What I Saw, And Liked, in Theaters in 2011, Part 1

I'm going to attack this chronologically, and it's just going to be quick and dirty, whatever comes to mind. Nnngo!

"The Fighter," what more can I say that hasn't already been said, now, a year later? It was David O. Russell's first feature since the difficult "I Heart Huckabees," (2004), a movie I feel I should like more than I do, but will have to watch more times than I have.

This one is more accessible, being straightforward uplifting biopic grist. Wahlberg is his usual sturdy lead, "The Happening" notwithstanding. Amy Adams plays a fully formed, gritty, sexy adult ladywoman. A refreshing change of pace. Conan O'Brien's sister is here too, playing one of the knockabout sisters. And Christian Bale, again with the whipsaw weight loss and gain and loss again. From machinist Trevor Reznik to Batman to Dieter Dengler to John Connor to Dicky Eklund, he continues to worry me. These ups and downs are just not good for you. (Which brings to mind the ascendance of the brutal, fantastic Tom Hardy, but I'll get to him on another day.) The performance is spooky, sad, funny and sympathetic. And pretty spot on when compared to the real life footage played through the end credits, and was amply rewarded at the business end of several red carpets.

"Megamind," great script, great cast of voice actors, and an actual scary villain in the Jonah Hill-voiced Titan. Hell hath no fury like a fanboy scorned. But despite making about $140M, it cost about $130M to make and had the misfortune of following close on the heels of another villain turned hero tale: "Despicable Me," ($69M to make, made $250M+). Still, a lot of fun.







Harrison Ford continues to insist on bringing the curmudgeon he seems to have actually become to the screen. Enjoy!

Actually, do. It's the right choice here. But I would like to see him whoop it up with something approaching joy just one more time. I'm looking at you "Cowboys & Aliens." Even though it's the right choice there too. Would someone just cast him in a cupcake shop on the skids movie already?

Well, Diane Keaton, Jeff Goldblum, Patrick Wilson and Ty Burrell are all charming and funny and winning and the anti-Phil Dunphy as necessary for this paper cone of cotton candy to work as it does. And Rachel McAdams, or her booty double (who cares which, really), provides pretty solid proof that she looks Frosted Flakes in boy shorts: grrreat!

"The Social Network." Yeahyeahyeah, Eisenberg plays sinister like you haven't seen before. Timberlake surprises. He's a remora along for the ride in "Alpha Dog," but here he's the dead-eyed shark, circling. Fincher crushes as usual. Sorkin writes the impossible, the story of facebook, equaled, maybe surpassed, only by the adaptation of the baseball economics treatise "Moneyball." Oh, which Sorkin also wrote. I hear he's got a treatment for Tom Friedman's "The Lexus and The Olive Tree." In theaters July 4th!

But what jumps out at me now, a year later, is the introduction of Rooney Mara to big time features. Briefly appearing as Zuckerberg's girlfriend in the opening, she jilts him and sets his obsessiveness in motion, the engine that drives the whole picture. Now she can be seen reprising Noomi Rapace's role as the girl with the dragon tattoo in the English-language remake. (Noomi, Rooney, that's funny.) Well, having read the book, and seen both movies, as good as Rapace's performance was, Mara's Lisbeth Salander seems the more feral and faithful to the book. But more on that later.