The Maid Cleans Up With Critics

Daniel Radcliffe makes post-Hogwarts debut

(NEWSER) - The boy wizard is back—but this time, he's a 19th-century gentleman. Daniel Radcliffe is generally successful playing a spooked lawyer in The Woman in Black, a throwback haunted house thriller. What the critics are saying:

• The film "makes the most of its old-fashioned virtues," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times . It "isn’t especially scary, but it keeps you on edge, and without the usual vivisectionist imagery." For his part, Radcliffe "has the haunted eyes of the eternal mourner."

Liam Neeson stars in survival thriller

(NEWSER) - The Grey, a survival-in-the-wilderness thriller starring Liam Neeson, is earning a wealth of literary comparisons. The film tells the story of a group of men stranded in the snow after a plane crash, and critics are mostly impressed.

• In the New York Times , AO Scott applauds the "fine, tough little movie, technically assured and brutally efficient, with a simple story that ventures into some profound existential territory without making a big fuss about it." The film is "as blunt and effective—and also, at times, as lyrical—as a tale by Jack London or Ernest Hemingway."

Critics split on emotional 9/11 movie

(NEWSER) - Critics are split right down the center on Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, an emotional movie about a young boy's quest to deal with his father's death on 9/11. It's currently at an even 50% on Rotten Tomatoes , drawing reviews like these:

• "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close might have also added and Fairly Obnoxious," writes Tom Long of the Detroit News . "Mixing the horror of 9/11 with a cutesy story about a boy's unlikely quest just comes off as crass," making this "the kind of movie you want to punch in the nose."
• "No movie has ever been able to provide a catharsis for the Holocaust, and I suspect none will ever be able to provide one for 9/11," writes Roger Ebert . Certainly this one doesn't. "This plot is contrivance and folderol." Oskar's on-foot journey through New York "is so preposterous, we're constantly aware of it as a storytelling contrivance."

Peter King thinks White House gave too much access to Hollywood

(NEWSER) - The Defense Department is investigating claims that the White House gave classified information about the Osama bin Laden raid ... to Hollywood. GOP Rep. Peter King sought the investigation following allegations that the administration provided Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow with privileged information for her upcoming film on the raid, reports CNN . (It's due out in December 2012.) King charges that the White House gave Bigelow access because it expects a glowing portrayal of its actions on film. More»

Helps redeem otherwise mediocre film

(NEWSER) - As a biopic, The Iron Lady is nothing to write home about—but critics are blown away by Meryl Streep's typically excellent performance as Margaret Thatcher:

• The film contains "little sense of the outside world, the human cost, or the ripple effect of divisive government policies. It is a movie that gives us Thatcher without Thatcherism," writes Xan Brooks in the Guardian . But Streep "is the one great weapon of this often silly and suspect picture." She offers "a masterpiece of mimicry."