The Hours author Michael Cunningham has adapted his earlier novel for the screen and the result is admirable, respectable, but not completely successful. The book is the internal musings of the four main characters. What made it work was the beauty of Cunningham’s language. It is touching and illuminating, and even poetic, but that does not make a movie.

What’s left to put on film is the outlines of the story. Despite performances of great delicacy and insight it dissolves into soapiness without the lyrical and meditative prose to provide context and texture.

Bobby is a boy who loses his whole family. The older brother he adored is killed in an accident. His mother and father are so shattered that they become emotionally remote and both die before he graduates from high school.

Bobby meets Jonathan, the only child of Ned (Matt Frewer) and Alice (Sissy Spacek). They become close friends, sharing music, drugs, and some fumbling sexual encounters. Bobby is taken in by Jonathan’s family after his father dies, and years later, after Jonathan has gone to college and stayed on in New York, Bobby (now played by Colin Farrell) is still living with Ned and Alice. When they move to Arizona, Bobby goes to New York to stay with Jonathan (Dallas Roberts) and his roommate, Claire (Robin Wright Penn).

Jonathan is gay. He and Claire have one of those hip, funky Manhattan, Will and Grace, can’t-live-without-him-but-can’t-have-sex-with-him-even-though I’m-dying-to-have-a-baby, perfect friendships. Bobby is sweet, innocent, and open-hearted. Jonathan and Claire, who have none of those qualities, are surprised when he finds a way to fit in with them, possibly even to complete them. Claire seduces Bobby. Jonathan, who still loves Bobby, feels left out. When Claire becomes pregnant they decide to invent a new kind of family for themselves in a big old house in the country, a home at the end of the world.

Instead of holding it together, the grounding provided by top-notch performances makes the story seem episodic and superficial by contrast and some of the cinematic touches are heavy-handed. Farrell struggles with the double handicaps of having to play a character who is a bit of a blank and doing so in a truly atrocious wig, but he manages to capture Bobby’s simplicity without making him seem simple-minded. But Roberts especially is revelatory. Just the way he enters a room or holds his head shows tremendous sensitivity and insight and his every glance is filled with delicate eloquence. First-time director Michael Mayer may put too much faith in the ability of some overused and slightly cheesy music to make his points, but Roberts gets us as close as possible to the depth of understanding in Cunningham’s novel.

Parents should know that the movie has extremely mature material. Characters drink, smoke cigarettes and marijuana, and take LSD, including a teenager who gives his young brother LSD and a mother who smokes marijuana with her son. A character is killed in an accident and other characters die offscreen. Characters use extremely strong language and there are explicit and graphic sexual references and situations, both heterosexual and homosexual. There are tense and sad scenes.

Families who see this movie should compare the families we are born into to the families we create for ourselves. Why does Bobby say that “we are all beautiful and lonely here?” People in this movie have a hard time knowing who they are. Claire says, “What if I’m not this unusual?” Jonathan offers to switch places in his family with Bobby. Claire tells Bobby that he doesn’t look like himself and might be living someone else’s life. What do they need to know to feel “like themselves?” How do we respond to a “big, beautiful, messy world?”

Families who appreciate this movie should read the book. They will also appreciate The Object of My Affection.

There are two kinds of people in the world, the people who know the 1960’s British television show “Thunderbirds” well enough to hum the theme song and those who say “who?”

The show was enormously popular with children and something of a guilty camp pleasure for older fans, who could not resist the combination of low-tech marionettes with wobbly heads and static expressions playing the very high-tech heroes of International Rescue, ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy (played by Bill Paxton in the film) and his five sons, whose names were inspired by the first five Americans in space: Alan, Virgil, Scott, John, and Gordon.

The Tracys live on a secret island in the South Pacific in a spectacular house filled with gadgets to help monitor the globe and operate their rescue equipment — submarine, plane, rocket ship, space station, and pod vehicles. Super-geek Brains (Anthony Edwards) keeps all the technology running smoothly, so that whenever anyone in the world is in need of rescue, Jeff Tracy calls out “Thunderbirds are GO!” and those folks in peril are on their way to sleeping safe and sound in their own beds.

