A carefully constructed consideration of the themes at play in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, The Hours features three great actresses doing great work: Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman, portraying Woolf as she battles mental illness while writing Dalloway; Julianne Moore, as a brittle mother suffocating beneath the domestic responsibilities of the 1950s; and Meryl Streep, playing a

Casually bashed as another one of Robin Williams’ pandering pieces of sentimental pap (Patch Adams, Bicentennial Man), this story of a recent widower in Nazi-occupied Poland is actually understated and respectful; the humor here is mostly bitter and rarely sweet. As the widower, who pretends he has a radio to bring hope to his fellow

At once a beautiful painting and a dull lecture, director Scott Hicks’ adaptation of David Guterson’s prize-winning novel awkwardly combines a nonlinear visual style with a preachy script. The result is a message-laden mess that makes star Ethan Hawke look even more lost than usual.

Starring Andie MacDowell, Crush follows the contrived, melodramatic lives of three middle-aged friends, whose weekly Sex and the City-style drinking sessions devolve into stereotypical obsessing over men. This is supposed to be a glimpse at the secret lives of real women, but it looks suspiciously like a daytime soap opera.

Adapted from H.G. Bissinger’s nonfiction book about a Texas high school team making a state championship run in the late 1980s, this drama admirably owns up to the way youth sports can trample a kid’s love for the game. Director Peter Berg captures both the highs and lows of playing football in a refreshing documentary