'The Aftermath'

Wartime romances, and post-war ones like “The Aftermath,” put me in mind of Humphrey Bogart’s famous line in “Casablanca,” about how “the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”

These kind of romances, even “Casablanca,” are predicated on making the audience care about that hill of beans, and the entanglements of three people against a backdrop of death and destruction. So how does “The Aftermath” meet that criteria? Fairly well, thanks largely to the talented actors cast in this love triangle.

This adaptation of Rhidian Brook’s novel (co-written by Brook, Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse) starts in Hamburg, Germany, five months after the war, as snow and cold is settling over the rubble-strewn streets and displaced Germans huddling for warmth. British Army Col. Lewis Morgan (Jason Clarke) has just arrived with the assignment of leading the rebuilding effort.

The first order of business is commandeering a house for Morgan to reside, and he picks a spacious mansion on the outskirts of the city. The current occupants are Herr Lubert (Alexander Skarsgård), an architect who managed to stay out of Nazi affairs, and his teen daughter, Freda (Flora Thiemann), who are about to be relocated to a refugee camp. When Morgan’s wife, Rachael (Keira Knightley), arrives, a deal is struck where the Luberts can continue to live on the house’s third floor.

It’s soon revealed that the Morgans’ marriage is faltering. Intimacy is lacking, particularly when Lewis is popping off to deal with some crisis in the recovery effort. There’s also the matter of their son, killed during the Blitz, and whose death remains a sore point between Lewis and Rachael.

With Rachael alone in the house much of the time, it’s perhaps inevitable that she would fill that loneliness with conversations with Herr Lubert. And it’s perhaps equally inevitable, in movie terms, that romance — or at least hot sex — would also ensue.

Director James Kent (“Testament of Youth”) keeps this romantic potboiler simmering a good long time, building the tension between Lubert and Rachael to unbearable heights. He also finds dramatic energy from a subplot of intrigue, when Freda falls in with a group of pro-Hitler teens plotting sabotage against the Brits, particularly Col. Morgan.

The three leads carry the load, and do so expertly. Skarsgård scores as the smoldering German, seeking an escape from his waitron country and finding it in Rachael’s arms. Clarke has made a habit of playing cuckolded men (“The Great Gatsby” and “Mudbound” stand out), and here he brings a tenderness and humanity to the dirty work of cleaning up a war zone. And Knightley, as the woman in the middle, expresses volumes with every small gesture.

“The Aftermath” ultimately rides on a single question — which man will she pick? — so it’s not breaking new dramatic ground. It plays its game within the lines, and plays it quite well.

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‘The Aftermath’

★★★

Opened March 15 in select cities; opens Friday, March 29, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City) and Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy). Rated R for sexual content/nudity, and violence including some disturbing images. Running time: 108 minutes.

'Dumbo'

Watching Disney’s live-action adaptation of its animated classic “Dumbo,” one can truly believe an elephant can fly.

The harder trick, the one moviegoers always hope will happen and rarely does, is that director Tim Burton (“Beetlejuice,” “Sweeney Todd” and others) can stick the landing on one of his visually wondrous but narratively spotty movies.

Read the full review at sltrib.com.

'Shazam!'

Maybe Warner Bros. Pictures, keeper of the DC Comics movie legacy, is finally figuring out that comic-book movies are supposed to be fun, and the delightfully loopy, happily exuberant “Shazam!” is the beneficiary.

The story takes the wish-fulfillment story every adolescent comic-book reader asks — wouldn’t it be cool to be a superhero? — and takes it to its most absurd conclusion. After all, how complicated would life get for a 14-year-old who suddenly became a superhero?

Read the full review at sltrib.com.

'Us'

The first thing to do before watching Jordan Peele’s unnerving horror thriller “Us” is to forget about his first movie, the Oscar-winning mind trip “Get Out” — because this one is a whole different experience, and comparisons become useless rather quickly.

As writer and director on his second outing, Peele serves up a more straight-forward horror thriller, without the dark, satirical take on racial stereotypes and white fascination with African-Americans’ bodies that “Get Out” so masterfully portrayed. There’s still subtext here, but it’s more elusive and slippery, about the struggle between good and evil within us all.

It’s summer and the Wilson family is taking a vacation to Santa Cruz, Calif. Specifically, they’re going to the lakeside house where the mom, Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) went when she was a little girl. She’s not exactly thrilled with the idea, as we see in a prologue flashback, which shows a six-year-old Adelaide (Madison Curry, in a terrifying movie debut) being traumatized by an incident at a seaside carnival hall of mirrors.

Against her better judgment, Adelaide is talked into going to the beach by her husband, Gabe (Winston Duke), and their kids, teen track athlete Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and young Jason (Evan Alex), who’s obsessed with magic tricks. At the beach, they hang out with another family, the Tylers — parents Kitty (Elisabeth Moss) and Josh (Tim Heidecker), and stuck-up twin teens Becca and Lindsey (Cali and Noelle Sheldon).

