National Post from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 25

ARTS NATIONAL POST, THURSDAY, PKCKMRKR 24, 199H CURRENT MOVIES DANCING AT LUGHNASA A powerful story full of dull, day-to-day sadness. What the film version of Brian Friel's play about five unmarried sisters in 1930s Ireland sacrifices in intimacy of the stage, it makes up in detail. No amount of dialogue could convey more than Meryl Streep's face when she's simply saying hello to a neighbour. A fatalistic doom hangs over these women as the world slowly enters their cozy cottage, but the muted unravelling during the summer of change translates into subtle, uncomfortable art. D.D.

STAR TREK: INSURRECTION The latest movie in the Star Trek franchise is neither the best nor the worst of the lot. The plot -Picard and company discover a fountain-of- youth planet, then turn coat against Starfleet to protect its meek inhabitants is really just a convenient hook on which to hang our favourite Trekisms: Jean-Luc sings Gilbert Sullivan, Data tries to emote, Worf growls, Riker and TVoi share a hot tub, the Enterprise gets shot to hell, Trek fans leave the theatre happy. Dan Brown VELVET GOLDMINE Director Todd Haynes'walkon the Wilde side of early '70s London is an informed wedding of hallucinatory '60s filmmaking (2001, Pirfornuince), with the kitschy doomsaying of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust. That's good if you haven't yet broken free of the web cast by Spiders From Mars. For everyone else, it's an inchoate mess: dim witted, pretentious, fogbound with existential riddles that couldn't be cut through with a lighthouse search lamp.

Disappointing effort from the maker of Poison and Safe. S.C. PSYCHO The best joke in Gus Van Sant's colour photocopy of Hitchcock's Freudian comedy is that an acknowledged lesbian, Anne He che, plays the only straight character in the movie. Everyone else appears to have checked into the Bates Motel directly from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Boyfriend Sam (Viggo Mortensen) seems more interested in listening to Judy Garland records than finding his lost sweetie, and Julianne Moore plays sister Lila as if she's a butch prison warden.

S.C. A BUG'S LIFE Bugs beats4ntz because it doesn't waste time trying to earn adult approval. Flik (voiced by Dave Foley) is a worker ant who inadvertently draws his peers into a confrontation with sinister grasshoppers, led by Kevin Spacey. From the creators of Toy Story, this is filmmaking of the highest order.The bird-insect chase rivals anything in Saving Private Ryan for dramatic intensity. S.C.

I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS Shot in April in Vancouver with paper snow, this cuddly Christmas comedy is just centrifugal energy spun around Jonathan Taylor Thomas, already destined for 30 years of Home Improvement reruns. But that's no reason to be cynical: This is the Disney movie audiences count on, with goofy adults, gentle sight gags, wild coincidences, and a few illicit bones for parents. D.G. Golden Globe Nominee billy bob thornton oSr jfii BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR ttttftif7mtt rV MflUf 111 AVIMRI CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES NUn HLflflllU! FOR LOCATIONS AND SHOWTIMES BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR BILLY BOB THORNTON LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION BOSTON SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS "STUNNING, CAUTIONARY TALE, 'A SIMPLE PLAN' WILL HAUNT YOU." CTV, TORONTO, Anne Brodie Bill Paxton Billy Bob Thornton Bridget Fonda a simple plan Alfre Woodard plays a mother who escapes a self-destructing life in Chicago to return to her ancestral home in Mississippi. Tom Hanks Meg Ryan 'Los on to the most blissfully romantic Sometimes good people do evil tilings.

movie of the year!" 1 -LoulS B. Hobson. CALGARY SUN Based On The New York Tunes Bestseller. comse uHKmx www.asimpkplan.com mmmntmnmmmmmmmmm "A surefire hit! i iiiii iiili -Brian D. Johnson.