This live-action update directed by Star Trek’s Jonathan Frakes owes more to Spy Kids and Agent Cody Banks than to the original television series. They’ve made the youngest son a teenager (Brady Corbett as Alan), added the children of Brains (Soren Fulton as Fermat) and loyal aide de camp Kyrano (Vanessa Anne Hudgens as Tintin) and put them at the center of the story.

Just after Alan and best friend Fermat return from boarding school to the secret hideaway in the South Pacific, his father and brothers are lured away by the evil Hood (Ben Kingsley). He plans to use the rescue equipment to rob the world’s biggest banks, bringing down the global economy and framing Jeff Tracy as the thief. The Tracy everyone thought was too young to go on missions has to work with his friends to rescue the rescuers.

Corbett, last seen as the younger brother in thirteen is an attractive and appealing hero and the kids have a nice natural chemistry together. Kingsley is clearly enjoying himself as The Hood (though that eyeshadow is a serious mistake), but the highlight of the movie is the delicious Sophia Myles as Lady Penelope, the most adorable combination of coutoure and kickboxing since The Avenger‘s Emma Peel. Lady Penelope is always game to trounce the bad guys while tossing off quips and maintaining her exquisite coiffure, as Parker, her chauffeur/lock-picking expert/sidekick, maintains her fleet of remarkable pink vehicles and helps out whenever needed.

The action sequences are exciting without being too scary. Kids will enjoy seeing the bad guys sprayed with Nickelodeon-style green slime and the way that Fermat uses Alan’s retainer to save the day at a crucial moment. The equipment is also very cool, especially Lady Penelope’s very chic pink car/plane and Alan’s hovercraft. The film drags a bit when the kids are chasing the bad guys all over the island while we are impatient for them to just get on the darn plane, but overall, these Thunderbirds are GO!

Parents should know that the movie has a couple of mild swear words (and implied bad words), brief crude humor, and the use of wire from a bra to aid in an escape. There are some boy-girl references and a comment that a young girl is “blossoming.” The characters are in frequent peril and there are a number of fight scenes, but it is not overly intense, there is no gunplay, and no one gets badly hurt, though someone gets kicked in the crotch. A strength of the movie is the portrayal of diverse characters as both bad and good guys, including characters with a speech impediment.

Families who see this movie should talk about how kids can sometimes feel that their parents do not realize that they are ready to grow up and the importance of listening carefully. Why does Alan insult his best friend, and what does he learn from that? They may want to talk about the feeling of learning that your parents are not perfect and understanding the strengths and weakenesses of those around us — and ourselves. What does it mean to “use your opponent’s strength against him?”

Families who enjoy this movie will enjoy learning more about the television series. This site has online clips and information about ordering the series on DVD. They might like to look up the inspiration for Fermat’s name, mathematician Pierre de Fermat, whose theorum has kept people guessing for hundreds of years. “General Hospital” fans may recognize the television news correspondent as Genie Francis, who played Laura for many years. Serious Trekkers will recognize her as the real-life wife of director Frakes.

Families who enjoy this movie will enjoy Spy Kids and the sequel, but don’t waste time on the third in the series. They may also enjoy Clockstoppers.

“Catwoman” is kitty litter.

Awkward and clumsy as a cat in high heels, this version of the comic book character Catwoman does not have enough to sustain one life, much less nine.

Written in the comic books as Batman’s female foil, Catwoman is a creature of the night, living on the edge as an accomplished burglar, sometime do-gooder and occasional animal rights protector, given to wearing a rather remarkable bodysuit and carrying a whip. She is elegant, confident, strong and every so often vulnerably naive when it comes to getting her claws into those pretty, shiny baubles.

In this version, the skyline is devoid of costumed crusaders and Patience Philips (Halle Berry) is a sweet and frumpy artist working as an advertising designer but lacking the confidence to stand out from the wallpaper. Despite clear evidence that her employers, the Hedares, are balmy in that oozing evil way, life for Patience at the cosmetics company is about finding a little square of calm, which with the help of her admiring friends, she seems to do just fine.

