A Very Long Engagement

A Very Long Engagement (134 min, Rated R)
From the director and star of "Amelie" (Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Audrey Tautou) comes A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT, based on the acclaimed novel by Sebastien Japrisot. The film is set in France near the end of World War I in the deadly trenches of the Somme, in the gilded Parisian halls of power, and in the modest home of an indomitable provincial girl. It tells the story of this young woman's relentless, moving and sometimes comic search for her fiance, who has disappeared. He is one of five French soldiers believed to have been court-martialed under mysterious circumstances and pushed out of an allied trench into an almost-certain death in no-man's land. What follows is an investigation into the arbitrary nature of secrecy, the absurdity of war, and the enduring passion, intuition and tenacity of the human heart. "This ravishing, archetypal romance has such vitality and incandescent charm that it all comes together beautifully, without ever degenerating into kitsch." -- Timothy Knight, REEL.COM "A Very Long Engagement works on its own terms, as a showcase for Tautou and as a reminder of the kind of beauty that movies, at their best, can show us." -- Moira MacDonald, SEATTLE TIMES

Closer

Closer (98 min, Rated R)

Nominated for 5 Golden Globes
Based on the play by Patrick Marber, CLOSER is an intriguing story of passion, drama, love and abandonment involving two couples in London. Alice (Natalie Portman) and Dan (Jude Law) are strangers drawn together by a car accident. Anna (Julia Roberts) and Larry (Clive Owen) are a middle-class couple whose lives are turned upside down when Anna meets Dan. "It's a pleasure to see material this intelligent, a cast this inspired -- and Nichols in his Carnal Knowledge prime, operating with cold, silky expertise." -- Michael Wilmington, CHICAGO TRIBUNE "An intelligently written, well-acted, and thoughtful film about adult relationships." -- Pete Vonder Haar, FILM THREAT

Tarnation

Tarnation (88 min, Unrated)
Faced with the haunting remnants of his past, including a family legacy of mental illness, Jonathan Caouette returns to his native Texas to aid in his mother's recovery from a lithium overdose. Caouette has been documenting his life since he was eleven years old, and in TARNATION we watch him grow up on camera, seeking escape from family trauma through musical theater, grade-B horror flicks and the forging of his identity through popular culture. He weaves a psychedelic whirlwind of snapshots, Super-8 home movies, answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, snippets of 80s pop culture and dramatic reenactments to create an epic portrait of an American family torn apart by dysfunction and reunited through the power of love. "As raw and personal as a movie can be, the equivalent of a cinematic journal or diary. But it's also artfully constructed and articulated, written, edited and musically designed with often jolting brilliance." -- Michael Wilmington, CHICAGO TRIBUNE "Caouette has taken the broken pieces of two lives and slowly, painstakingly, pasted them together -- and created one superb work of art." -- Stephen Whitty, NEWARK STAR-LEDGER

Sideways

A wine tasting road trip to salute Jack's (Thomas Haden Church) final days as a bachelor careens woefully sideways as he and Miles (Paul Giamatti) hit the gas en route to mid-life crises. The comically mismatched pair, who share little more than their history and a heady blend of failed potential and fading youth, soon find themselves drowning in wine and women (Sandra Oh and Virginia Madsen). Emerging from a haze of pinot noir, wistful yearnings and trepidation about the future, the two inevitably collide with reality. SIDEWAYS was directed by Alexander Payne (ABOUT SCHMIDT) who teamed with his longtime screenwriting partner Jim Taylor to adapt Rex Pickett's novel of the same name. "If film critics employed a 0 to 100 rating scale such as some wine critics do, then SIDEWAYS would rate about a 98." -- Kirk Honeycutt, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER "It's a joy to watch comedy unfold so naturally, the laughs gently teased out from our growing knowledge of the characters, their imperfections, doubts and, yes, emotional pain." -- Megan Lehmann, NEW YORK POST

The Machinist

Trevor Reznik, portrayed by a physically transformed Christian Bale, has been suffering from insomnia for a year. His nerves are frayed and his body is so gaunt he is accused of starting to disappear. After meeting a new worker at the machine shop where he works, Trevor makes an unforgivable mistake that results in a gruesome, career-ending accident for another co-worker. Ostracized by his fellow workers and eaten away by a devastating guilt, Trevor becomes increasingly paranoid that someone will try to exact revenge for his error. No one is exempt from Trevor's suspicion. When the only two people Trevor trusts begin to threaten him, Trevor finds himself alone, hunted, without options. He loses his job, and all hope of love. It seems there is no way out of his spiraling descent until he uncovers a hint that is perhaps the key to what is happening to him. It lies not among the suspects he has been investigating, but is buried in his disquieted psyche. "Anderson tightens the screws of suspense, but it's Bale's gripping, beyond-the-call-of-duty performance that holds you in thrall." -- Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE "The Machinist manages to forge something fresh and unique while clearly showcasing some affection for the film noirs and the twilight zones that came before." -- Scott Weinberg, EFILMCRITIC.COM

Kinsey

Academy Award.-winning writer-director Bill Condon (GODS AND MONSTERS) turns the microscope on Alfred Kinsey in a drama that is at once a portrait of a man driven to uncover the most private secrets of the nation, and a journey into the mystery of human behavior. Liam Neeson stars as Kinsey, who in 1948 irrevocably changed American culture and created a media sensation with his book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Asking thousands of people about the most intimate aspects of their lives, Kinsey lifted the weight of doubt and shame from a society in which sex was hidden, and knowledge was dangerous. His work sparked one of the most intense cultural debates of the past century - a debate that rages on today. "The strength of Kinsey is finally in the clarity it brings to its title character. It is fascinating to meet a complete original, a person of intelligence and extremes." -- Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES "Neeson pulls off something of a miracle here, creating a flesh-and-blood character who is innocent and obsessive, decent and selfish, committed to expanding the boundaries of knowledge but sadly lacking emotional wisdom." -- Colin Covert, MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

Directions to The Grand Cinema, Tacoma WA

The Grand Cinema is located in the Merlino Arts Building, 606 South Fawcett Avenue, Tacoma, WA 98402, near the corner of Sixth Avenue and South Fawcett Avenue.

Parking is free in the Grand Cinema parking lot after 5 pm.

Telephone: 253-593-4474

The Grand Cinema, Tacoma WA

Map to The Grand Cinema in Tacoma WA

Map to The Grand Cinema Tacoma WA