Want some movie drama? Cruise can help

Oh, the drama. Soldiers who decide to go to war, immigrants trying to assimilate. These are just a couple of the topics this winter’s dramas tackle. But there’s also more heartwarming fare: A boy searches for his musician parents with some help from Robin Williams, a family spends the holidays together for the first time in four years. Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford and Forest Whitaker add a bit of stardust to these serious stories.

“Lions for Lambs”
Starring: Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Derek Luke, Andrew Garfield
Director: Robert Redford
Story: Two students (Michael Pena, Derek Luke) join the military and embark on their first tour of Afghanistan, despite the advice of their liberal college professor (Redford). Meanwhile, an ambitious senator (Cruise) decides to give a TV journalist (Streep) a huge scoop that may affect the lives of those soldiers.
Buzz: Writer Joe Carnahan, unapologetic about being a “Hollywood democrat,” made it clear to Entertainment Weekly that this film has a message. And Redford remarked, “It’s hard to be impartial … about where our political system has taken us.” In other words, don’t expect Bill O’Reilly to go see this one. Redford’s last directing venture was the disappointing “Legend of Bagger Vance,” but don’t count him out; he might have another “Quiz Show” or “Ordinary People” up his sleeve.
Web site: http://lionsforlambs.unitedartists.com/
Release date: Nov. 9

“The Kite Runner”

Paramount Vantage

Starring: Khalid Abdalla, Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada, Zekeria Ebrahimi, Ali Dinesh, Homayoun Ershadi
Director: Marc Forster
Story: Based on the best-selling novel by Khaled Hosseini, this film tells the story of Amir (Dinesh), a well-to-do boy who escapes with his father from Afghanistan in 1978 after the Soviet invasion. Much to his dismay, he leaves behind his best friend Hassan (Mahmidzada), who is captured and brutalized. As an adult, a guilt-ridden Amir (Abdalla) returns to Afghanistan after the Taliban has taken hold of the country.
Buzz: Fears about the young actors’ safety (particularly Mahmidzada, whose character is raped in the film), caused the studio to move the film’s release date to December. Paramount Vantage is actually offering to put the child actors up in the States until it is safe for them to return to Afghanistan. But don’t let this keep you from the film. It has some terrific buzz, with critic Emanuel Levy commenting, “Occasionally, the movie even improves on the book.” High praise, indeed. Could this controversial little film be an Oscar contender?
Web site: http://www.kiterunnermovie.com/
Release date: Dec. 14

“Crossing Over”

Weinstein Company

Starring: Harrison Ford, Sean Penn, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Summer Bishil, Cliff Curtis, Alice Eve, Jaysha Patel
Director: Wayne Kramer
Story: Set in Los Angeles, intertwining stories explore the complications of immigration. Ford plays an immigration agent who finds out that an Iranian-American man has killed his sister after learning that she’d been dating a Latino man. Judd plays an immigration defense attorney who is trying to arrange for the adoption of a Nigerian girl. Penn plays a border patrol agent.
Buzz: Interesting timing for this hot-topic drama. The Los Angeles Times reports that the National Iranian American Council sent a letter to Kramer, voicing its concerns about the portrayal of Iranian-Americans. The main concern was that the murder in the film would be portrayed as an “honor killing” sanctioned by the family; Kramer reportedly rewrote a couple scenes to clarify the motive for murder.    
Release date: Dec. 25

“The Great Debaters”

Weinstein Company

Starring: Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Jurnee Smollett, Denzel Whitaker, Kimberly Elise, Nate Parker
Director: Denzel Washington
Story: Inspired by a true story, this film tells the story of college debate coach Melvin B. Tolson (Washington). Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow-era South, Tolson, a poet and English professor, leads an all-black, East Texas college debate team to prominence and they receive an invitation to compete against Harvard’s elite team.  
Buzz: Co-writer Suzan-Lori Parks is the Pulitzer-winning author of the play “Topdog/Underdog.” This film has the unfortunate look of a very formula sports movie. You can rely on it to be uplifting, but will it be interesting? The only new element is the debates — let’s hope they’re exciting. Side note: Little Denzel Whitaker is no relation to Forest, but was named after Washington.
Web site: NA
Release date: Dec. 25

“Redacted”