Of course, all that changes when Patience discovers that the Hedare’s new facial cream, Beau-line, is an addictive drug with skin-warping damage for any who would try to break the habit. Clearly, Patience must be gotten rid of, but little do the Hedare henchmen know that when they kill her they are only awakening a vengeful, fish-eating leather fetishist who really knows how to apply make-up and fight in stilleto heels. There’s something hypocritical at best and absurd at worst to pretend to be about empowerment and freeing women from the need to conform to narrow standards of youth and beauty when the movie’s heroine looks like Catwoman Barbie at a goth B&D rally.

The plot is thin enough to demand a love-interest and the likeable cop, Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt in another lawman-as-arm-candy role),is the first to develop feelings for the daytime kitty, Patience, and an allergy to her nightly alter-ego, Catwoman. Patience’s guide to her new life is the cat lover, Ophelia (Frances Conroy, in a very believable foray out of her “Six Feet Under” mortuary), who introduces her to both catnip and the hefty history of her new identity. It turns out that all women have two sides and, since Ancient Egypt, for certain special females getting in touch with their inner feline allows them to un-cage a panther.

One of the largest hairballs that choke this movie is the complete inability of Laurel Hedare (Sharon Stone, playing a botoxed megalomaniac with lethargic grace) to be suitably over-the-top enough to make the final catfight memorable. There are rules to costume crusader stories and one of them is that the bad guys have to be just as fantastic in their own way as their counterparts, even when they are fighting morally ambiguous, prowling kitties like Catwoman. Berry herself has no grasp of the character at all. Her Catwoman is all lipstick and hissing and she seems to confuse a cat walk with a catwalk, prancing in heels as though she is an unusually busty runway model in next year’s dominatrix fashion show. The script and editing have an unfinished, even inept feel. Special effects wizard-turned-director Pitof (just one name) is better at creating a mood than telling a story, but not good enough at either.

Maybe if the next movie is Catwoman versus 101 Dalmatians villainess Cruella de Ville, that might change the tiger’s stripes, but until then save your purrs and paws for the comic books.

Parents should know that despite the lack of profanity and nudity, Catwoman will scare younger viewers with its dark feel, peril and adult themes. There is a pervasive sensuality to all scenes featuring Catwoman and there is a scene of implied sex as well as references to adultery. Several characters die and there are numerous scenes of peril, including a child trapped on a broken ferris wheel. Anyone who has seen the ads featuring the very suggestive leather suit and whip that that the protagonist wears will be aware of the “fantasy” element of Catwoman’s character.

Families who see this film should talk about the twin-nature theme that runs throughout the movie. Why might many comic book characters, including Catwoman, have such strong dichotomous characters? What does this mean about their ability to express their “true selves” in their ordinary lives? Ophelia discusses seemingly contradictory traits that she describes as female, yet she herself does not seem to wear a mask. How might Ophelia and other characters express themselves fully without splitting their personalities so dramatically? Why did they pick the name “Ophelia,” associated with Hamlet’s tragic love?

For those families who enjoyed this movie, there is a rich assortment of DC Comic superheroes who have graced the big screen from the popcorn pleasure of Michael Keaton’s Batman and Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman in Batman Returns, to the slightly dated but enjoyable Superman: The Movie. From Bob Kane’s original conception of Selina Kyle, who each night donned a mask and become the female cat burglar, Catwoman, in the early 1940’s, to her current incarnation as the plain Jane who traded the purple-black dresses of yore for weapons and a body-suit, Catwoman remains a staple of the comic book racks. Most of the stories in the past focused on the love/hate relationship between Batman and Catwoman, however, more recently Catwoman has been succeeding on her own. Families who enjoy the movie might want to look for some of the original collections from the 1940’s available in trade paperback to see how the character has and has not changed.

This is a smooth thriller for grown-ups. That means it has lots of chase scenes and action scenes but the mood is dark, even grim. The dialogue is smart but not smart-alecky. No one wears a dinner jacket and there are no nuclear scientists trapped in the body of a swimsuit model.

Instead of flashy fights where one dazzling kick to the throat knocks the bad guy out for good, the battles are messy and breathless and brutal. The chase scenes are like extreme bumper cars. And the primary pleasure is not some big save-the-world triumph, just the fun of seeing smart people outsmarted.