Getting back to the house, the Wilsons see four menacing figures in the driveway. To say much more is to deny Peele the sound of audience gasps and screams that he worked so hard to provoke. The only thing I’ll say is this: Peele sneakily leaves clues in plain sight, foreshadowing what’s to come, in the movie’s first 10 minutes.

Peele twists the screws expertly, sometimes goosing us with a solid jump-scare, sometimes relying on the slow burn to instill a sense of dread. Peele has figured out Alfred Hitchcock’s trick of playing the audience like a calliope, delivering shocks and withholding them at the same time, making us flinch and writhe as a unit.

Peele has assembled an ensemble cast that can administer the shocks as necessary. In particular, Duke brings a comic edge that deftly cuts the tension to make us drop our guard, and Moss delivers the most wicked grin this side of The Joker.

But first and foremost, “Us” is Nyong’o’s game, and she has come to play. She turns in a performance that’s essentially a double act, capturing both Adelaide’s terror and her determination to do anything to protect her family. When we’re talking about award-worthy performances next winter, Nyong’o should be in the conversation for this shockingly good performance.

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‘Us’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, March 22, at theaters everywhere. Rated R for violence/terror, and language. Running time: 116 minutes.

'Woman at War'

The intensely moving Icelandic drama “Woman at War” poses an intriguing question: Is it better to try to save the world, or just one person in it?

Halla (played by Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) is in her 40s, and known around her Icelandic town as the community choir director. What her neighbors don’t know is that she’s also waging a one-woman battle against the massive aluminum smelter that the Icelandic government and the Chinese have built near town. (We’re told the smelter is being operated by the international mining and metals conglomerate Rio Tinto, owners of Utah’s own Kennecott copper mine.) 

When the movie starts, we see Halla with a bow and arrow, shooting a cable over power lines to short them out. But as her actions grow bolder, she fears the authorities are on her trail. She has to run across fields, ducking for cover when police helicopters approach. As a precaution, she puts her cellphone in the freezer to keep anyone from spying on her.

In the midst of this, Halla gets a letter from an adoption agency to which she sent an application four years earlier. The letter says there is a little girl in Ukraine, Nina, whose parents were killed in the war there, who is available for adoption, but Halla has to move fast.

Besides the worry that a child is arriving while Halla is in the middle of her eco-terrorism spree, there’s the matter that the adoption agency requires Halla to have a backup guardian — and the main candidate, Halla’s twin sister Ása (also played by Geirharðsdóttir) is leaving soon for a two-year sabbatical meditating at an Indian ashram. 

Director Benedikt Erlingsson, who co-wrote with Ólafur Egilsson, creates a portrait of a woman’s determination that is by turns whimsical and thought-provoking. It’s a complex scenario, as viewers may disagree with Halla’s methods of industrial sabotage, but still find themselves rooting for her to get away with it. And Erlingsson does it while providing Halla with her own tension-twisting theme music, with an onscreen trio of musicians — a drummer, tuba player and pianist/accordionist — and three Ukrainian singers.

“Woman at War” rides on the shoulders of Geirharðsdóttir, and she carries the load effortlessly. In her dual role, she shows both steely resolve and inner calm, as the two sisters’ journeys ultimately merge into one. It’s a tricky balancing act, and she pulls it off flawlessly.

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‘Woman at War’

★★★1/2

Opened March 1 in select cities; opens Friday, March 22, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but probably R for nudity, language and some violence. Running time: 101 minutes, in Icelandic, with subtitles.

'Gloria Bell'

There are two types of moviegoers: Those who believe Julianne Moore is wonderful in any role, and those who are wrong.

Moore’s gifts for burrowing into a character and making that character radiate from within are in full force in Chilean director Sebastián Leilo’s “Gloria Bell,” where Moore shines in spite of a meandering story.

In this remake of Leilo’s 2013 Chilean drama “Gloria,” Moore plays the title character, a 50ish divorceé living alone in the Los Angeles area. She drives to her job at an insurance company, singing along to songs from the ‘70s and ’80s songs. (Leilo needle-drops an array of hits about loneliness, hinting at the story arc that’s to come.) In her off hours, Gloria goes dancing at clubs, often dancing with gray-haired men in similar post-marital states.

We learn quickly that Gloria has two adult children. Peter (Michael Cera) is caring for a new baby while his wife is off “finding herself.” Anne (Caren Pistorius) is a yoga instructor who has fallen in love with Theo (Jesse Erwin), a hunky Swede, and is soon moving to Sweden to be with him. 

One night at the club, Gloria meets Arnold (John Turturro), a divorced guy who owns a paintball range. Gloria and Arnold hit it off, and a romance begins to blossom. But Arnold is often distracted, usually by calls from his adult daughters and his still-clinging ex-wife.

