dered by Islamic extremists in the winter of 2002. In Winterbottom’s new film adaptation, however, the coronary mightiness is all Mariane’s. Save a hasty account of the events leading up to his disappearance, the doomed man (Futterman) appears only in bittersweet flashbacks and recreated photos; the bulk of the movie depicts the efforts of his pregnant wife (Jolie) and various others to secure his safe return—efforts that we observe with sorrow, knowing they will fail. A Mighty Heart doesn’t exactly qualify as a procedural, and it certainly isn’t a thriller or a drama. Instead, it’s a hectic testament to Mariane Pearl’s courage and self-possession—the hagiography of a grieving widow who doesn’t yet know for certain that her husband is dead. –MD
Mr. Brooks ***1/2
Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore, Dane Cook. Directed by Bruce A. Evans. 120 minutes. Rated R.
Mr. Brooks (Costner) has a slight addiction to bloodshed. He’s been going to AA meetings to help suppress these urges, but that little devil on his shoulder keeps egging him on. Temptation is beautifully personified by Marshall (Hurt), who’s not so much Brooks’ alter-ego as he is a bad-influence type of imaginary friend. Marshall periodically pops up to offer Brooks fathering advice, remind him of little details he might forget and, of course, persuade him to massacre copulating couples for kicks. In spite of the convoluted finale, Mr. Brooks still ends up being good, twisted fun. –MSH
Nancy Drew ***
Emma Roberts, Tate Donovan, Max Thieriot, Laura Elena Harring. Directed by Andrew Fleming. 99 minutes. Rated PG.
Crafty teen detective Nancy (Roberts) enters the picture fully formed (no prologue necessary). She solves a crime, negotiates with the robbers and scales down the side of a building before leaving her hometown of River Heights for Los Angeles, where her lawyer father (Donovan) has picked up some temporary work. He makes her promise not to sleuth in the big city, but Nancy has already found a mystery in their rented house. Decades earlier, a movie star (Harring) disappeared, then turned up murdered. Nancy tries to figure out whodunit and why. Fleming creates a clever, snappy, self-aware picture in which Nancy thrives. –JMA
Ocean’s Thirteen ***
George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Al Pacino. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. 113 minutes. Rated PG-13.
As in the first film, our heroes have targeted a fabulous Las Vegas casino—this one owned not by Andy Garcia’s Terry Benedict, who’s partially bankrolling the operation, but by a preening, back-stabbing mogul named Willie Bank (Pacino). Their objective isn’t quite what you’d expect, though. Ocean & Co. don’t want Bank’s vast fortune for themselves—they’d just prefer that Bank, who’s both humiliated and hospitalized their jovial mentor, Reuben (Elliott Gould), possess a whole lot less of it. For the most part, Ocean’s Thirteen reverts to the breezy, weightless antics—charismatic men plotting byzantine schemes in exotic locales—that made Eleven such forgettable fun. –MD
Once ***1/2
Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova, Geoff Minogue. Directed by John Carney. 85 minutes. Rated R.
Once is a musical expressly designed for people who think they hate musicals—a movie that takes full advantage of the genre’s expressionistic power, conveying heightened emotions entirely via libretto, while at the same time remaining firmly grounded in gritty, mundane reality. Carney’s means of achieving this apparent contradiction is refreshingly simple: Both of his lead characters are aspiring musicians, and their week-long relationship is ostensibly a musical collaboration, as they jointly compose, arrange and record a demo. Nobody ever really bursts into song in Once—it’s more as if they stumble into song, tentative and uncertain, finding their confidence and their passion as they go along. This approach lacks the razzle-dazzle of the classic musical, but it has an endearingly awkward charm of its own. –MD
Paris, Je T’Aime ***1/2
Juliette Binoche, Steve Buscemi, Willem Dafoe, Gérard Depardieu, Marianne Faithfull, Ben Gazzara, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Bob Hoskins and others. Directed by various. 120 minutes. Rated R.
Like other anthology films, the new Paris, Je T’Aime has its strong points and its low points, and no two viewers will agree on which is which. Eighteen directors participated in this tribute to the City of Lights, each assigned to a different neighborhood. Each short film runs an average of eight minutes, so even if you get stuck with a clunker, it’s not long before the next one starts. Overall, the filmmakers manage to capture a sense of wonder and romance about the city, even if the “neighborhood” concept isn’t consistent. –JMA