Magnolia Pictures

Starring: Kel O'Neill, Ty Jones, Daniel Stewart Sherman, Izzy Diaz, Rob Devaney, Patrick Carroll
Director: Brian De Palma
Story: This “fictional documentary” looks at the Iraq war through the eyes of soldiers. It focuses on an incident inspired by real life, in which a 14-year-old Iraqi girl was raped, murdered and burned by soldiers who also killed her parents and sister.
Buzz: De Palma took home the directing award at the Venice Film Festival this year. Time magazine’s Richard Corliss reported that De Palma made the film as a response to the media coverage of the war. At Venice, he said that the film “is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people.” Unfortunately, the film has received mixed reviews; critic Emanuel Levy called it, “a major artistic disappointment,” while Variety’s Derek Elley found the film “unconvincing.”
Web site: NA
Release date: Nov. 16

“August Rush”

Warner Bros. Pictures

Starring: Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Terrence Howard, Robin Williams
Director: Kirsten Sheridan
Story: When a young Irish guitarist (Rhys Meyers) and a sheltered young cellist (Russell) have a one-night stand, the result is a baby, who is orphaned when Russell’s parents spirit him away. At 11, the boy (Highmore) goes in search of his parents, trying to find them through his own connection to music. A mysterious stranger (Williams) gives him the name August Rush.
Buzz: A definite feel-good film for the holidays. Will it be too corny? Williams as a costar raises the red flag, for sure. While Russell and Highmore had to fake being musicians, Rhys Meyers does his own singing. Sheridan is director Jim Sheridan’s (“In America”) sister. This is her directorial debut.
Web site: http://augustrushmovie.warnerbros.com/
Release date: Nov. 21

“Cassandra’s Dream”

The Weinstein Company

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell, Tom Wilkinson, Sally Hawkins, Hayley Atwell
Director: Woody Allen
Story: Farrell is a chronic gambler who’s always in debt. McGregor plays his brother, a man who runs a restaurant with his dad, but dreams of bigger things. He falls in love with an actress (Atwell) he meets by chance on the road. When Farrell loses a large wager, their generous but sly uncle (Wilkinson) proposes a deadly plan.
Buzz: The film received mixed reviews when it played at the Venice Film Festival. Variety’s Derek Elley wrote that the movie “sends out more mixed signals than an inebriated telegraphist.” However, Hollywood Elsewhere critic Jeffrey Wells disagreed, calling the film “unpretentious, believable and fat-free.” The best Woody Allen films these days seem to be the more serious ones that are sans Woody, so it may be worth a look.
Web site: NA
Release date: Dec. 28

“This Christmas”

Columbia Pictures

Starring: Delroy Lindo, Idris Elba, Loretta Devine, Chris Brown, Keith Robinson, Laz Alonso, Columbus Short, Sharon Leal, Lauren London, Mekhi Phifer, Regina King
Director: Preston A. Whitmore, II
Story: For the first time in four years, the entire Whitfield family has decided to spend the holiday season together. Matriarch Devine is living with Lindo, but she’s not the only one in the family who has a surprise — and eggnog is the perfect way to get all the family members to spill their secrets.
Buzz: Could this be “The Family Stone” meets Tyler Perry? It sure looks like it. This heartwarming film could be a great showcase for actors like Elba (“The Wire”), Short (“Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”) and Leal (“Boston Public”) to get a chance to show what they can do. King (“Jerry Maguire”) and Phifer (“ER”) are infamous scene stealers who should have a ball here.
Web site: NA
Release date: Nov. 21

“Martian Child”

New Line Cinema

Starring: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Sophie Okonedo, Bobby Coleman, Joan Cusack
Director: Menno Meyjes
Story: Cusack stars as a recently widowed science-fiction writer who adopts a 6-year-old boy (Coleman) and forms a family with an unlikely friend (Peet). The boy, however, claims to be from Mars, and Peet and Cusack, ignoring advice from Cusack’s married sister (Joan Cusack), begin to believe him.
Buzz: The film comes from a story by David Gerrold, who wrote it as a semi-fictional account of his own experience as a gay man adopting a troubled boy (though Cusack’s character isn’t gay in the film). Director Meyjes previously worked with Cusack on the indie film, “Max.”
Release date: Nov. 2

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