Movie Guide

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Directors: David Bowers and Sam Fell. With Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet. (86 min.)

This computer-animated feature is consistently inventive, if a bit busy and overlong. Set mostly beneath the streets of London, it's about Roddy St. James (Hugh Jackman), a dapper pet mouse residing in a posh home who gets flushed into the world below. There he meets a street-smart rat, Rita (Kate Winslet) and the big bad Toad (a standout Ian McKellen). The movie is both child-friendly and, in its frequent jokes and topical references, adult-friendly, too. What it lacks is the heart to make it really stick in the imagination. Grade: B+
– Peter Rainer

Sex/Nudity: 3 mild instances of innuendo. Violence: 13 scenes of cartoonish violence. Profanity: None. Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco: 1 scene with drinking.

Director: Paul Morrison. With Delroy Lindo, Sam Smith. (106 min.)

This well-meaning, but conventional, coming-of-age drama is set in a South London neighborhood in the '60s. David Wiseman (Sam Smith) is the 11-year-old son of Polish and German Jewish immigrants and has a passion for cricket not matched by his abilities. When a Jamaican family moves next door, the father, Dennis Samuels (Delroy Lindo) erects a cricket net in his backyard, to David's immense delight. Racial tensions escalate. As a portrait of a boy coming to terms with the racism that is all around him, "Wondrous Oblivion" is hampered by Smith's wide-eyed performance. But Lindo gives a powerhouse performance of immense feeling and subtlety. Grade: B
– P.R.

Director: Martin Scorsese. With Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg. (152 min.)

"The Departed" is about both crooks and cops – though some of the cops are, technically, crooks. The setting is Boston rather than New York. What really links the police and the perps is their almost Joycean love of language. One could argue that "The Departed" is not much of a stretch for Scorsese. But why complain when you're having so much fun? Grade: A
– P.R.

Director: Christopher Nolan. With Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson. (128 min.)

After the surprise success of "The Illusionist," "The Prestige," about dueling magicians in 19th-century England, may not seem like such a commercial long shot. I wasn't nuts about "The Illusionist," but was reasonably entertained. I'm also not crazy about plot-heavy "Prestige," but it has its moments, too. Jackman and Bale play the rivals, Johansson is the magician's assistant who shuttles between them, and Michael Caine, the best in the bunch, plays their mentor. Nolan, fresh from his pitch-black Batman, once again goes heavy on the chiaroscuro. Grade: B
– P.R.