect it to at least be outrageous.

Instead it's standard, politically correct fare that's mildly funny at best. (94 PG-13.) (Janice Page) "Rumor Has Jennifer Aniston stars as a woman who discovers that her family was the inspiration for "The Graduate." A nifty premise, but director Rob Reiner has no interest in exploring the endless comic and cultural possibilities. Not much of a tribute to Mike Nichols' classic. With Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine, and Mark Ruffalo. (96 PG-1 3) (Wesley Morris) "Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic" Silverman brings her standup act to the movies with this crudely filmed, though clever, abrasive assault.

Gratuitous sketches and music-video bits interrupt her live routine, but Silverman's approach to her on-stage material, which gets into rape and racism, is toxically funny: She affects the self-absorbed obliviousness of a teenaged girl. (72 unrated) (Wesley Morris) kk Vi "Shopgirl" Anand Tucker's film is an aching mood piece about a young Saks clerk (Claire Danes) whose inner loveliness goes unnoticed by the world until she's wooed by a young doofus (Jason Schwartz-man) and an older gent (Steve Martin). Danes is heartbreaking and adorable, but the movie still manages to be a Martin vanity project in ways kk-kVi "Good Night, and Good Luck" George Clooney's Edward R. Murrow movie is a hermetically sealed period piece so relevant to our current state of broadcast journalism that it takes your breath away. David Strathairn makes the legendary newsman a model of bearing as he takes on the McCarthy witch-hunts of the early 1950s.

Formally maddening at times, but it demands to be seen no matter your political stripe. (93 PG) (Ty Burr) Vi "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" The latest installment of the pop-culture juggernaut marks a sea-change: hormones have kicked in, Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) rises anew, adulthood beckons. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and company still find time for special-effects adventures but the prevailing tone is dark and dramatic. Under the direction of Mike Newell Weddings and a it works, even if it does sometimes feel like an episode of "DeGrassi Junior High" with dragons. 1 5 7 PG-1 3) (Ty Burr) Vi "A History of Violence" In David Cronenberg's intelligent new movie, the life of a small-town family man (Viggo Mortensen) changes unexpectedly after he kills two thugs who tried to rob his diner.

Based on a graphic novel, the movie is unconventionally entertaining, balanced entirely on the line between comedy and danger. With Maria Bello, excellent as Mortensen's wife. (100 R) (Wesley Morris) "The Ice Harvest" An anti-Christmas Christmas movie that's friendlier than "Bad Santa," despite the participation of Billy Bob Thornton. He and John Cusack play two Wichita screw-ups who skim $2 million from mob boss Randy Quaid, then try to leave town during a Christmas Eve ice storm. The subject is comic entropy, and a top crew (director Harold Ramis, writers Richard Russo and Robert Benton) put it over expertly.

(88 R) (Ty Burr) "King Kong" Peter Jackson delivers all you could possibly want from a three-hour popcorn behemoth the CGI special effects in the Skull Island sequences are not to be believed but this astonishing machine is curiously lacking in soul. Naomi Watts is fine as screaming Ann Darrow, while Andy "Gollum" Serkis gets nicely under Kong's digital skin. Some full-on horror sequences make it taboo for the kiddies. (187 PG-13) (TyBurr) "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" A happy comeback for Robert Downey Val Kilmer, and screenwriter-turned-director Shane Black, this private-eye farce is the best party in town, a zippy, overloaded blast of sound and fury that signifies absolutely nothing. More antic than "Get Shorty," less brutally artful than "Pulp Fiction," fewer calories than either.

With Michelle Monaghan as the babe with the stems. (102 R) (Ty Burr) Vi "Memoirs of a Geisha" Arthur Golden's best-selling novel has been brought to the screen with opulent attention to detail, but the film remains faux-Oriental chic. Ziyi Zhang plays a rising geisha star in pre-war Japan, Gong Li and Michelle Yeoh are her nemesis and mentor, respectively, and Ken Watanabe the object of her affection. The English-language dialogue forces the talented cast into pidgin incomprehensibility. (145 PG-13) (TyBurr) k-kk Vi "Munich" A fascinating, provocative inquiry into the moral costs of revenge, and Steven Spielberg's strongest work in years.

Adapting George Jonas' 1984 book "Vengeance," about the secret Israeli response to the 1 9 7 2 Olympics massacre, the director and writers Tony Kushner and Eric Roth plunge Eric Bana's Mossad agent into a XI I. 0 to to rO rO cn 2 to ro 00 1 seeing Ledger's soulful "Brokeback Mountain" performance, require confirmation that he hasn't lost his ability to smile or his appetite for women. (108 R) (Wesley Morris) Vi "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" The further adventures of the Baker family dopey dad Steve Martin, sensible mom Bonnie Hunt, and their milling spawn. Noisy, silly, gratingly cheerful, and piously sentimental, it's the sort of movie to send small children and grandparents out of the theater hugging each other and strong men in search of bourbon. Co-starring Eugene Levy, Carmen Electra, and a surly Hilary Duff.

(94 PG) (Ty Burr) k-k Vi "Chicken Little" Disney's first in-house attempt at a Pixar-style CGI blockbuster is shiny and peppy, but even a small child may sense how hard it tries to be all things to all audiences. The storyline's a forced stew of funny-animal comedy, personal growth, and alien invasion with classic disco hits but the gags are bright and the voice actors (Zach Braff, Joan Cusack, Steve Zahn, et al) do smart work. Available in two flavors, 2D or "Disney Digital check listings for specifics. (77 G) (Ty Burr) kkk "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" A solid, reasonably close approximation of C.S. Lewis's beloved children's book, this is not a of the Christ" (as some feared) but "Lord of the Rings" lite (as others feared).