MACLEAN'S MAGAZINE NOW PLAYING! nn CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORY PRESENTED IN FOR SHOWTIMES JJTALSOjjy Life's lessons from a poet MOVIE REVIEW yule love it! WOUIOANCE I IB wwitni www.youweiDlRiall.com CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES FOR LOCATIONS AND SHOWTIMES NOW PLAYING! Down in the Delta ol Jo 4M PIXAR buojsiife if you've only seen it once, you havent seen it all. PARENTAL DISNEYPIXAR Distributed by WENA VISTA PICTURES DISTRIBUTION GUIDANCE FRIGHTENING SCENES I FAMOUS PI AYCRS FAMOUS PI AY( RS FAMOUS PI AYFHS i FAMOUS PL AYEHS FAMOUS PLAYERS li FAMOUS PLAYERS i uptown victoria terrv II sheridanv- centebpoint- glenwayv FAMOUS i AVERS 1 1 FAMOUS PLAYERS FAMOUS PLAYERS FAMOUS PI AVE RS-i i FAMOUS PI AVERS 11 FAMOUS PLAYERS MARKVlLLEi YOflKDALE siLVEHCm. I FAMOUS PI AYI H'i FAMOUS PLAYERS FAMOUS I'l AYtllS 1 FAMOUS PUWERfl 1. FAMOUS PLAYERS FAMOUS HI AVERS 1 0AKWilET0WNEl GATEWAYS joSHAWA CENTRED 1 1 WMOUS PUWERS 8 ImMOUS PUYEflS B81! JACKSON SQ." I FAMOUS PLAYERS FAMOUS PLAYERS 1 i CINFPl F.X ODEON 1 i CINt.lJLt.XOHI ON CINEPLfcX OLIEON CINEPLEX ODEON i FIESTAMLI'lStLVERCITV'lm'l SHERWAY ELGIN MILLS l401MOflNINGSIDE- AJAX 10 IK.I I-! A I A I I CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES I IN 11 VV I A I IN i FOR LOCATIONS AND SHOWTIMES PRESENTED IN BULSClKl 3 GEORGETOWN" CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES FOR SHOWTIMES NOW PLAYING! "What a delightful looks like it could be the kid phiUrh't Mwi nf townl" Fl mini "nrf iv vi viiv vjii kvi'W COLIN MCLEAN, CBC NEWSWORLD t. www.ruqratsniovie.coni inlmiMdlliott Mjm CS JO KmNOW PLAYING- CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES FOR LOCATIONS AND SHOWTIMES By Deirdre Dolan Co-produced by Showtime, poet Maya Angelou's feature directing debut never reaches beyond the sentiment of a Sunday night TV movie.

In a drama about the importance of hard work and family, this almost seems like a conscious decision on Angelou's part. One more way to make her message manifest. But even though it's free of stunts and sentimentality, the slow pace and loud, unambiguous morality, has a subtle, disappointing preachiness. The conflicts are neatly lined up big city versus small town, young meeting old, parents reconnecting with children and calmly dealt with, one by one. There are no tricks, no tidy endings, just one big, fat lesson: Life requires a lot of hard work.

Not exactly escapism. The story starts in Chicago, where Loretta (Alfre Woodard, looking 10 years younger than herself) lives with her mother, Rosa Lynn (Mary Alice), and two children. After adjusting to Woodard in this departure role (no trace of the world-weary earth mother here), we see that things aren't looking too good for Loretta. She has an autistic child and can't even get a job as a cashier at the supermarket without basic math. When things get too depressing, she gives in to self-destruction and her drug- and alcohol-infested neighbourhood.

Something's got to give. In a heroic last ditch effort to get her daughter and grandchildren out of harm's way, Rosa Lynn pawns her most valuable and prized family heirloom, a candelabra that dates back to her slave ancestors, and moves them all back to her ancestral home in the Mississippi delta. Loretta and the kids move in with their uncle Earl (the brilliant Al Freeman who runs a chicken restaurant and takes care of his wife, an Alzheimer's victim. He lives by a clock and his discipline is infectious. Without very much fighting or melodrama, a graceful transformation occurs: country wins, family wins, parents win more lessons learned at the hands of Maya Angelou.

Wesley Snipes, the film's co-producer, adds much-needed energy as Earl's buppie son and the only character who hasn't been marginalized by life. Nothing is tied up evenly this is a movie about the importance of small victories and it's great to see Snipes giving a warm, understated performance as a regular guy who doesn't carry a gun and doesn't have sex. National Post I GREAT FANTASY FUNl I FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON!" -f id McCiHre, HO HO HO Adam Sandler VlATERBOY FAMOUS PI AYFHS 1 FAMOUS PLAYERS FAMOUS Pi AYFRS FAMOUS PLAYERS FAMOUS PLAYERS FAMOUS PLAYERS TIF HE JIT TJkmmism SILVERCITY COLISEUM 12 SILVER CITY hchjvjmu. jixioii Jjttr SHERIDAN CENTERFXMKTv' OLENWAYv www.thewaterboy-themovie.com PARENTAL CfllntHlM by BUENA VISTA PICTURES DISTRIBUTION GUIDANCE TOUCHSTONE PICTURES Pi YFRS 1 fAUOUS PlAIFRS fMOuH YIHS FAMOUS PLAVIRS FAMOUS PIArtRS FAMOUS PLAyt BS MARKVILLEv- YORKDALEv- COUSEUM10 GATEWAY PSHAW A CENTRE I FAMOUS PI AYERS 1 FAMOUS PI ATEWS -i FAMOUS Pi AYTRS FAMOUS PlAYthS i AMC lilt AIRES ll t-S I OOEON slILt ELGIN MILLS 1 CINEPLEMODEOtv, Lfftfflf i OOEOH LINtFiA OUiJW ONEKtAOO rvVC)OBINE nrWMyVNOSIOEII AJAX 1Q IICUAKTWPI' 3STAR" NOW PLAYING! CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES FOR LOCATIONS AND SHOWTIMES CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES FOR SHOWTIMES BMNr STARTS tomorrow:.