Cate Blanchett plays Annie Wilson, a widow from rural Georgia who has the gift of second sight. She supports her three sons by doing readings with cards, so she hears a lot of problems and secrets. Her clients include Valerie Barksdale (Hilary Swank), a battered wife and Buddy Cole (Giovanni Ribisi), a troubled garage mechanic.

The local belle, Jessica King (Katie Holmes), disappears, and her father, her fiancé, and the police come to Annie to ask if she can help them find her. Annie sees nothing at first, but later she is able to lead them to a pond on the property of Valerie’s abusive husband, Donnie (Keanu Reeves). Annie’s testimony helps to convict Donnie, but then she begins to get visions that lead her to believe that Donnie was not the killer.

Director Sam Raimi is a master of horror and suspense. He knows how to make the bayou trees hang down ominously and the heavy mist and mournful violins prickle the hairs on the back of your neck. This is one of those movies where someone hears a funny noise inside the house and goes in to investigate, where someone agrees to go to a deserted pond on a rainy night, where a child asks, “Is everything going to be all right now?” and is reassured that it is, despite the fact that there is still about half an hour to go in the movie and it’s pretty clear that it isn’t going to be spent showing how relieved and happy everyone is to have it all over.

The plot is a little predictable, but first-class atmosphere and performances make it a superior entry in the horror genre. Cate Blanchett is quietly moving and completely convincing as a woman who is at times more at home with her second sight than with her first. Giovanni Ribisi gives great depth and humanity to the part of the troubled mechanic who sees Annie as his only friend. Keanu Reeves struggles to appear menacing, but manages to do better when he has to testify in the murder case. Katie Holmes shows her ability to create a complete character with the toss of her hair as the glossy Veronica to Annie’s Betty.

Parents should know that the movie is very scary, with a lot of tense moments, characters in peril, jump-out-at-you surprises and fake-out twists and turns. There is a nude dead body, a battered wife, an an inexplicit scene of characters having sex, and a reference to child sexual abuse. A character is doused with gasoline and then lit. The movie has very strong language, including a racist and anti-Semitic comment.

Families who see the movie should talk about why people go to see Annie. It seems that they care more about being listened to and heard than about hearing what she has to say. Why are Valerie and Buddy unable to help themselves? What are their options? Annie faces a moral dilemma when she realizes that Donnie is not the murderer. How does she handle it? Should she have warned Jessica about what she saw with her ESP? Should she have warned Wayne about what she saw at the country club? Annie tells others that they should face up to their problems, yet she has a hard time talking to her children about her late husband. How does that change?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy “The Sixth Sense” and “Don’t Look Now.”

I really tried to go with this attempt at a creepy thriller, but found it impossible to be either creeped or thrilled.

Richard Gere stars as John Klein, a star Washington Post political reporter who thinks his life is going just right when, following a car accident, he finds out that his wife (radiant Debra Messing) has a rare brain tumor. After her death, he sees some odd, angel-like drawings that she made in the hospital.

Two years later, he suddenly finds himself in the midst of all kinds of nutty stuff, mostly in a small town in West Virginia on the Ohio River. For one thing, he ends up in the town even though it was 400 miles from where he was driving and there is no way he could have covered that much road in 90 minutes. For another, when his car fails and he goes to a nearby house to ask for help, the man in the house (Will Patton) holds him at gunpoint, saying that John has been there three nights in a row.

A skeptical policewoman named Connie (Laura Linney) tells John of the odd happennings in town, including sightings of a winged creature with red eyes who looks sort of like the drawings John’s wife did. So John tells the Post he is working on a story and settles in at the local hotel to investigate.

After that, it is all spooky noises and creepy camera angles. Director Mark Pellington, whose “Arlington Road” had the scariest conclusion of any movie released in the 1990’s, knows how to handle suspense and when to throw in some “boo!”-ish surprises. But the happenings themselves are so un-compelling that it hardly seems worthwhile. Maybe it is because they decided to be true to whatever really happened (though they had no problem moving the time of the story up more than 30 years to take placein the present). But even the Mothman at his most ominous just didn’t seem that scary to me. The spookiest thing he does is call John on the phone and tell him that he hid his watch in his shoe and he misses his wife. And the best officer Connie can do when all this happens is wail, “I hate this!”

