FILM: Horrible Bosses (dir: Seth Gordon, 2011)

"Goddammit, I feel like a moron!"
"You ARE a moron!"

Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis and Jason Bateman have good chemistry as the bosses-harrassed trio of friends in this lightweight comedy which, like Bad Teacher, flirts with the audience but never quite goes far enough to have real impact.  Day and Sudeikis give good comedy value with limited characters, but Bateman gives the much more finely-detailed and interesting performance of the leads.  The three 'villains' - Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Aniston - are all terrific and clearly relish playing with their images and provide the more unpleasantly funny comic moments in the film, although Aniston's predatory nymphomaniac-in-the-workplace positioning is uncomfortable from both gender points of view.  The plotting is well thought out, although the female characters get very short shrift, and even the sequel set-up feels unforced.  Horrible Bosses comes nowhere near the hilarity of The Hangover Part 2 or Bridemaids, but it does offer some effective set-ups and pay-offs with plenty of entertaining moments along the way.

FILM: Beginners (dir: Mike Mills, 2011)

"I don't feel like screaming."
"You will."

Mike Mills wrote and directed this film, which lends it an air of intimacy and painstaking craft.  The key relationships explored in the film vary considerably: the central father-son relationship is deftly handled and juxtaposes the father's joyous coming out and subsequent succumbing to cancer (a hugely dignified performance by Christopher Plummer) with the broken emotional legacy of both parents on their son's passage through life (a dour and introspective but nicely observed turn from Ewan McGregor), but McGregor's burgeoning affair with French actress Anna (Melanie Laurent) challenges belief by being one of those stereotypical relationships that only seem to exist in movies, with inevitable stilted and theatrical exchanges that undercut the credibility of some scenes.  As an examination of grief, the film packs quite a punch, especially in its near-silent opening sequence, but its other overt themes of communication and identity are often laboured.  Beginners is a mildly interesting tale, supported by some good performance work, and falls somewhere between being a chore to endure and a thoughtful consideration of life, love and family.

FILM: Cars 2 3D (dirs: John Lassetter, Brad Lewis, 2011)

"Embrace your inner lemon!"

The original Cars movie remains probably Pixar's least loved production (relatively speaking), which for any viewer but the very young never overcame its fundamental flaw that its characters - talking cars - unjustifiably inhabited the very human world.  In this sequel, the action quotient is ramped up considerably which produces a livelier experience, but the very specific adherence to 1960s spy movies tropes would seem alien to the film's intended target audience, even if their use is very successful.  This peculiar mash-up of Speed Racer and Johnny English relies more on plot mechanics than emotion to engage, and even then at times it offers little more than brightly-coloured objects zipping around the screen (note to editor: flash-cutting and 3D are not necessarily good companions).   The 3D is mostly stunning - the Tokyo airport sequence stands out and the cityscapes are gloriously detailed - and Michael Giacchino provides another wittily appropriate score.  Cars 2 overall lacks the charm and sincerity of the first film, but it is nevertheless a dynamic and well-crafted animation.

FILM: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 3D (dir: David Yates, 2011)

"That went well!"

For a children's blockbuster movie, Deathly Hallows Part 2 is utterly remarkable in its tone, a war movie with a sustained sense of dread, despair and pain that at times makes Platoon seem positively sunny.  This grand send-off is easily the best and most cinematic film in the franchise since Cuaron's third entry, Prisoner of Azkaban.  The level of care and attention to detail lavished on the production makes it a complete visual and aural treat.  Alexandre Desplat delivers a fine score, yet the use of frequent (near) silence is also used to create genuine moments of tension and tragedy.  The 3D conversion is sympathetic and carefully done, and the sheer epic sweep of the visuals gives Hogwarts and the battle scenes a sense of scale that some of the movies sometimes lack.  In the inevitable attempt to give virtually every character his/her moment in this finale, some get barely a look in, but Ralph Fiennes finally gets to really let loose with Voldemort, Alan Rickman gives Snape's back-story the depth it needs, and the three leads again demonstrate how far they have come since Philosopher's Stone.  This is an emotionally uncompromising film, in which any last vestiges of childhood and innocence for the characters and the audience are literally blown apart before our eyes.  The argument over 'one movie too short, two movies too long' for the final book adaptation still lingers, and this is very much a 'second half', but Deathly Hallows Part 2 is a fine achievement - a stark, beautifully bleak and emotionally direct film - and a fitting end to the series.

FILM: The Tree Of Life (dir:Terrence Malick, 2011)

"I want to know what you are."

The Tree Of Life may have been awarded the Palme D'Or, but it does not take long to see why this film has so completely divided audiences and critics - indeed, six people walked out in the first half-hour of the screening I attended.  This film has all of Malick's trademarks but pushes them as far as possible: 2001: A Space Odyssey via David Lynch, Koyaanisqatsi via Wong-Kar Wai.  At heart, the idea is simple - juxtapose images and scenes of child/adult, man/nature, permanence/transience and spiritual/human in order to examine the human condition and man's place in the universe - and the patchwork of visuals and timeframes is artfully constructed, leading to (with a lot of viewer patience) an interesting semi-resolution.  Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain as the central couple are solid but have little to do beyond the one-dimensional 1950s character requirements, and the three young actors playing their children are wonderfully grounded and credible.  This is a ponderous film that takes the viewer out of everyday time and space completely, yet it is rarely dreary; it does occasionally veer into moments of self-parody (especially some of the earnest questioning voice-overs), but then it can often be powerful and beautiful, whether in the epic scale of the birth and death of the universe or in small-scale family moments.  Like most of Malick's output, The Tree Of Life is intriguing, demanding, poetically stunning in its audio-visual construction, but neither wholly successful nor emotionally engaging overall.

FILM: Larry Crowne (dir: Tom Hanks, 2011)

"Are you clairvoyant?"
"No, I'm Steve Dibiasi!"

Tom Hanks co-wrote Larry Crowne, his second film as director, with Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), producing a very average, pleasant, actor-centred and acceptably entertaining script which is raised by the quality of the performances.  Hanks is cast perfectly in his Everyman persona - even his character name is bland and unmemorable, so that the nickname he is given shows his journey towards a personality - and his 'final exam' speech hits home superbly.  Julia Roberts imbues her predictably-written character (borderline alcoholic, disillusioned community college teacher with a feckless husband) with effective depth and tired regret.  Other highlights include George Takei's monstrous lecturer, Gugu Mbatha-Raw lighting up the screen with a very fresh performance as Larry's scooter-buddy Talia, and Rami Malek hilariously stealing every scene in which he appears as fellow student Steve.  James Newton Howard provides a mellow, 80s-tinged score which, like the film as a whole, does its job well enough but does little to excite or intrigue.