The four leading children are likeably bland and Liam Neeson provides the computer-generated Asian with mellifluous charisma, but you come away remembering Tilda Swinton's evil queen probably not what Lewis intended. (135 PGHTyBurr) k-k Vi "The Constant Gardener" Ralph Fiennes plays a shy British diplomat in Kenya whose activist wife (Rachel Weisz) has uncovered nasty things about a pharmaceutical company's Third World practices. Fernando Meirelles adapts the John le Carre novel with all the visual pizzazz of his "City of God" and little of the impact. Despite the film's extremely urgent concerns and Fiennes's fine performance, it's a predictable conspiracy thriller. (129 R) (Ty Burr) "Derailed" Tawdry, predictable thriller headcheese about a married suburbanite (Clive Owen) who fools around with a flirty commuter (Jennifer Aniston) and pays for it.

Director Mikael Hafstrom strips it down to pure functionality but at least he has Vincent Cassel as a sneering, charismatic villain. The movie won't look bad in a few months on late-night pay cable, but its current return on investment is minimal. (100 R) (TyBurr) Vi "The Family Stone" The romantic holiday comedy to end all romantic holiday comedies. Dermot Mulroney brings home uptight Sarah Jessica Parker to his bohemian New England family, and they treat her meanly until, of course, they don't. Sometimes funny and always sincere, the movie is at once overwritten and underdeveloped.

With Diane Keaton, Luke Wilson, and Rachel McAdams. (109 PG-13) (Wesley Morris) kk-kVz "Fun with Dick and Jane" Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni play Dick and Jane Harper, one of those successful suburban couples for whom there's nowhere to go but up, up, up. Then he loses his bigwig job, and they're driven to robbery to make ends meet. This is a cleverly finessed satire both of the upwardly mobile and the corporate scandal fallout. (90 PG-13) (Wesley Morris) mentary is a working definition of the pleasures of the profane.

Everyone from Don Rickles to Jon Stewart shows up to tell their version or to offer commentary, and, like improvising jazz musicians, they fill the open space between set-up and punch line with verbal cadenzas of inspired filth. It's rude, crude, socially unacceptable, and gut-crampingly funny (86 unrated) (Ty Burr) k-k "Bee Season" Transcendence is much on the mind of this big-screen adaptation of Myla Goldberg's best-selling novel, at times to the exclusion of sense. The mournful, attentive Flora Cross plays a young girl who spells her way to the national championships as her family falls to pieces. There are moments of sheer cinematic grace but Richard Gere is gravely miscast as her smothering academic father. (104 PG-13) (Ty Burr) Vi "The Boys of Baraka" Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's piercing documentary follows four African-American boys from their troubled situations in Baltimore to a boarding academy in rural Kenya.

We come to understand through the students' frustrations that the program is a trial, and their growing self-confidence shows that it's working. The movie never turns righteous or propagandistic, however, always keeping its eye on the boys and their families. (84 unrated) (Wesley Morris) Vi "Breakfast on Pluto" An Irish transvestite (Cillian Murphy) embarks on a picaresque journey to find his long-lost mother. Neil Jordan's film is set at the dawn of glam rock and during the second phase of the Troubles. The costumes are vivid and the movie has loopy comic flair, but Murphy is stuck playing the same twee note in a story that never seems to end.

With Liam Neeson and Brendan Gleeson. (135 R) (Wesley Morris) Vi "Brokeback Mountain" Yes, it's the gay cowboy movie; get over it already. Heath Ledger gives a staggering performance as one of two Wyoming ranch hands who fall in forbidden love during the 1960s; Jake Gyllenhaal, believably callow, is the other man. Director Ang Lee has set a chamber drama against a Marlboro Man landscape it's studied, but it works. Based on the Annie Proulx short story, with Michelle Williams breaking your heart as Ledger's wife.

(134 R) (Ty Burr) kk-k "Caf6 Lumiere" Acclaimed Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao Hsien's tribute to legendary director Yasujiro Ozu understands its mentor's every rhythm and obsession, and so should you before you see it, because it will be too slow and spare for many viewers. Made in the image of Ozu's "Tokyo Story," Hou's film centers on a family coping with unwed pregnancy, but it's really more about the shifts and rifts in contemporary Japanese society. (103 unrated) (Janice Page) kick Vi "Capote" In an eerily well-realized performance, Philip Seymour Hoffman plays author Truman Capote as a diminutive, wickedly sharp genius freak who has triumphed over the beautiful people and wants more. As Capote researches and writes his 1966 "nonfiction novel" "In Cold Blood," director Bennett Miller shows us what happens when journalism gets seduced by art. With Catherine Keener as Harper Lee.

(98 R) (Ty Burr) Vi "Casanova" Heath Ledger is enjoyably sly as the legendary lover who's tamed by a budding feminist (Sienna Miller) in this otherwise hollow romantic comedy. Recommended only to those who, after FOR MORE REVIEWS AND SHOWTIMES: WWW.BOSTON.COMAE MOVIES CALENDAR BOSTON GLOBE THURSDAY. JANUARY 5, 2006 27.