A Single Man & New Almodovar, Plus Heath Ledger’s Final Film

by Chris Narloch

Three filmmakers who know their way around a camera have movies just out in theaters, and they are all testaments to the love of visual storytelling.

A Single Man

Famed photographer Tom Ford makes his movie debut with this highly acclaimed screen adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s novel about a single day in the life of a British college professor (Colin Firth) who loses his long-time partner.

Firth is almost guaranteed an Oscar nomination for his lead performance, and Julianne Moore is also getting raves as his alcoholic best friend. At the Crest.

Broken Embraces

My favorite living director, the wild man of Spanish cinema, Pedro Almodovar, teams again with his current muse, the voluptuous Penelope Cruz, for another twisted tale of jealousy, treachery and guilty love.

The plot sounds incredibly convoluted even for Almodovar and involves a man who erases his former identity after a car crash takes his sight. 
If nothing else, the film (and Cruz) promises to be stylish and stunning to look at. At the Tower.

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

Paying tribute to the late Heath Ledger in his final role, Terry Gilliam’s new film is a fantastical morality tale set in the present-day.

This is the movie Ledger was filming when he died, and rather than scrap the project, the director enlisted three other hot young actors (Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law) to play different aspects of Ledger’s character.

The special effects will no doubt be spectacular in this tale of a traveling show where audiences must choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom.
Christopher Plummer plays Dr. Parnassus, who is blessed with the gift of guiding others people’s imaginations. At the Tower.