Love Story

Tisha Campbell, singer and star of the new movie Sprung, has a lot to say about Martin. "We just got married Aug. 17," she says of her husband, Duane Martin, a basketball player and actor she met at an audition almost seven years ago. Not that Martin. "The best thing about Martin is that Tichina and I became even closer than we were," says Campbell, referring to her best friend, Tichina Arnold, who played Pam on the Fox sitcom and is Campbell's duet partner on the Sprung sound track.

It's hard to imagine a better production of Philip Dawkins' lovely, bittersweet play Failure: A Love Story . Directed with great delicacy and imagination by Allison Heishman for Azuka Theatre, it is a triumph for this superb cast of young actors, some working professionally for the first time. The plot would be a straightforward one about falling in love if it were told forwardly, but since it's all flashback, and since it takes place in the 1920s, and since it's set in a clock shop, the Fail family's business, it's really about time, and how, when you're remembering, the past seems to be present, just as it does onstage.

Never thought I would read the following sentence, let alone write it. For a film about suicides, Wristcutters: A Love Story is strangely life-affirming. This film about slackers stuck in limbo between life and death is upbeat in an offbeat way. In its opening sequence a depressive dude named Zia (Patrick Fugit, the almost famous star of Almost Famous) morosely cleans his apartment and proceeds to commit the act referenced by the title. But instead of curling up under the oblivion blanket, Zia is stranded in the afterlife.

Television is easing into the big ratings month, November, known as a sweeps period (when ratings accrued translate to future ad rates), with what I call warmup films. They're not good enough for the hot sweeps competition but are good enough to keep viewers entertained for a couple of hours. One such film is CBS' "Conspiracy of Love" (tomorrow at 9 p.m. on Ch. 10) starring 12-year-old Drew Barrymore as Jody, the focus of a tug of war between her devoted grandparents, played by Robert Young and Elizabeth Wilson, and her deserted mother (Glynnis O'Connor)

In Shopgirl, Claire Danes is Mirabelle Buttersfield, a displaced Vermonter, an artist, a twentysomething salesgirl at the gloves counter on the couture floor of Saks in Beverly Hills. She can stand idle for hours, interrupted by the occasional shopper looking for evening gloves to go with that Oscar de la Renta gown. And then one day Mirabelle is interrupted by a nice enough man of middle age, apparently out to buy a present for his wife or girlfriend. He's not sure if he should choose gray or black.

We shouldn't have to tell you this, but here's a word of advice for guys who might be curious: Don't make love to a vacuum cleaner. It sucks! Alas, some lonesome fellow - from Long Branch, N.J., of all places - decided to date his Hoover. Of course, he was only in it for the sex. So it did what any upright appliance would do - it severed the relationship. And that's how a 51-year-old man became less of a man - and nearly bled to death in a bizarre mechanical love tragedy.

Interracial love is the sensitive subject of the film that leads this week's list of new home video. MISSISSIPPI MASALA 1/2 (1992) (Columbia TriStar) 118 minutes. Denzel Washington, Sarita Choudhury. An exuberant film by Salaam Bombay! director Mira Nair, this is an exotic and erotic love story about an interracial couple - a black American who has never seen Africa and an African-born Indian who has never seen her native land - whose cultures have more in common than they ever imagined.

THIS IS a valentine to Philadelphia and our Kimmel Center. Even cynics should forgive me, remembering the day. In truth, I can't help myself. I love the center because it is majestic. I love it because the lifeblood of so many marvelous Philadelphians is in it, enriching its soul and strengthening it. I love it because it's world-class. I love it because we did it - against great odds - when so many said we couldn't. Of course, no love is perfect, and this includes the Kimmel.

If the course of true love never did run smooth, then what of the course of true loathe? A Fish in the Bathtub, a ruefully funny film starring Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara as Sam and Molly, squabblers closing in on their 40th anniversary, suggests loathing is a knotty form of love. Can this marriage be saved? Or must it first be detangled? The film's title refers to a large carp that irascible Sam brings home one night and parks in the tub. The fish is not a symbol. It is a symptom.

MARION COTILLARD has been working as an actress since she was a teenager, but it was her Oscar-winning performance as Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose" that brought her to the attention of American audiences - and Hollywood filmmakers. Since then she's worked with directors such as Michael Mann ("Public Enemies"), Woody Allen ("Midnight in Paris"), Steven Soderbergh ("Contagion") and Christopher Nolan ("Inception," "The Dark Knight Rises"). In "Rust and Bone," she returns to France for an intimate relationship movie about a whale trainer and the fighter who sort of nurses her back to health after an accident at the Sea World-like water show where she works.

It's hard to imagine a better production of Philip Dawkins' lovely, bittersweet play Failure: A Love Story . Directed with great delicacy and imagination by Allison Heishman for Azuka Theatre, it is a triumph for this superb cast of young actors, some working professionally for the first time. The plot would be a straightforward one about falling in love if it were told forwardly, but since it's all flashback, and since it takes place in the 1920s, and since it's set in a clock shop, the Fail family's business, it's really about time, and how, when you're remembering, the past seems to be present, just as it does onstage.

Lil Wayne has posted a video thanking fans for their support while he was ill. Lil, 30, was hospitalized after having what has been described as a serious seizure last Friday. "I just want to say thank you to all y'all for all y'all prayers," Lil says. "I want all y'all to know that I'm good . . . more than good. " Lil's rep has denied a TMZ report that he fell ill due to an overdose and that his condition was so grave he received last rites.   But can they top LiLo?

The Porsche Santiaga Story Atria/Emily Bestler Books. 432 pp. $26.99 By Sister Souljah Reviewed by Karen E. Quinones Miller It's here! A Deeper Love Inside: The Porsche Santiaga Story , the long-awaited sequel to Sister Souljah's 1999 debut novel, The Coldest Winter Ever , which sold more than a million copies, is finally here! And it was released with even more fanfare than the 2008 publication of Midnight: A Gangster Love Story , the prequel to The Coldest Winter Ever that centers on the Sudanese immigrant Midnight, who was introduced in Coldest Winter . It's little wonder that this sequel, like the prequel, made an early appearance on the New York Times best-sellers list, especially since fans of The Coldest Winter Ever had to wait 14 years to find out the fate of the characters in that book.

THE PROTAGONIST of "Lore," a powerful and haunting drama set in Germany immediately following the country's defeat in World War II, is a teenage girl. Subtly played by Saskia Rosendahl, Lore (pronounced "Laura") is just old enough to have learned to fear and hate Jews. It's a sick lesson imparted to her by her Nazi parents (Hans-Jochen Wagner and Ursina Lardi) who, as the film gets under way, are being taken into custody by Allied troops. This leaves Lore the rest of the film to begin to unlearn that lesson, and maybe to pick up a few new ones, as she and her four younger siblings, who are still relatively untainted by anti-Semitism, make their way through the Black Forest to a relative's house near Hamburg.

It's like watching a novel: all the intimacy, all the language, all the complexity of character, without having to turn a page. Nicholas Wright's engrossing, prize-winning play about the young van Gogh, Vincent in Brixton , is receiving a just-about-perfect production at the Walnut's Independence Studio under Kate Galvin's direction. Before he became the painter he became, Vincent van Gogh (Brian Cowden, who manages to sound Dutch and crazy and profoundly sweet all at once) lived for a short while in a London boardinghouse.

Frank and Dolores Ciaccio dance in the living room of the Norristown twin they have shared for 57 years. They are the picture of an old and comfortable love. "They don't do this in nursing homes," he says. "That's why I'm going to keep her here forever. " Frank knows about persevering. For decades, the 89-year-old has been better known by the nickname "Hank Cisco," Norristown's cheerleader-in-chief and honorary ambassador. About 10 years ago, Dolores, now 84, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

POSTELECTION pollsters with excess time on their hands sampled moviegoers to see which film they'd prefer to attend on Valentine's Day. "A Good Day to Die Hard" was the clear winner, capturing a 68 percent share, although "Safe Haven" with Josh Duhamel was the clear favorite among women. Date night may be problematic. Women might argue that "Die Hard" is not suited to Valentine's Day, men might counter that "Die Hard" started out as a holiday affair - the original was very much a Christmas movie.

NICHOLAS Sparks has a formula for his success. The best-selling author behind The Notebook , A Walk to Remember and Safe Haven - the most recent of Sparks' books to get the film treatment, starring Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel - spilled his secret during a recent stop in Philly: "Here's a hint: There's going to be two people, and they're going to fall in love. It's going to be [in] North Carolina. It's going to be a small town. " Voilà! A hit. OK, so there's more to crafting a signature Sparks romantic tragedy than that.

Pop Yo La Tengo Fade (Matador ***1/2) Yo La Tengo's continued relevance 27 years into their career is remarkable. The Hoboken trio of Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew have yet to release a bad album, and they've made a handful of great ones. Fade is one of them. With producer John McEntire of post-rock experimenters Tortoise, they've created an album that is intimate and thoughtful, urgent and fun. The band hasn't reinvented itself. No need, since Yo La Tengo's expertise in catchy, jangly rock, gentle acoustic folk-pop, and noisy feedback excursions allows endless room for triangulation.

Likely to be nominated for multiple Oscars on Thursday, Silver Linings Playbook offers an affectionate, true portrait of Philadelphia and the suburbs. It's arguably the best film ever made about our region. Silver Linings captures that affecting mix of grit and polish with tremendous warmth, the working-class roots and exceptional pride that are a hallmark of many neighborhoods where homes, no matter how cramped or nouveau grand, are tended like mansions. That specific sense of community extends throughout parts of the city and traverses both sides of the Delaware.