by CHRIS BARRY, SARAH ROWLAND and MARK SLUTSKY

Ballets Russes

A documentary exploring the monumental company (or rather companies) that shaped the face of ballet in the 20th century. The film starts with the death of legendary Ballets Russes founder Sergei Diaghilev in 1929 and looks at how it was revived several years later in Monte Carlo, attracting artists like choreographers George Balanchine and Leonide Massine, and celebrated dancers like Irina Baronova, Yvonne Craig (later Batgirl in the Batman TV series!) and more.

Although les Ballets Russes gave its last performance over 40 years ago, amazingly, many of the company’s star dancers are still alive, and they clearly are delighted to reminisce. Actually, the movie is loosely based on a reunion that took place in New Orleans some years ago, which was the first time most of them had seen each other in decades. Seeing them go through the old moves again is really pretty amazing. The film also benefits from tons of great old footage (mostly amateur-shot, so the quality varies). Dance is so ephemeral that it’s nice to be able to see at least glimpses of what everyone’s talking about. A fascinating and often touching film. (MS)

Mrs. Henderson Presents

This isn’t much of a movie, but if your mom’s the sort of senior who thought The Full Monty was the funniest thing ever, you might score a few points by taking her to see Mrs. Henderson Presents. Think Masterpiece Theatre, only with tits and punctuated by that particular style of adolescent British humour probably best exemplified by those old “Carry On” movies. In other words, this is a movie for relatively undiscerning old-timers.

Set in London at the dawn of WWII, Judi Dench plays a feisty, recently widowed aristocrat possessing only a ton of money to occupy her time. She invests in a Soho theatre and hires a veteran showbiz pro (Bob Hoskins) to run the place. And oh boy, things sure get fabulously randy once they decide to accentuate their music hall productions with a little female nudity. But soon, as one might expect from a tired old plot like this, Dench finds her hands more than full trying to keep her saucy production from being closed down.

Weak but not insultingly so, this movie does have one saving grace, and surprisingly it’s not the nudity, which even to me, a man who likes naked chicks probably more than most, found, um, limp and uninspiring. No, it’s that Mrs. Henderson Presents never takes itself too seriously, which, given its ultra-lite content, is actually quite fitting. (CB)

Tristan & Isolde

It’s the original love triangle! And I do mean original. Based on the ancient Cornish legend that pre-dates Romeo and Juliet, Abelard and Heloise and even Titanic’s Jack and Rose, Tristan & Isolde tells the story of a pair of attractive, doomed lovers. Tristan (James Franco, in a sadly thankless role) is a young British knight and nephew of kindly one-handed King Marke (Rufus Sewell). The king is trying to unite the various tribes in the wake of the fall of the Roman Empire. Unfortunately, the pesky Irish across the way keep killing them. After a significant battle, the left-for-dead Tristan washes up on fair Erin’s shores where he’s tended to by the Irish king’s cute daughter Isolde (Sophia Myles). The two young royals make a serious love connection but it’s not meant to be, especially when our fair lady marries King Marke to seal a peace treaty.

Directed by Kevin Reynolds (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves), the film is co-produced by Ridley and Tony Scott, and you can feel their stylistic fingerprints all over this thing. The movie looks nice and sweeping, and the scenery’s pretty. But the story, as ancient and time-honoured as it may be, comes across as dull in this lifeless retelling. (MS)

The Sun

I feel sorry for the poor publicity saps of the world whose job it is to market this movie. I mean, how do you sell a flick like this? Do you start by telling everyone how painfully slow it is, that it’s historically dubious at best? Or perhaps it’s better to lead off with the information that it’s directed by Russian art house icon Aleksandr Sokurov, a man whose work is never easy to endure, but whom many claim is the be all and end all of Russian cinema—Eisenstein be damned.

The Sun is Sokurov’s third film in his trilogy focusing on 20th-century despots, the previous two dealing with Hitler and Lenin respectively, with this latest effort addressing the final days of Hirohito’s reign as emperor of a recently nuked Japan. Most of the film takes place in Hirohito’s dimly lit bunker over the course of one day, as his Majesty comes to grips with the humiliation he will soon face at the hands of his conquerors, those ever barbaric Yanks.

Annoyingly, Sokurov’s Americans are exclusively portrayed as simplistic brutes, which is in contrast to the genteel elegance of the noble yet childlike Hirohito—everyone’s favourite brutal, yet misunderstood Asian militarist. Uh-huh, if you say so, Aleksandr.

Truth is, this movie will appeal to some among the art house crowd, but everyone else will be well advised to stay away. (CB)

Hoodwinked

Here’s an idea: take a familiar fairy tale, dress it up in “state-of-the-art” CGI animation, hire some recognizable voice talent and give the whole thing lots of one-liners and contemporary, ironic twists! A totally awesome new idea, if you were talking about, say, Shrek. Or Shrek 2. But the first of those came out five years ago, and the idea no longer seems so fresh.

Hoodwinked is a re-telling of the Little Red Riding Hood story with plenty of modern trappings (the Big Bad Wolf is a reporter, there’s been a crime spree in the forest etc). The movie is told in a Rashomon style, with Red (voiced by Anne Hathaway), Granny (Glenn Close), the Woodsman (James Belushi) and, of course, the Wolf (Patrick Warburton) each telling their side of the story. Not a totally bad concept, but the movie’s fairy tale refurbishment doesn’t really feel fresh or funny enough to make it worth the effort. What’s more, the film was apparently done on a limited budget as far as these things go, and the CGI really isn’t up to Pixar or Disney standards. The characters move in a distractingly jerky fashion, and it’s downright fugly. (MS)

Scared Sacred

Despite the global scope and good intentions, Scared Sacred is probably a tad too much like a personal video diary for the viewing public to enjoy.

B.C.-based director Velcrow Ripper takes a depressing tour of the world’s Ground Zeros, including Cambodian minefields, where he talks to the dedicated maimed who spend their days hunting out and deactivating bombs. He also pays a visit to Bhopal, where he talks to the poisoned survivors and their birth-defected offspring about the worst chemical industry disaster ever in recorded history. Then it’s off to New York, where we see a bunch of ign’ant Americans get into racially charged arguments during post-9/11 candle vigils.

In between the ugliness, Ripper talks to spiritually enlightened monks about the meaning of it all. It’s hard not to dig where he’s coming from. He genuinely wants to cull some sort of higher meaning from the rubble. Unfortunately, his downbeat narration sort of ruins it. Half the time, he comes across as a morose bugger who thrives on doom and gloom—not that anyone expects a subject matter of this magnitude to be any kind of a pick-me-up, but Velcrow might engage viewers a little more if he erased about half the voice-over track and just let the haunting images speak for themselves. (SR)

Ballets Russes, Mrs. Henderson Presents, Tristan and Isolde, The Sun, Hoodwinked and Scared Sacred open Friday, Jan. 13

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