Another problem is the way that, after all that business with having voiceprints done on the Mothman’s recordings and having the sightings substantiated by many different people, the movie hedges its bets at the end by telling us that it all might be a post-traumatic manifestation of John’s grief over losing his wife or guilt over thinking about letting her go so that he can move on. It’s possible that both are true — that it was the grief that made John available to otherworldly messages and that he decides to walk away from it. But that still leaves us with a big “so what?”

Parents should know that, though it is not very graphic or gory, the movie is a psychological thriller that may be deeply upsetting to some people. There is a car crash and a tragic accident with many deaths. Another death could be suicide. There is a brief non-graphic sexual situation, and brief strong language.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy The Sixth Sense, Poltergeist, and Flatliners. And they might like to keep an eye out for a documentary about the strange happenings in Point Pleasant, Special Investigations: Mothman.

Most of E.B. White’s elegant language is missing and the animation is nowhere near the Disney level, but the new animated version of “Trumpet of the Swan” (G, some tension and peril) is still a very good family movie with much to enjoy and talk about.

As the movie begins, proud and loving trumpeter swans Father (Jason Alexander) and Mother (Mary Steenburgen) are awaiting the hatching of their new children. The young cygnets are all they dreamed of, except for Louie (Dee Baker), who is mute. This creates two problems. Louie cannot express his feelings without words, and he cannot attract a mate without the ability to make the trumpeting sound that gives this breed of swans their name.

Louie tries to solve the first problem with the help of a human friend named Sam, who takes him to school so that his teacher, Mrs. Hammerbottom (Carol Burnett) can teach him to read and write. Father tries to solve the second problem by stealing a trumpet from a musical instrument store. Even though Father knows it is wrong to take something without paying for it, he feels that he must do it to help his son.

Louie’s skill at reading and writing does not do him any good with the swans, who cannot understand him, but he does find a sweet girl swan named Serena who understands him without words. But he cannot settle down with Serena until he puts his father’s heart at rest by finding a way to pay for the trumpet. After many adventures, Louie and Serena are able to live happily ever after.

Families who see this movie should talk about the importance of finding a way to communicate and the value of people who can understand us. They will also want to talk about the conflict faced by Father, who wanted so desperately to help his son that he was willing to risk his life and do something he knew was wrong.

Families who enjoy this movie should read the wonderful book, along White’s other classics, “Charlotte’s Web” and “Stuart Little.” They will enjoy the movie versions of those stories as well.

There is an inherent hypocricy in any satire about our fascination with violence. Invariably, it tries for the best of both worlds, giving us a lot of violence and allowing us to assume moral superiority through ironic distance. Like the tabloid television show it features, “15 Minutes” gets to decry the depiction of violence by showing us examples of what it decries. This movie, its title a reference to Andy Warhol’s statement that in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes, pits a cop who’s been on the cover of People Magazine against two killers from Eastern Europe who have figured out that in America “no one is responsible for what they do.”

Emil Slovak (Karel Roden) and Oleg Razgul (Oleg Takarov) arrive in the United States from Eastern Europe with two goals. Slovak, just out of prison, wants to get his share of some stolen money. Razgul wants to find the America of the movies, especially the movies of his favorite director, Frank Capra. When they catch up with their old friend, it turns out the money is gone. Slovak kills the friend and his wife, while Razgul films it all with a stolen video camera. They set the apartment on fire, but a witness escapes.

Robert De Niro plays Eddie Flemming, a detective who appears frequently on a “Hard Copy”-style tabloid TV news program hosted by Robert Hawkins (Kelsey Grammer). He is in love with another television reporter who covers crime in New York (“Providence’s” Melina Kanakaredes). The uneasiness of their relationship stems in part from the tension between journalist and source and in part from his shyness in trying to propose to her — in Greek.

