Selected mini-reviews, rated on a system of 0 to 4 stars, by Rick Groen, Liam Lacey, Kate Taylor, Michael Posner, Stephen Cole and Jennie Punter. Full reviews appeared on the dates indicated.
Adam
**
Boy-meets-girl romantic comedies thrive on miscommunication, but in this mostly breezy feature directing debut from New York theatre vet Max Mayer that notion has a more serious cause. Adam (Hugh Dancy), a brilliant electronics designer, has Asperger's syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism that makes intimacy difficult. But Adam's new neighbour, Beth (Rose Byrne), an aspiring children's author, takes a shine to his eccentric ways, and romance blossoms. A subplot about Beth's doting father, a rich businessman facing a fraud trial, distracts from the lovers' gentle story. PG (Aug. 6) J.P.
The Cove
***
Made like an espionage thriller, with night-vision cameras and others camouflaged in rocks, this compelling documentary exposes the iniquitous, but not illegal, global traffic in dolphins, carried on from an otherwise quaint fishing village in southern Japan. A brilliant exercise in guerrilla filmmaking. PG (Aug. 7) M.P.
District 9
**
Blazing a fresh sci-fi trail, the premise is terrific: Twenty years ago, intergalactic visitors paid a visit to Johannesburg, only to get separated from the mother ship. Since then, the aliens have become, well, aliens - illegal refugees ghettoized in a Soweto-like township of corrugated shacks and abject poverty. These establishing scenes are intriguing. Too soon, though, the fresh premise ends and the stale action returns. Having exhausted its blazed trail, the film simply steers back to the rutted road of excess. 14A (Aug. 13) R.G.
Flame & Citron
***
This Danish film takes the familiar format of the wartime thriller, replete with a twisty plot featuring lonely resisters, murderous Nazis and a beautiful spy, and moves it to a bleached-out Scandinavian local, a film noir version of Copenhagen and environs. What makes it truly different, however, is its study of character and compromise. It tells the fascinating story of two real-life heroes of the Danish resistance, code-named Flame and Citron, as they struggle with the morality of their jobs assassinating the collaborators and informers among their countrymen. 18A (Aug. 7) K.T
The Hurt Locker
****
The only significant feature film inspired by the Iraq War, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is pure stripped-down tension - a series of episodes in the final days of a three-man bomb-defusing squad. Without any overt political message, Bigelow's film captures the sense of the soldiers' alienation and constant fear in a war where death can come from 360 degrees. Jeremy Renner has a break-out performance as the country-boy detonation expert who always seems to go a bit too far, daring death as a coping mechanism. 14A (July 10) L.L.
Julie & Julia
***
This movie is a double-header based on Julia Child's memoirs and blogger Julie Powell's Julie & Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, but the drama is all provided by scenes of Europe in the 1950s dealing with the protracted genesis of Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. In the role of the great cook, the wonderful Meryl Streep offers a rich imitation that never descends to caricature, largely overshadowing Amy Adams cute little version of the contemporary blogger and the diluted romantic comedy that director Nora Ephron has crafted for her. PG (Aug. 7) K.T
Paper Heart
**
This sloppy, sort-of-documentary sneaks up on you and threatens to steal your heart, just like it's protagonist, the geeky comic Charlyne Yi, who professes ignorance of romantic love. She and her director (played by actor Jake M. Johnson) go looking for answers from biology profs, long-married couples and the Las Vegas clergy, before Yi finds herself dating Hollywood super nerd Michael Cera. There are only microscopic hints here that this film might be fictional, but in interviews, Yi is now claiming the pair were never a couple. Duped viewers may want to remind her that love is all about trust. PG (Aug. 7) K.T.
Tetro
***
Francis Ford Coppola's best film since Apocalypse Now is a return to the themes that made The Godfather movies so great. Tetro is the story of a warring Italian-American musical family that spills as much blood and tears as the Corleones. Newcomer Alden Ehrenreich steals the show as a smiling, junior varsity Michael Corleone. 14A (Aug. 14) S.C.
The Time Traveler's Wife
**
Based on the bestseller, this is a romance with a doozy of a problem. When a girl (Rachel McAdams) tumbles for a time-travelling guy (Eric Bana) with a habit of appearing today and then disappearing into the vast reaches of tomorrowland, well, talk about your long-distance relationships. But here's the weird thing: Beyond that problem, there are damn few complications. Seldom has the course of true love run more smoothly, a happy fact that's good for the lovers but bad for us. We need a romance with ruts deep enough to collect our puddled tears; instead, this is definitely a Kleenex-free zone. PG (Aug. 14) R.G.
Liam Lacey
Kate Taylor