The story unfolds in fits and starts, and it becomes clear that Leilo is less interested in plot mechanics than in the small explosions when Moore’s Gloria is put in the same room with other interesting people. Sometimes it’s lunch with Gloria’s mom (the always-sharp Holland Taylor), or a dinner with married friends (Rita Wilson and Chris Mulkey), or a birthday party for Peter that puts Gloria in proximity to her ex-husband Dustin (Brad Garrett) and his new wife, Veronica (Jeanne Tripplehorn).

Leilo has two collaborators to translate his Chilean movie for American audiences. One is filmmaker Alice Johnson Boher, who helps bring the feminist feelings to the center. The other is, of course, Moore, who gives a performance that is raw and sensual and authentic, capturing Gloria’s desperate loneliness and her happy abandon as she figures out how to live her best life.

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‘Gloria Bell’

★★★

Opened March 8 in select cities; opens Friday, March 22, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Rated R for sexuality, nudity, language and some drug use. Running time: 102 minutes.

'The Wedding Guest'

We know the London-born Dev Patel as a serious actor, in such movies as “Lion” and “Slumdog Millionaire,” but in Michael Winterbottom’s oblique thriller “The Wedding Guest,” we get to imagine something different: Dev Patel, action star.

Patel stars here as a man on a journey to Pakistan. His name isn’t important, and in fact he uses several within the movie’s first minutes. This man, a British Muslim, is traveling to Pakistan for a wedding to be performed in the Islamic tradition. But he’s not there simply as a guest, but to kidnap the bride, Samira (Radhika Apte).

His motive for kidnapping Samira is simple: He’s being paid. But the motive of Deepesh (Jim Sarbh), the man who is paying him, isn’t so clear. Neither, at first, is Samira’s motive for going along with it.

Winterbottom, whose repertoire ranges from comedies (“The Trip,” “Tristram Shandy”) to dramas (“A Mighty Heart”), sends this mystery man and his willing captive through an intense ride through the breadth of India. The film is shot almost entirely on location in Amritsar, Jaipur, Goa and other Indian cities, as well as in the countryside — and the contrasting cultures within India’s diverse regions become a counterpoint to the action, and a reminder of how easy two people might get lost in a nation of more than a billion people.

The plot is a bit thin and lacking in big action moments. But the chemistry between the tightly wound Patel and the poker-faced Apte, a fast-rising Bollywood star, is electrifying, and one hopes they each have more opportunities to smolder on the screen.

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‘The Wedding Guest’

★★★

Opened March 8 in select cities; opens Friday, March 22, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Rated R for language, some violence and brief nudity. Running time: 97 minutes.

'Five Feet Apart'

Young love and terminal illness make a strong combination, like they usually do, this time in “Five Feet Apart,” which rises and falls on the considerable charm of its romantic leads.

In a hospital in an unnamed wintry city (the movie was filmed in New Orleans), Stella Grant (played by Haley Lu Richardson) is a 16-year-old getting treated for cystic fibrosis. For those not up on their genetic diseases, and as the movie explains, cystic fibrosis causes the sufferer’s lungs to fill with mucus. There is no cure, only treatment — and the hope of a possible lung transplant, which may prolong the patient’s life for five years or so. (People touched by CF may dispute the particulars; this is the information the movie provides.)

One hard-and-fast rule of CF is that people who have it have to stay at least six feet away from each other at all times. This is to prevent cross-infection of bacteria, which can travel six feet in a sneeze or a cough.

Soon Stella meets another CF patient, Will Tanner (played by Cole Sprouse, currently playing Jughead on The CW’s “RIverdale”). Will’s jaded attitude about CF and his pill regimen rankles the optimistic Stella, so at first it seems they’ll never have to worry about getting close enough to worry about the six-foot rule. As things progress, her positivity wears down his cynicism. Besides, Will is an artist with a sketchbook, and as somebody who doesn’t get out much, Stella’s probably seen “Titanic” a zillion times, right? (This is not information provided by the movie; I’m going rogue.)

Director Justin Baldoni, who plays Rafael on The CW’s “Jane the Virgin” and is making his feature directing debut, has studied his sappy romantic melodramas — especially the ones like “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Pacific Sun” that center on an incurable disease. Baldoni relies heavily on the worried looks of the hospital staff (particularly Kimberley Hebert Gregory as Stella’s devoted nurse), an unending string of sappy singer-songwriter soundtrack cuts, and the charisma of the stars.

This third item, the stars’ magnetic appeal, turns out to be the best thing about “Five Feet Apart.” Sprouse is perfect as the brooding bad boy; if there’s a “Twilight” reboot in the next five years, he’s your Edward. But it’s Richardson, with whom critics fell in love as the architecturally savvy teen in the indie darling “Columbus,” who really shines as Stella, her smile and sass and vulnerability make this often manipulative melodrama feel like a breath of fresh air.

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‘Five Feet Apart’

★★★

Opens Friday, March 15, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, language and suggestive material. Running time: 116 minutes.