Away from Her

LionsGate
directed by Sarah Polley
starring Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, Olympia Dukakis, Kristen Thomson

Julie Christie’s transcendent performance as a loving wife slowly losing her mind to the onset of Alzheimer’s is the best thing about actress Sarah Polley’s writing-directing debut. Nearly as astonishing is Gordon Pinsent, who as her suffering husband anchors the film, since it’s through his eyes we see the slowly unraveling drama. Too bad Polley succumbs to disease-of-the-week hijinx by bringing in Olympia Dukakis for a saccharine subplot of the spouses left behind forming a bond. Dukakis’s overacting throws the whole delicate balance out of whack. Polley earns points for attempting something fairly demanding her first time out, but aside from her leads’ acting, she falters.

Extras: Christie commentary; deleted scenes with Polley commentary.

Brooklyn Rules

City Lights
directed by Michael Corrente
starring Alec Baldwin, Scott Caan, Freddie Prinze Jr., Mena Suvari

Desperately wanting to be a continuation of “The Godfather” (or at least “The Sopranos”), Michael Corrente’s look at the mob is a cliché-ridden knockoff, with melodramatics piling up higher than the body count and a game cast defeated by simplistically-written roles and a preponderance of lazy “Bruhklynese” from the likes of Alec Baldwin, Scott Caan, Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Jerry Ferrara. A graceful performance from Mena Suvari as Prinze’s love interest can’t save this amateurish mess.

Extras: director commentary; cast and crew interviews.

Bug

LionsGate
directed by William Friedkin
starring Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, Harry Connick, Jr.

Ashley Judd gives the performance of her career as a lonely woman whose romance with a crazed soldier leads to extreme demonstrations of love in this creepy thriller based on Tracey Lett’s extraordinary off-Broadway play; as Judd’s accomplice, Michael Shannon is as good as she is–and together, they make a reasonable if insane couple. William Friedkin directs with passion and a flair missing from his recent work, and in pivotal small roles, Lynn Collins, Harry Connick and Brian F. O’Byrne lend indelible support.

Extras: making-of featurette; Friedkin interview and commentary.

Evan Almighty

Universal
directed by Tom Shadyac
starring Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman, Lauren Graham, John Goodman

A rip-off of the amusing “Oh, God!” with John Denver and George Burns, “Bruce Almighty” was one of the weakest Jim Carrey vehicles, but even “Bruce” looks like classic comedy compared to its sequel, which stars Steve Carell as a Buffalo news personality turned politician who builds an ark in Washington D.C. when the Almighty (again Morgan Freeman) tells him to. Carell’s gift for physical comedy and poker-faced one-liners gives “Evan” its only moments of hilarity, but they’re widely scattered.

Extras: deleted scenes, outtakes, making-of featurettes.

Even Money

Fox
directed by Mark Rydell
starring Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, Kelsey Grammer, Nick Cannon

Beginning as an engrossing cautionary tale about the traps that befall gamblers of different stripes–from an ordinary mother who becomes addicted to a man heavily in debt begging his basketball-playing nephew to rig a game–Mark Rydell’s movie loses its footing and focus halfway through and becomes ever more increasingly unbelievable by the time it limps home. Like “Crash”–another hoary melodrama that skips around among several story strands to make its obvious points–“Even Money” is enlivened by a decent ensemble (including Kim Basinger in her best-ever performance) but it can’t outlast its over-reliance on platitudes.

Evening

Universal
directed by Lajos Koltai
starring Meryl Streep, Toni Collette, Claire Danes, Patrick Wilson

I had hopes for Hungarian cinematographer-turned-director Lajos Koltai’s first American feature after his stunning Holocaust-themed debut, “Fateless.” Sad to say, “Evening” is nearly insufferable, a sentimental melodrama about a dying matriarch haunted by the memory of a man she left many years ago. Yeesh—this is claptrap (courtesy Michael Cunningham, who wrote the script based on Susan Minot’s novel) that moves back and forth between two time-frames but never invites the viewer to care about one lousy character. And the celebrated big-name female cast—Vanessa Redgrave and daughter Natasha Richardson; Meryl Streep and daughter Mamie Gummer; Claire Danes; Toni Collette—looks properly embarrassed. This exquisite-looking weepie sans tears should be relegated to the Oxygen network.

Extras: deleted scenes; two behind-the-scenes featurettes.

1408

Genius/Dimension
directed by Mikael Håfström
starring John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack, Jasmine Jessica

If I didn’t know that “1408” was based on a Stephen King story, I still might have guessed right, based on the one-dimensional characters, uninvolving story arc and “surprises” that are anything but. The movie, at least, has a modicum of class in the presence of Mary McCormack, an actress who couldn’t give an inauthentic performance if she tried; as protagonist John Cusack’s wife, McCormack grounds this patently silly tale in a reality it doesn’t deserve.

Extras: directors’ cut on second disc; interviews; making-of featurettes.

Green Chair