In our final catch-all summary of films in theatres for 2011, we review The Salt of Life, Tintin, Melancholia, We Bought A Zoo, and The Iron Lady.

A

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked Computer animation has so much to answer for.

Arthur Christmas Based on the naff bus stop ads, the “klutzy heir to the Santa throne saves Christmas” concept and the lack of confidence suggested by a pre-holidays release date for a Christmas-themed movie, I went into this with fairly low expectations. Had they been fairly high expectations, they would still have been exceeded. The jokes are funny and prolific, the story is clever and fast paced enough to survive a few minor missteps, and the voice cast (James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent) is top drawer and on top form. You absolutely want to take your kids to this movie. DL

B

Beginners Not your usual romantic comedy. The ambient mood is sadness, partly from a son’s grief for his father, partly his anxiety about ever being able to commit. But there are enough moments in Mike Mills’s idiosyncratic take on his autobiographical story to raise a smile or two. Moving fluidly between past and present to trace an unexpected resonance between his father’s coming out in his 70s and his own attempts at a relationship, it’s subtly done and as elusive as it is truthful. Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer are upstaged by a cute and very smart jack russell called Arthur. Review here. HW

C

Contagion Interesting mostly as proof that the global disaster movie is a difficult needle to thread, even when you stuff your cast with A-listers. The early scenes of Steven Soderbergh’s pandemic procedural have an efficient zip to them, but as the death toll climbs into the millions, his handful of characters become less and less able to act as representative figures: and that’s all this chilly film ever asks them to be. Any film with Kate Winslet, Matt Damon, Lawrence Fishburne and Marion Cotillard in its placeholder roles is better off than it might have been, but this ends up feeling oddly bloodless. DL

D

Drive Think Tarantino, only with more visual panache and a script pared down to the barest of bare minimalist bones. So actually, don’t think Tarantino; but this does play his pop-cinema-commenting-on-pop-cinema game. If you’re at peace with the notion of extreme violence as legitimate art film shock tactics, and if you’re well versed in the great and not-so-great car chase movies of the past, you’ll be well placed to enjoy one of the most polarising films of the year. Ryan Gosling is cucumber-cool, odd moments of protracted skull stomping aside. Review here. DL

E

El Bulli: Cooking In Progress A film about food that won’t necessarily get you salivating, but will astonish with the lengths some chefs will go to in pushing the culinary envelope. El Bulli is a Michelin 3-star restaurant on the Costa Brava, famed for its experiments in molecular gastronomy (that’s technically food, but not as we know it). Patiently observing the meticulous R&D that goes into the new season’s menu, while giving glimpses into the personalities of the chef-researchers, this absorbing documentary is the closest most of us will ever get to the El Bulli experience of culinary alchemy by way of science and art. HW

I

Illustrious Energy Leon Narbey, cinematographer on The Orator, Whale Rider, Rain of the Children, No. 2 – to name a bare handful – has only ever directed two feature films, both of them co-written with Martin Edmond (The Autobiography of My Father, Luca Antara, Dark Night). This one, their first, won a slew of awards when it first appeared in 1988, and promptly vanished without trace. Quite literally; the master negative was lost. Rediscovered and remastered, this new print played the Wellington and Dunedin film festivals earlier this year, and this week it becomes the first film to play in Howick’s newly restored Monterey Cinema. It’s a stunner. Beautifully shot – by Alan Locke; I assumed initially it must be Narbey, simply because it looks so good – it traces the fortunes of two Chinese miners in the gold fields of Otago, in the 1890s. Poignant and beautiful:  so good to have it back. DL

In Time How to take the right idea at the right time and turn it into the wrong movie. Andrew Niccol wrote, produced and directed this science fiction allegory of our current rich-get-richer global society, and thus gets all the credit for a fine concept. In the near future, immortality will be available to anyone who can pay for it, but the cost is, the poor die young. Fail to earn 24 hours worth of life today, and you’ll fall dead tomorrow: there’s economic inequality for you. Niccol also gets the blame for the awful, awful dialogue and the idiotic Bonnie and Clyde plot. Of the film’s many sins, the worst is its casting. Justin Timberlake is unremarkable as the ghetto-boy-turned-Robin Hood hero, which puts him on a high plinth of excellence relative to his deadwood costar, Amanda Seyfried; but the chief problem is the large supporting cast. Everyone in this world, however old, is genetically locked at physical age 25, so all the texture of a multi-generational society has to be conveyed without benefit of wrinkles or gray hair. As testing a challenge as this is for a bunch of insipid young twentysomethings, two hours of watching them fail at it is more testing still. DL

