Derek Jacobi

Author Yoram Kaniuk's celebrated 1971 novel concerning a charismatic yet questionably sane Holocaust survivor comes to the screen in this dark drama starring Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, and Derek Jacobi. In the years before World War II, Adam Stein (Goldblum) was a Berlin entertainer who thrilled audiences with extravagant circus acts and spectacular magic tricks. Later, when Hitler took power and Europe was plunged into chaos, Stein and his family were locked away in a concentration camp presided over by the sadistic Commandant Klein (Dafoe). The only reason Stein survived those dreadful years was because he managed to become the Commandant's personal "dog," entertaining his captors even as his wife and daughter are marched off to die. Flash forward to 1961, when Stein is a patient at an Israeli mental hospital for Holocaust survivors. Seemingly able to read minds, Stein confounds head doctor Nathan Gross (Jacobi) with the question, "Who brought a dog in here?" Despite Gross' vehement denial that any such animal is on the premises, Stein soon tracks the scent to a young boy who has spent his entire youth locked in a basement and chained to a wall. Over time, Stein and the boy see in each other something undeniably familiar, and the two kindred spirits set out on a remarkable journey together. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A young girl embarks on a perilous journey to rescue her best friend and fight the forces of darkness in director Chris Weitz's adaptation of the first installment of author Philip Pullman's best-selling fantasy trilogy. Screen newcomer Dakota Blue Richards stars as young heroine Lyra Belacqua, Casino Royale star Daniel Craig appears as Lyra's ruthless adventurer uncle, Lord Asriel, and Nicole Kidman assumes the glamorous guise of the villainous Mrs. Coulter. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Rupert Evans, Derek Jacobi, and Natalia Verbeke star in this drama concerning a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who struggles to separate reality from fantasy after awakening disoriented and sick on a deserted Cuban beach. In the aftermath of a violent storm, Ali awakens on the sands of a picturesque beach with no memory of where he came from or how he got there. After making his way to the nearest town, the weary traveler makes the acquaintance of Manuela, a sensual dancer from nearby Havana. Despite the veiled warnings from her friend and suitor Guido, Manuela can't help but fall in love with the mysterious stranger. The situation grows complicated, however, when Ali's memory begins to return in a series of disturbing visions that reveal not only where he came from, but how he knows the man named Guido as well. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A nanny reveals ways of making children behave that are much more effective than a time-out in this fantasy comedy based on the "Nurse Matilda" books for children by Christianna Brand. Near the dawn of the twentieth century, Mr. Brown (Colin Firth) is a widower who must tend to his business as an undertaker while looking after his brood of seven children. Brown's offspring are a singularly ill-mannered lot who have managed to drive away 17 different nannies when their father arranges for one Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson) to help out with the children. McPhee is an strange looking woman with a large nose, protruding teeth, and pock-marked skin, but it isn't long before the kids realize she has magical powers and isn't afraid to use them to help keep them in line. While the children aren't taken with McPhee's insistence on such things as saying "please" and listening to their elders, it becomes clear everyone has bigger things to worry about. Aunt Adelaide (Angela Lansbury) has insisted that if Mr. Brown cannot find a new wife within a month, she'll take custody of one of the children and cut off Brown's inheritance, and while Brown and the widow Mrs. Quickly (Celia Imrie) seem fond of one another, his ineptitude in courtship seems to insure he'll never get her to the altar. But while the Brown Children realize Nanny McPhee is a formidable opponent, she can also be a valuable ally as they learn to make use of her talents by being better children; they also discover that as they behave better, she begins to look less frightening. Emma Thompson, who played the title role in Nanny McPhee, also wrote the film's screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Anders Ronnow Klarlund's fantasy-action film Strings tells the tale of Hal Tara, the son of a slain ruler who sets out to settle the score with those who dispatched his father. Interestingly, all of the characters in the film are marionettes, explaining the title of the film to some degree. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

For a brief span of several years, Vaslav Nijinsky was perhaps the brightest star in the history of classical dance. Making his professional debut in 1907, the Russian-born dancer first became the sensation of the Saint Petersburg Imperial Ballet, and then spread his fame worldwide when he became a dancer and choreographer with the Ballets Russes in Paris, working alongside the noted dance patron Sergei Diaghilev. Nijinsky's fame came not just from his technical skills as a dancer, but his bold and unrelenting desire to expand the boundaries of what could be expressed through the medium of ballet. However, while he blazed many trails, he was also a man driven by a mixture of anger, paranoia, and visions of his own greatness. His beliefs struck many as perilously close to madness, and in 1919, a few months after his final performance, Nijinsky was committed to a mental institution, where he would remain until his death in 1950. He kept a diary in which he wrote about his life and accomplishments as well as his philosophies, his personal demons, and his feelings about his own creative nature. Bowdlerized excerpts were first published in 1936, while the unexpurgated text finally saw the light of day in 1995. Filmmaker Paul Cox has long been fascinated by Nijinsky's writings, and his feature Nijinsky: From the Diaries of Vaslaw Nijinsky is a labor of love, in which Derek Jacobi reads from the dancer's journals, while a variety of images -- some abstract, some re-creations of Nijinsky's dances, still others dramatizations of episodes from his life -- appear onscreen to compliment or contrast the words he wrote to explain and express himself. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A powerful ancient relic holds the key to ultimate destruction in director Stuart Urban's religious-flavored thriller Revelation. Since the crucifixion of Christ, the Loculus has eluded the grasp of the demonic Grand Master (Udo Kier), who seeks to find the artifact and learn its mysterious secrets in order to unlock its power to devastating results. As the Grand Master continues his quest for the Loculus, a billionaire mogul named Magnus Martel (Terence Stamp) enlists the reluctant aid of his computer expert son, Jake (James D'Arcy), and an alchemy student named Mira (Natasha Wightman) in finding the Loculus before the Grand Master completes his quest. Traveling the world in a race to save the soul of humankind, the trio attempts to unlock the centuries-old secrets of the Loculus, which may ultimately reveal the connection between science and religion as well as the salvation of the human race. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide