Atonement

Charlie Wilson's War-It's fairly commendable how the three main characters first appear like comic disasters for how they've been set up-they all first appear like people who've walked out of a costume party and don't fully embody their own characters at first,especially Julia Roberts whose accent changes wildly moment to moment-they eventually shed that stark unnaturalness,particularly Tom Hanks who shows he's well-suited for the unlikely role of a smooth-talking womanizer,his performance contains exactly the kind of pull and charisma Robert Downey Jr. totally missed in Zodiac.Nothing Oscar-worthy here though,and as for the story-too chatty,predictably feel-good and lacking the wit of an enjoyable political drama.

Atonement-The story's a bit tough to grasp at first,with a poor coherence holding the first two parts together (this is thankfully resolved by the third act,which very effectively ties all the seemingly loose parts into a very solid film),and aside from that there's not much to complain about.The cinematography here is simply outstanding-there's a generous share of shots that don't necessarily rely on landscapes or anything similarly big-scale to come out gorgeous.Deservingly one of 07s most respectable pictures,highly recommended.

No Country For Old Men-What begins and quite consistently continues to be an intense thriller is ultimately ruined by the messy arrangement of the last half hour-when the story seems to have closed to a conclusion,it stubbornly runs along to find something new to play with and for all the film's chilling quietness,we have towards the end a whole bunch of people talking gibberish and a few sleazy attempts at squeezing in some emotion for an otherwise completely soulless film.Nevertheless,if there's something truly,undeniably brilliant about it was Javier Bardem's performance that makes it worth your while to catch this.