J

Jig The ensemble competition documentary, in which we follow a mixed bunch of hopefuls on their way to some sport or art form’s World Champs, is a well established format, and a relatively difficult one to bollix up. But here’s one way: first, pick an art which involves very, very fast movement of the feet, and fail to show us the learning phases, where we might observe enough at slower speeds to appreciate the differences between performers going all out. Second, be overtly manipulative in editing your footage so some performers will seem ever so charming while others look pushy and desperate to win at costs, even though we learn very little about who they really are. I have no special interest in Irish Dancing, but I also have nothing against it, which is to say I was this film’s for the winning. It managed to leave me bored and annoyed. DL

L

Little White Lies The Big Chill goes French. Both funnier and more serious than its American template-setter, this comedy-drama about a group of friends whose holiday is overshadowed when one of their number has a near-fatal accident has a lot going for it, including Francois Cluzet and Marion Cotillard. At two and a half hours, it’s not a short night out, but the length lets it build up some real emotional heft. Review here. DL

M

Melancholia Lars Von Trier knows how to get under your skin. Depression is the real subject of this astonishing tour de force; the ostensible subject is the end of the world, so it’s possible to get distracted. Kirsten Dunst has never given a better performance, and she’s also never been better cast. The Wagner excerpt that keeps looping back at us, over and over, is simultaneously maddening and gorgeous: and it’s meant to be: and there you have the film. DL

Midnight In Paris Woody Allen goes to France, taking with him, as usual, a large ensemble of capable actors, and, far less usual, a rather lovely script. It’s years – it’s decades – since he’s written so well for the screen. This giddy intellectual romance is not invulnerable to the same critiques as every other Woody Allen movie since the dawn of time – he’s not kind to his female characters, and seems blissfully unaware of the fact – but it’s light-hearted, and funny, and seems genuinely, infectiously in love with its setting. Review here. DL

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol There are going to be jokes about Pixar’s Brad Bird choosing a Tom Cruise vehicle for his first live-action movie. (“At least Mr Incredible wasn’t a cartoon character”). But they’ll be toothless jokes, because Cruise and Bird are so well matched: this is one cracker of an action joy-ride. It’s fundamental to the DNA of the series that the set pieces are the movie – we’re here to see ridiculous challenge meet absurdly complex solution, or it would, as Anthony Hopkins commented in the second film, be Mission: Difficult – and Bird choreographs them beautifully, combining clean, easy-to-follow editing with lots of wit and visual energy, without ever losing sight of the story he’s meant to be telling. And do you remember how striking the absolute silence of the hanging-from-the-ceiling-over-touch-sensitive-floor scene in Brian De Palma’s original film seemed at the time? Quite possibly not, because by now you’ve seen it at least once on TV, and on the small screen, without an audience around you, that scene simply doesn’t work. This film, likewise, has been designed with big screen spectacle in mind: however often you’ve seen bits of the tower climbing sequence in the trailer, it will still make you gape. Curious, with all the head-scratching that goes on over movie piracy, how few directors think to make a film which simply has to be seen in theatres. Make the most of it. DL

N

New Year’s Eve Imagine a lifeless American sitcom episode. Except you can’t change the channel. And the show is two… hours… long. By-the-numbers ensemble comedy does not come more anodyne than this, and the best commentary on its attempts to suggest that humanity is one big happy family – look at all these lives intersecting as a new year begins! look at all these happy endings! – comes from the treatment it gives its non-white characters. In this family, we don’t talk about race, but we do quietly ask that some of our poorer cousins sit down the back of the bus: supporting roles only, please. As the clock ticked slowly onwards, I occupied myself trying to remember when Robert De Niro’s presence in a film had last counted as a good reason for going to see it. By my count, that would be 1997. DL

