The Vow See Steven Rea's review on H2.
Undefeated This documentary looks at a Memphis high school football team's efforts to change its fortunes, both on and off the field.
W.E. This two-tiered romance flashes back to the relationship between Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII and springs forward to an unhappily married woman whose newfound interest in Wallis Simpson influences her own actions.
Reviewed by critics Carrie Rickey (C.R.), Steven Rea (S.R.), and David Hiltbrand (D.H.). W.S. denotes a wire service review.
The Artist Everything old is new again in this deft, delightful black-and-white silent film set in late 1920s Hollywood, as the industry transitions to talking pictures - leaving some of its biggest stars behind. With Jean Dujardin as a screen idol and Bérénice Bejo as the ingenue he mentors and falls for, as her career takes off, and his plummets. 1 hr. 40 PG-13 (adult themes) - S.R.
Beauty and the Beast 3D The Disney animated children's tale returns with the added dimension of 3-D. 1 hr. 24 G - W.S.
The Descendants George Clooney in one of the most satisfying performances of his career - angry, sad, vulnerable, loving, foolish, comically discombobulated - as a Hawaiian lawyer coping with a family crisis and a daunting inheritance. From Alexander Payne, of Sideways and About Schmidt fame. Satisfying on every level. 1 hr. 55 R (profanity, drugs, adult themes) - S.R.
Carnage Roman Polanski's deliciously nasty take on coupledom and class conflict, as a pair from the New York elite (Christoph Waltz, Kate Winslet) visit a Brooklyn husband and wife (John C. Reilly, Jodie Foster) to make peace after a bullying incident involving their respective sons. Peace does not ensue. Adapted from the stage play God of Carnage. 1 hr. 20 R (profanity, adult themes) - S.R.
Chronicle Smart, fun, and increasingly dark, this reality-grounded sci-fi tale finds three high school friends climbing into a hole, and emerging with telekinetic powers. But instead of using their newfound abilities to fight crime, they just do what guys in high school would do if they could levitate stuff and crush stuff and hurl stuff through the air. 1 hr. 23 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) - S.R.
Declaration of War A Paris couple meet. Fall in love. Have a baby. And then the baby becomes very, very sick. The subject may scare audiences away, but don't let it. This is spirited, honest, sweet, sad, life-affirming, relationship-affirming stuff. 1 hr. 40 No MPAA rating (nudity, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo David Fincher's beautifully taut, terrifying adaptation of the Stieg Larsson mega-seller is faithful to its source, and offers a star-making turn from Rooney Mara as the asocial, bisexual, genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Daniel Craig is Mikael Blomkvist, the bookish investigative journalist who partners with the pierced, punked-out heroine to dig into a decades-old murder case. 2 hrs. 38 R (violence, sexual violence, nudity, sex, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.
Pariah Dee Rees' accomplished feature debut is a coming-of-age-
and-coming-out story of a 17-year-old Brooklyn girl expressively played by newcomer Adepero Oduye. 1 hr. 26 R (sexual themes, profanity) - C.R.
A Separation The foreign-language Oscar nominee from Iran is an understated, complicated tale of legal and familial strife, as a middle-class, secular Tehran couple in the throes of breaking up are pitted against a poor, devout couple full of rage and righteousness. 2 hrs. 03 PG-13 (adult themes) - S.R.
Big Miracle *** An Alaska reporter and an environmentalist team up to rescue a family of gray whales that are in danger of being trapped by rapidly forming ice. Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski, and Kristen Bell star. 1 hr. 44 PG (profanity) - W.S.
The Grey **1/2 Liam Neeson is a soul-torn sharpshooter in the Alaskan outback, trying to lead a band of fellow plane-crash survivors across snowbound, subzero terrain, when a pack of wolves descend. They're not wearing Team Jacob T-shirts, but they're snarling and mean. R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.
One for the Money * An unemployed divorcee (Katherine Heigl) takes a job as a bounty hunter. 1 hr. 29 PG-13 (violence, sexual references, profanity, some drug material, and partial nudity) - W.S.
Red Tails **1/2 George Lucas produces a simplified, heavy-on-the-aerial-combat account of the all-African American Tuskegee Airmen's triumphs in World War II - in the air, where they shot down Nazis, and on the ground, where they shot down the institutional racism of the military. Cartoonish, but the dogfights are exhilarating. 2 hrs. PG-13 (violence, adult themes) - S.R.