Flemming teams up with a young fire inspector named Jordy Warsaw (Edward Burns) when a fire turns out to be arson intended to disguise the two brutal murders. Warsaw’s commanding officer urges him to grab a little of Flemming’s spotlight: “The better you look, the more money I get to pay you guys overtime.” But Flemming warns that “this stuff hurts as much as it helps — probably makes them nervous downtown.” It does help. An elegant madam (Charlize Theron in an unbilled appearance) turns from wary to warm when Flemming comes by to talk to her, even gushing “what an honor!” But Flemming’s visibility makes him a target for two killers who want to get on television.

Slovak is mesmerized by American talk shows, looking up “self-esteem” in his Czech dictionary. He concludes that if they can get their crimes on television and explain that it was all because of their abuse as children, “not only will Americans believe me; they will cry for me.” Slovak and Razgul sell footage of one of their most shocking crimes to Hawkins, who piously insists that it is his obligation as a journalist to broadcast it.

Top-notch performances from all, especially Roden and Takarov in their first American roles, and some powerful cinematography and editing give this film a lot of energy. And it makes some clever points about the way we see fame and responsibility.

Parents should know that the movie is exceptionally violent, with graphic murders, including the death of a character we care about. Interestingly, the most upsetting crime is broadcast to a television audience but not shown onscreen. The movie has strong language and sexual references, including prostitution. Characters drink, smoke, and steal.

Families who see this movie should talk about how we determine who is responsible for violence and whether our society creates perverse incentives for those seeking their 15 minutes of fame. They should talk about what it is like to be famous, what is good about it and what is not so good.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy “Heat.”

The classic English comedy written in 1967 by Peter Cook and starring Cook and Dudley Moore has been Americanized. In other words, it has less deadpan humor, sly wit, and existential comedy and more jokes about penis size. But it is still delicious fun and one of the best comedies of the year. It may not leave you bedazzled, but it will leave you happy.

Brendan Fraser is one of the most versatile actors around, which makes him a perfect choice for the role of Elliot, a nerdy guy who longs for the beautiful Allison. But after four years working in the same firm, he has managed to speak to her only once, and that was about the weather. When he whispers that he would give anything to have her, that is all the invitation that the devil (Elizabeth Hurley) needs to make him an offer he can’t refuse — seven wishes in exchange for his soul.

But as anyone who has ever read a fairy tale knows, wishes are a tricky business. Elliot wishes to be rich, powerful, and married to Allison. He is instantly all three — and a Colombian drug lord. And Allison hates him. Elliot stumbles his way through his wishes, each time adding in what he left out before only to find that he has created yet another loophole. He may be rich, smart, popular, sensitive, and well-endowed, but somehow it never works out the way he hoped.

Fraser is wonderful, almost unrecognizable as he moves from sensitive poet to basketball superstar. Hurley may not be up to the acting challenge, but she looks like a million bucks in a series of hilarous get-ups, and she has that most important attribute of a movie bad guy — an English accent. The rest of the cast does not have much to do beyond wardrobe switches as they play different roles in each scenario, but Frances O’Connor (Allison) has a great smile and Orlando Jones (of “The Replacements” and the 7-Up commercials) has a couple of good moments. Gabriel Casseus makes a strong impression as someone who gives Elliot some good advice.

Parents should know that the PG-13 rating comes from some relatively mild language, sexual humor (including references to homosexuality), comic peril, and comic drug use.

Families who watch this movie should talk about what wishes they would like to make, whether they would make them if they had a chance, and what the Devil means when she says that you don’t have to look very far for Heaven and Hell. Ask kids what they think a soul is, and whether it can be sold. What did Elliot learn from his mistakes? Why was it so hard for him to be likeable and to see how others perceived him at the beginning of the movie? How was he different after the wishes? Was the ending what they expected?

Families who enjoy this movie should see the original version (notice the names of the Devil’s dogs in the new version). They may also enjoy other “sell your soul to the devil” movies like “The Devil and Daniel Webster” and “Alias Nick Beal.”