P

Pina Wim Wenders waited decades for the 3D technology that would let him do justice to the choreography of Pina Bausch. He waited so long, Pina herself was dead before he could start shooting. Her long-time ensemble perform her work in a variety of settings, some of them, exhilaratingly in this depth-enriched format, outdoors. The extra dimension puts you right there, watching the dance: sometimes it puts you right there among the dancers. It needs to be said that this is not the most accessible film in the world for the dance-illiterate; I did not feel, as I’d hoped to, that an art I’ve long failed to respond to was finally offering up its secrets. But it’s beautifully made, and beautiful to watch, even for the likes of me. For dance enthusiasts, it will be one of the great films of the year. DL

Puss In Boots He was the best thing about Shrek 2 – which probably encouraged them to push out the sequels further than necessary – and now, at last, he’s got his own show! Yes, the Ginger known as Puss (voiced by Antonio Banderas, natch), is back. The Shrekian tradition of mashing up fairytale and nursery rhyme characters has been retained, and it boots (sorry) the narrative along nicely; plus we get to learn Puss’s origin tail (sorry, sorry) and why he’s an outlaw. Yes, he does the thing with the eyes, but actually he has you from the very first frame; he is just so ready for his close-up. And for a lay-dee, too – swashing and buckling his way into a fandango with the feisty Ms Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek). While you couldn’t claim the film takes Hollywood animated comedies to the next level, or does anything much with the 3D, it’s perfect for the holidays. And proves that underneath the bravado there’s just a big ol’ pussycat. HW

R

Red Dog Aussie charmer based, extremely loosely, on the true tale of a dog who adopted the folk of a little outback mining town and became a legend. More hard drinking blokes with well hidden hearts of gold than you could shake a stick at, and one cracker of a canine actor. Some – okay, many – are going to find this too sentimental; myself, I laughed til I cried. Featuring the best dog vs cat grudge match in cinema history. DL

Red State Kevin Smith (Clerks, Dogma) is back in town. We haven’t seen this.

Rest For The Wicked Trailing whiffs of Agatha Christie and Ealing without ever committing to either, this local comedy set in a retirement village succeeds in its intention to tell a story about being old in a way that’s amusing without being disrespectful, but it’s not so great at keeping our attention on the mystery at its centre. Tony Barry and a cast of some of our most senior and experienced actors are good for a few giggles, but the plotting is soft and not as clever as it should be. Review here. HW

S

Submarine Practically everyone I saw this whimsical British coming-of-age comedy with liked it more than I did: a fact I share with you because there’s such a thing as a natural target audience for coming-of-age whimsy, and it’s a lot younger than I am. Craig Roberts (last seen beating Jane Eyre over the head with a book) plays Oliver Tate, a cleverer, darker-humoured Adrian Mole. He pines for love, he wins her heart, his parents’ marriage seems on the verge of collapse, he tries to help, it all goes horribly wrong: so slowly, and so predictably, and with a ratio of intellectual wit to teenage self-obsession which tips quite a lot too far in the wrong direction for my patience. DL

T

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn Steven Spielberg and producer Sir Peter Jackson bring out the best in each other, a cast of fine voice actors do excellent work, and the wizards of Weta do their best motion-caption ­animation yet. Tintin purists will carp, but this is outstanding summer fun, and worth catching in 3D if you can. DL

The Debt Remake of the Israeli film Ha-Hov, adapted by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn (Kick Ass, X-Men: First Class) and directed by John Madden (Shakespeare In Love). An odd combination any way you look at it, but Goldman, Vaughn and Madden make a good team: as do Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas and Jesper Christiensen, who play two Israeli agents undercover in East Berlin, and a former Nazi they take prisoner. (Sam Worthington, as the third agent, is the weak link). A needlessly lurid ending fails to spoil an espionage suspense story with some good tricks up its sleeve. Review here. DL

The First Grader A charming tale with a bit of post-colonial bite. Based on the true story of Maruge, a lively 84-year-old who insists on his rights to free education, this is a gentle yet shrewd look at Kenya past and present. Uplifting, but not afraid to show the cost of the fight for independence. And a pleasure to see so much black African talent. HW

The Iron Lady Meryl Streep is Margaret Thatcher, but no matter your view of Britain’s former PM, this tremulous, unfocused biopic is less than she deserves. People will no doubt project their own Thatchers onto Streep’s predictably excellent performance; they’ll have to, because what director Phyllida Lloyd and writer Abi Morgan think of their polarising subject never quite emerges. DL

The Orator Glorious first feature from Tusi Tamasese. Strong story, excellent acting, and beautiful camera work from Kiwi legend Leon Narbey. The first film to be made entirely in the Samoan language. The second one is going to have a lot to live up to. Full review here. DL

