Family Filmgoer

Watching With Kids in Mind

Bride Wars (PG, 90 minutes)

"Bride Wars" offers plenty of girlfriend humor, pretty things and yummy-looking food to salivate over. It should greatly entertain girls 8 to 16. Many parents will wince at the movie's over-the-top stereotype of female lust for things and appearances. Even more off-putting is the implication that women alone are guilty of this, while boyfriends and husbands roll their eyes in loving tolerance. This is ugly, retro stuff. Even its closing messages about the importance of friendship and whether your intended mate is right for you seem tacked-on. If "Bride Wars" were really funny, of course, much would be forgiven, but its attempts at wit are labored.

Lifelong best friends Liv (Kate Hudson), a hard-nosed lawyer, and Emma (Anne Hathaway), a passive teacher, have always dreamed of June weddings at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Emma's boyfriend proposes, and Liv, who has already found her boyfriend's hidden Tiffany box, badgers him into proposing before he'd intended. Bursting with excitement, the two girlfriends start planning their weddings -- until the wedding planner (Candice Bergen) mistakenly schedules them on the same date at the Plaza. In the blink of an eye, the women go from pals to enemies. No trick is too nasty.

"Bride Wars" shows much drinking. It's hinted that both women live with their fiances, and there is sexual innuendo in a bachelorette party scene, with male strippers in skimpy outfits. There is rare mild profanity.

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6 and Older

"The Tale of Despereaux" (G). A tiny, big-eared mouse saves the day in this charming and richly imagined example of old-fashioned storytelling. "The Tale of Despereaux" ought to charm kids 6 and older, but there are bits that could scare littler ones, such as rats cheering for a cat to eat the mouse. The film juggles too many characters, some of whom undergo dizzying personality changes, but kids can handle those flaws. The tale unfolds in the medieval Kingdom of Dor, where soup is an obsession. A rat named Roscuro (voice of Dustin Hoffman) falls into the queen's soup bowl, and the lady dies of fright. Chased by guards, he dives into the dungeon and lands in dark, violent Rat World. Later, Despereaux (Matthew Broderick) is banished to the dungeon for consorting with humans, and he bonds with Roscuro over the idea of valor. Their courage is soon tested.

8 and Older

"Bedtime Stories" (PG). The script is a sloppy mix of sarcasm and sentimentality, and the fantasy sequences are homely and incoherent, but "Bedtime Stories" has the Adam Sandler silliness factor kids 8 and older like. Sandler plays Skeeter, a custodian at a hotel. The new owner won't promote him, and the conniving manager aims to keep it that way. Skeeter's divorced sister (Courteney Cox) leaves her two kids with him while she flies to a job interview. Skeeter makes up stories that start coming true. The crude humor includes a tasteless gag about a dwarf. The dumb finale puts child characters in pointless danger.

"Marley & Me" (PG). SPOILER ALERT: This pleasant, if uninspired, adaptation has the same last act as John Grogan's book. We see a beloved pet grow old and be euthanized. Parents of children younger than 8 (and some older kids) may try leaving after an aged Marley recovers miraculously from his first illness. Owen Wilson sidles through his role as John, who buys a puppy for his new wife, Jennifer (Jennifer Aniston). The comically untrainable yellow Lab wreaks havoc -- all material for John's column. The film shows Jennifer sad about a failed pregnancy. There is drinking, mild profanity, dog poop and neutering gags, gently implied marital sexual situations and skinny-dipping, and a stabbing victim who's not badly hurt.

PG-13

"Valkyrie." An impossible-to-follow narrative and a miscast Tom Cruise sink "Valkyrie." Too bad, because high-schoolers might have found the story compelling. The thriller dramatizes a failed 1944 plot by members of the German military to assassinate Adolf Hitler, but the film piles confusion upon confusion in explaining the plan and what went wrong. Cruise plays Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, a key conspirator who places a briefcase bomb under a table in Hitler's bunker. Whenever Cruise's colonel barks lines such as "Hitler is the archenemy of Germany!" the whole thing slips into parody. There are a couple of intense battle scenes but few graphic injuries. There are executions by firing squad, a hanging, suicides, rare profanity, brief mild sexual innuendo and smoking.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." This magically spun yarn never loses its wonder. In a New Orleans hospital, a dying old woman has her daughter read aloud from an old diary of Benjamin Button. The film flashes back to 1918 and the birth of Benjamin (mostly played by Brad Pitt), whose mother dies in childbirth. The baby looks like a shriveled old man, and his horrified father leaves the infant at an old folks' home. The housekeeper there raises Benjamin, who gets younger-looking as he grows up. He goes to sea, discovers sex and realizes how fleeting happiness is. He falls in love with a girl named Daisy when both are children. Years later, their lives (Daisy now played by Cate Blanchett) coincide. There are strongly implied sexual situations and partial nudity, an awful car accident, war deaths, occasional profanity, drinking and smoking. Okay for all teens.

R

"Gran Torino." Clint Eastwood hams it up as Walt Kowalski, a growling Korean war vet who has just lost his wife. He vents anger and racist grudges at everyone, especially his new neighbors, who are from Southeast Asia. Yet Walt becomes his neighbors' protector after a gang tries to force their quiet teenage son to steal Walt's vintage Gran Torino. A predictable story, unpolished acting and tired racial stereotypes detract from the movie, but it has emotional punch. High-schoolers with patience for character studies may take to it. There are brief bursts of violence, threats and a bloodied young woman who has been raped. There is a graphic verbal description of killing in war, profanity, racial slurs, sexual innuendo, signs of terminal illness, drinking and smoking.

"The Wrestler." As washed-up wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson, Mickey Rourke is a revelation: a palooka, a tragic hero and an innocent all rolled into one. Randy is always broke, estranged from his grown daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and in love with a stripper (Marisa Tomei). The downward spiral of Randy's life is all the more moving because he tries so hard. "The Wrestler" will wow college film buffs and lovers of great acting. It includes strong profanity, bloody, head-banging wrestling, self-wounding, cocaine and prescription drug abuse, a graphic sexual situation, female toplessness and erotic dancing, and drinking. Not for teens younger than 17.