Underworld: Awakening **1/2 Kate Beckinsale returns as the trigger-happy vampiress Selene. The body count rises quickly when humans threaten her kind with extinction. 1 hr. 29 R (intense violence, gore, profanity) - D.H.
The Woman in Black ** Daniel Radcliffe stars in this pallid Victorian ghost story. Slow-moving, old-fashioned, and not terribly scary. 1 hr. 39 PG-13 (violence, disturbing images) - D.H.
Theater
Reviewed by critics Wendy Rosenfield (W.R.), Howard Shapiro (H.S.), and Toby Zinman (T.Z.).Educating Rita (Hedgerow Theatre) Frank (Henry Higgins) meets Rita (Eliza Doolittle). Previews Wednesday-next Sunday, opens Feb. 14.
The Great Divorce (Lantern Theatre Company) Tony Lawton does his C.S. Lewis thing, brilliantly. Opens Tuesday.
Knives in Hens (Theatre Exile) David Harrower explores the liberating power of language. Previews Thursday through Feb. 14, opens Feb. 15.
Little Gem (Inis Nua Theatre Company) Three women, three generations, all getting on with it. Preview Tuesday, opens Wednesday.
Marriage (Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium) Gogol's farcical matchmaking play - a blow against happy endings. Previews Wednesday and Thursday, opens Friday.
Slaughterhouse-Five (Curio Theatre Company) Kurt Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim, adventuring along. In previews, opens Friday.
Tennessee's Final Curtain (South Camden Theatre Company) A new play about playwright Williams' last night. Opens Friday.
Wings the Musical (Media Theatre) Ann Crumb is a once-daring aviator grappling with the effects of a stroke. Previews Wednesday and Thursday, opens Friday.
A Raw Space (Bristol Riverside Theatre) World premiere of a play by Pulitzer winner Jon Marans. Through Feb. 19.
Bachelorette (Luna Theater) A trash-talking in-your-face bender with nasty gals and two guy strangers, on the eve of a wedding, sizzles in this production. Through next Sunday. - H.S.
Becky Shaw (Montgomery Theater) The consequences of matchmaking can be cataclysmic. Through Feb. 25.
Body Awareness (Wilma Theater) Director Anne Kauffman and team build a solid shelter to house the discontents and comforts of Annie Baker's unconventional family. Ends Sunday. - W.R.
Branch: A Baseball Legend (Society Hill Playhouse) Hanging out with Branch Rickey, who integrated major league baseball. Through Feb. 26.
Charlotte's Web (Arden Theatre Company) ) Super-sweet production with no saccharine. Charlotte was right, that's some pig. Extended to next Sunday. - W.R.
Clybourne Park (Arden Theatre Company) A bitter, funny satire indicting racist America, using Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun as a springboard. Excellent cast. Through March 25. - T.Z.
The Convert (McCarter Theatre) A riveting play about 19th-century Africa, where tribal beliefs clashed with Christianity. The cast is beyond excellent. Through next Sunday.
- T.Z.
Fallow (People's Light & Theatre) It's as if pages of Into the Wild and Driving Miss Daisy were burned to smoke out a hive swarming with bee metaphors. Ends Sunday.
- W.R.
Heeere's Tony! (Hedgerow Theatre) Tony Braithewaite brings his unscripted, special-guest, never-the-same-twice talk show to Hedgerow. Through Feb. 19.
Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Plays & Players) A big, strong, juicy play, and Plays & Players' production is just as big, strong and juicy - a must for all August Wilson fans. Extended through Saturday. - T.Z.
Microcrisis (InterAct Theatre Company) Michael Lew's goofy, cynical, and funny satire on the world's woeful economy comes off with a cast that's, well, on the money. Through next Sunday.
- H.S.
The Mousetrap (Walnut Street Theatre) That creaky sound you hear is not just a door ominously opening, it's also the plot of this legendary Agatha Christie mystery at the Walnut Street Theatre. Mild fun despite its old-fashionedness. Through March 4. - T.Z.
Proof (Independence Studio at the Walnut) A luminous, intimate production of David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about mathematicians. Ends Sunday.
- T.Z.
Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles (Academy of Music) Pretty fab fabricated Fab Four. Ends Sunday. - W.R.
The Scottsboro Boys (Philadelphia Theatre Company) First post-Broadway production of Kander & Ebb's last musical gains power in PTC's intimate house. Don't miss it. Through Feb. 19. - W.R.
Time Stands Still (Delaware Theatre Company) Two journalists, a couple, deal with fallout in the Mideast and their differing visions of their future in this engrossing play, in a beautifully wrought production. Ends Sunday. - H.S.