The Trip A miracle of sorts: an edited down version of a hit comedy TV show which works at least as well as the longer form, small screen original. Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden bravely play versions of themselves, in what amounts to an extended psychological vivisection: as they tour the north of England by road, we see their (fictional, though that’s hard to remember) foibles laid bare in hilarious, excruciating detail. Review here. DL

The Salt of Life Just as he did in Mid-August Lunch, Gianni di Gregorio mines poignant comedy from the situation of the aging Italian male. The testosterone-fuelled stereotype is nowhere to be seen; he has become the mild-mannered, biddable son/father/husband/neighbour to an array of women who boss him about and take him for granted. But he still has an eye for a pretty girl, especially after discovering that old Maurizio downstairs is having an affair. Not wanting to become just another old man walking the dog, he begins to explore the possibilities. What distinguishes this film is that di Gregorio, who writes, directs and plays the lead, never ever descends into farce; the humour is lightly played and gently ironic. And even though he’s not big on dramatic resolution, you’re left with a strong impression of sweet ‘n’ salty truth. HW

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 Am I the only New Zealand film reviewer who’ll stand up and admit to having enjoyed the Twilight novels? And also the first of the films, though I hated the second and violently loathed the third. (Super-heated language? In the Twilight world, I’m afraid that’s just how we talk). I approached the penultimate series entry with caution, aware that if my downwards trajectory continued I was in danger of screaming abuse at the screen, at which point the teenage audience might rise up and rend me limb from limb. I had a great time, which was a relief, but now leaves me forced to explain how I managed to like an anti-abortion parable which is somehow also anti-pregnancy, anti-sex, and yet pro-marriage. Um… I can’t. All I can offer is this advisory: adults who haven’t read the books are likely to emerge from this film slack-jawed, muttering “Stephanie Meyer, what were you thinking?” But if you’re fond of these characters and their world, the news is good. The ponderous emoting of the previous two films has been replaced with smart dialogue, clever editing, and a sophisticated sense of pace. If part 2 had played immediately after the end credits, I’d have stayed in my seat. DL

The Whistleblower A cool, efficient treatment of a female UN peacekeeping officer’s drive to expose sex trafficking in Bosnia – with the twist that the UN forces are just as implicated as the locals. Based on a true story, it has Rachel Weisz playing Nebraskan police officer Kathryn Bolkovac perfectly competently, but by revealing what it’s about from the start, it has nowhere to go in terms of building the suspense and tension that would elevate it into a chilling, high-stakes drama. Nevertheless, the documentary realism in the depiction of the trafficking may be disturbing enough for some. Review here. HW

Tomboy A TARDIS film: much bigger on the inside than its outline would suggest. A preteen girl moves with her family to a new neighbourhood just outside Paris. She’s androgynous-looking enough to pass for a boy, and, seemingly on a whim, she does, introducing herself to the local kids as Mickael. The consequences are not disproportionately terrible, but, as played out by an extraordinary cast of child actors, they’re complex, believable, and discomforting. DL

W

We Bought A Zoo If you took the hard-headed efficiency of Soderbergh’s Contagion, reviewed above, and fused it with the soft-headed warmth of this “inspired by real events” tale, you’d have one decent film. Matt Damon does, after all, lose his wife and go slightly crazy in both of them. But let me come clean: even though I have no counter to the obvious criticisms of this film, which start with the observation that it desperately, desperately needed a more cynical and hard-bitten director than Cameron Crowe, I still liked it. Because, damn it, I just like Damon. As the title suggests, he moves with his kids to a nearly defunct zoo, and sets out to save it. Never, for one second, do you doubt that he’ll succeed, which represents abject failure on Crowe’s part. But not on Damon’s. Who would have predicted that he’d end up such an interesting actor? He makes this mush entirely enjoyable. Switch off your brain and go with it. DL

A City Falls Stunning, heart-breaking documentary on the Christchurch earthquakes, filmed on the ground over the course of a long year, by a team of Cantabrians who somehow kept their focus through the quakes, the liquefaction, the deaths. It’s been quite a year for New Zealand documentary features (Operation 8, Brother Number One), but in 50 years’ time, this is the film they’ll still be watching. DL

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Click here for more stories and reviews by David Larsen, here for more stories and reviews by Helene Wong.