Rest of the week's films

The Passenger
12A, 126 mins

Little seen in recent years, Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1975 film has now been rereleased in a restored version. An open-ended meditation on the nature of selfhood, it stars Jack Nicholson as a jaded reporter who secretly assumes the identity of a man he finds dead in a Saharan hotel. This attempt to escape the restraints of being a particular person leads only to a new set of defining circumstances, some of which are quite hairy: the dead man turnsout to have been a gunrunner. Antonioni’s typically dour view of the proceedings is expressed through still, detached shots of great beauty. The effect is compelling, to be sure. But the biggest treat is to see Nicholson give a fine performance in what, for him, is unusual territory. Four stars Edward Porter

The 10th District Court: Moments of Trials
No cert, 107 mins

Raymond Depardon’s fly-on-the-wall documentary, which shows the key scenes in various trials for minor offences in a Parisian court, is a feast for people-watchers. Defence lawyers push casuistry to its limits; prosecutors lay claim to absurd heights of moral superiority; and the judge, Madame Justice Michèle Bernard-Requin, is by turns amusing, amused, considerate and short-tempered. Most fascinating of all, inevitably, are the defendants, who range from habitual pickpockets and drug-dealers to a middle-class woman affronted to have been picked up for drink-driving. As well as entertaining us with some desperate attempts at self-justification, they illustrate all sorts of ways in which facing a courtroom can put people at a disadvantage. Three stars Edward Porter

Lobo
15, 124 mins

This good-looking thriller from Spain is based on the real case of a mole (“the Wolf”) who, in the 1970s, infiltrated the Basque separatist terror group Eta, only to be hung out to dry when it suited Franco’s security forces. The director, Miguel Courtois, goes light on the political issues, opting instead to tell a tale of hide-and-seek in which both sides are unsympathetically portrayed. For two-thirds of the time, the narrative and the well-drawn characters maintain our interest, but at more than two hours, the film outstays its welcome. Three stars Peter Whittle

An Unfinished Life
12A, 108 mins

The fact that a film featuring Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman has been on the shelf for two years is a clear sign that all was not well with the director Lasse Hallstrom’s latest look at his favourite theme, dysfunctional families. Einar (Redford) lives with his injured buddy Mitch (Freeman) on a run-down farm in Wyoming. Mitch is suffering from a mauling he got from a bear; Einar is suffering from the death of his son. When his battered daughter-in-law (Jennifer Lopez) turns up with her 11-year-old daughter to hide from her violent boyfriend, it’s time for cranky old Einar to find closure, dispense hugs, stomp the ex-husband and make peace with that damn bear. Redford is sufficiently grumpy, but Freeman’s St Morgan routine has grown tiresome. Two stars Cosmo Landesman

Hard Candy
18, 104 mins

As lurid exploitation movies go, David Slade’s film has a well-conceived frightener: a 14-year-old girl convinced, as only a teenager can be, of her own cleverness and rectitude. There is no telling what this character (smartly played by the innocent-faced Ellen Page) will do to her victim, a 32-year-old man (Patrick Wilson) whom she imprisons in his home, meaning to punish him for the paedophile crimes she believes he has committed. There is undeniable suspense in this setup, and clear technical skill in Slade’s direction. What follows, though, is physically improbable, clumsily drawn out and satisfying neither as a sick horror show nor as a consideration of how justice is best served where paedophilia is concerned. In dabbling with that theme, the film merely seems fatuously proud of its own imagined daring. Two stars Edward Porter

Dumplings
18, 91 mins

As colourful as an array of tropical fish, Christopher Doyle’s photography is the best feature of this gruesome satire by Fruit Chan, in which a middle-aged Hong Kong woman, Qing (Miriam Yeung), resorts to extreme measures in the hope of regaining her youth. The supposedly rejuvenating snacks she buys have the appearance of innocent dumplings, but — as Qing knows, and as we are unpleasantly shown — they contain ingredients that might persuade even Hannibal Lecter to push them to the side of his plate. My stomach was given a thorough churning, but the story only fleetingly tickled my palate with its basic black humour. Two stars Edward Porter

Imagine Me & You
12A, 94 mins

The writer and first-time director Ol Parker has created a lesbian “romantic comedy” that comes across as third-rate Richard Curtis. Rachel (Piper Perabo) is in the chapel marrying nice guy Heck (Matthew Goode) when she sees local florist Luce (Lena Headey) — and, hey presto, falls madly in love with her. Gosh, what’s poor Rachel to do? Parker’s film is just the same old story of falling in love with someone you shouldn’t fall in love with. The fact that here it’s another woman is of no more significance than had Rachel’s heart been captured by a cat. This insipid, twee, cringe-making film has far too little hot lesbian action to justify its miserable and mediocre existence. One star Cosmo Landesman

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
12A, 104 mins

This paean to babes, buddies and burning rubber is the third instalment in this hugely successful franchise, and is aimed squarely at that section of the teen market who are good with their hands. Lucas Black plays a Southern delinquent who’s put in the care of his Tokyo-based father, but takes no time to sniff out the underground racing scene in the city’s multistoreys. As the rival drivers compete, lips are curled, brakes screech and the girls pucker and swoon — but, despite it all, the director Justin Lin’s thumpingly noisy petrol-fest remains unexciting, unsexy and oddly old-fashioned. One star Peter Whittle