The Painted Veil—a project of artistic passion for partners Naomi Watts and Edward Norton, as well as Watts’ prior collaborator, director John Curran—is both maddening and refreshing in its refusal to answer its own questions in the style to which we have become accustomed. There are no pat answers here. The tale of Kitty Fane’s journey toward love, loss, and restoration is both revealing—as the veil of Kitty’s self-absorption is lifted to reveal the truth of life, death, and Walter Fane’s passion—and mystifying. It’s easy to see why Somerset Maugham’s novel has now thrice been adapted to the screen (first in 1934, with Garbo as Kitty, and again in 1957 in the loosely adapted The Seventh Sin).

The Pursuit of Happyness probably looks like your typical pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps Man Conquers All tear-jerker. So what separates Happyness from the rest? First, in Jaden Christopher Syre Smith’s feature-film debut, the father-son duo shares a chemistry that is unmatched, even among movies in which parents and their children costarred. Obviously when a father and son are playing a father and son, there will be a natural fit; however, the spark between Will Smith and son Jaden makes it ultimately clear that not only has Will matured phenomenally in his acting career, but that his middle child will be following in his parents’ footsteps. Jaden demonstrates a depth of facial expression and body language that most actors spend their careers trying to master.

As if talent and beauty are not enough, Dreamgirls reminds us that people need to be careful what they worship. Every character in the film “sells their soul” to be somebody and answer the call of materialism. At the end of the film, the audience sees individuals who are older and wiser, battered and scarred, but for the most part renewed and healed or on the road to it. There is a general spiritual epiphany that lives have been built on the shifting sand of fame and that the tides of time and individual choice have eroded joy and hope—the true wealth found in real love and honest friendship.

The important messages of Charlotte’s Web are intact and strong in this new movie version. When I read this book to my son years ago, it opened the door to all kinds of discussions: the nature of friendship; life and death; what it means to give selflessly; returning kindness for mistreatment; turning the other cheek; how little size matters; how everyone has a purpose in life. These are hard topics to pull out of the air and teach easily in age-appropriate ways. E. B. White paved the way with words that stimulated the imagination, and the movie brings that imagination to full living color and life that parents and children can enjoy together

Eragon is formulaic; let’s get that out of the way now. You’ll recognize elements from elsewhere in fantasy literature. Elves, check. Dwarves, check. Orcs, check (though they’re called Urgals here). Evil warlock, ruthless king, battle-weary mentor, romantic interest, young man thrust into the mantle of responsibility to save everyone after losing his family… check, check, check… they’re all here. And oh yes… dragons! This movie is neither deep nor complex. The plot is simple, the story uncomplicated. Good and evil are clearly delineated; there are no confusing shades of grey. For all that, I found myself enjoying Eragon.

The History Boys, based on the play of the same name, is unlikely to be many moviegoers’ cup of tea, at least in the U. S. Much of the dialogue is overly clever and pretentious, more appropriate for the stage—almost completely rhetorical and metaphorical. I screened the movie with a roomful of journalists, however, and we all loved it—lots of poetry, literate discourse, and application: glimpses of a dream education, if you ask me. Journalists and writers will love this movie. A room full of your average American moviegoers will not. It’s too pretentious and obscure.

One of the truly artistic aspects of Venus is its keyhole-style cinematography. Lots of closeups of objects alongside actors’ faces. Lots of shots behind banisters and from unusual locations. Closeups of a coat sleeve, shots in which someone appears to be walking in front of the camera; stuff like that. Despite the old-age pacing of the movie, this photographic style lends a strange counterpoint to the story. Director Roger Michell and cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos use the technique to enhance the tension between Jessie and Maurice—especially as these shots are employed mostly when Jessie and Maurice were together. “The screen is our keyhole,” as Pauline Kael once commented, “and we are the voyeurs.”

“We’re a ‘double bottom line’ company,” says Walden Media President and co-founder Micheal Flaherty, addressing how his company responds to boxoffice losses. “We take seriously the fact that we listen to recommendations from teachers and parents about the films we should make, and Hoot was an incredibly successful book with a great message about protecting the environment, and Fried Worms had a great message about standing up to bullies. So while the films did not do well, we’re still really proud that we made them, that they exist, and that parents and teachers can use them.”

Unaccompanied Minors rings true to what Paul Feig knows— television situational comedy. Coming from a background of acting in, writing, and directing shows such as Arrested Development, Freaks and Geeks, and The Office, Feig does a splendid job of bringing the absurd and predictable to the big screen. I knew I was being manipulated. I knew almost everything in the plot was ridiculous. I knew my intelligence was being insulted. I knew it and I enjoyed it because, at the heart, this movie is for fun. Sometimes, moviemakers just enjoy their craft and want to share what they love, even if movies like it have already been done.

If Candy was supposed to teach us about relationships or deeper meanings of life, forget it. Supposedly, Dan is a poet; yet there is no indication that I can find that he is one. There are also some allusions to Candy’s activities as an artist. This movie’s title says it all: the main character here is heroin. Boy, does it overact and upstage the other players. But taking the low road on this film has at least one potential downside: people may not want to see it because it is dark and depressing. Still, I hope people will take this movie seriously and give it a chance. It is dark. But it has merit.