In the first episode, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is rescued from the ocean, shot but still alive. He can remember how to speak in many languages and how to kill someone a dozen different ways but he does not remember who he is. He does not remember who is after him. Or why.

The last movie lift him with a girl he loved and what seemed like a lifetime guarantee of being left alone on the beach to try to recover the rest of his lost memories and make some new and better ones. But happily ever after doesn’t make for a good sequel, so as this movie opens, someone is after him again. The CIA believes he was behind a recent assassination of two agents. CIA big shots Pamela Landry (Joan Allen), who is new to the mysterious Treadstone operation and Ward Abbott (Brian Cox), who knows more than he wants to tell, work together to try to track him down, though perhaps they have different purposes and goals.

Bourne still remembers very little of what went on before he was fished out of the water. But now finding out is a matter of life or death.

Allen strides around in long, cool, black Matrix-style coats and Damon is nicely inexorable and relentless. Julia Stiles adds punch as Bourne’s former liaison to the Agency. She explains how the Treadstone operatives worked: “They don’t make mistakes. They don’t do random.” When asked who is assigning Bourne’s targets, she says, “Scary version? He is.” Damon doesn’t get to do much acting but delivers a servicable performance in what is a servicable movie. Like its title character, it does the job. And the last exchange of dialogue tops it all off nicely.

Parents should know that the movie has themes of betrayal and intense and graphic violence, including bloody injuries. Characters are killed and one commits suicide. Characters drink and a character gets drunk in response to stress. There is some strong language and some intrusive product placement.

Families who see this movie should talk about why Bourne wanted to see Irena. Abbott says that “Conklin had these guys wound so tight they had to bust.” What are the risks of training an operative like Bourne? Of not having one?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy the original The Bourne Identity and other spy thrillers like Three Days of the Condor and The Parallax View and the superb PBS miniseries Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

This sleek and supple thriller features powerhouse performances but never quite persuades us that it has anything to add to the cold war classic starring Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury.

As in the first film, the focus is on soldier Ben Marco (Denzel Washington in the Frank Sinatra role), whose nightmares about his time in combat (now the Persian Gulf war) are beginning to seem more real to him than what he thought of as his memories.

Marco knows the story of the incident that got him his medal. Everyone knows the story. Everyone who was there even uses the same words to tell the story and especially to describe Raymond Shaw (Liev Shreiber in the Laurence Harvey role), the soldier who got the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery in fighting the enemy while Marco was incapacitated. Marco meets up with a member of the platoon who is badly damaged. Is it post-traumatic stress, Gulf War syndrome, or is it his brain fighting back from something it has been programmed to believe? “I remember it perfectly,” he says, “I just don’t remember doing it.” Or, “as if I know what will happen but never actually get to the point where it does happen.”

Meanwhile, Shaw is struggling as well. The recognition he got as a war hero helped him be elected to Congress and he is now a contender for the vice-presidential candidacy of one of the major parties (not named). His mother Eleanor (Meryl Streep in the Angela Lansbury role), a Senator, is pushing him very hard. He resents it, but cannot seem to resist. No one can resist her. In one short meeting, brilliantly acted by Streep, the Senator purrs, seduces, and finally brutalizes a group of politicos into abandoning their choice for the VP spot, Senator Thomas Jordan (Jon Voight) and taking Raymond instead.

But Marco is increasingly troubled. Shaw is at first glad to see him again, then sympathetic, then skeptical. What Marco is suggesting seems absurd, impossible. But in his heart, Shaw knows that it might explain everything.

Demme ably creates a believably creepy atmosphere and there are some great visual effects, especially Shaw’s hotel room, which includes an infinitely refractive illusion in a picture that hangs over the bed. Streep is mesmerizing. But some of it gets overheated, especially a mad scientist who of course has an English accent and is scrupulously polite and a murder assignment that makes no sense as a matter of logistics. And the big reveal about the bad guys does not have the same punch of the original; it is not as successful at tapping into the fears of the moment.

Parents should know that the movie is a thriller with intense and graphic violence including many murders (gunshot, strangling, drowning) and injuries. Characters drink, smoke, and use drugs. There is some very strong language. A mother-son kiss is briefly played for a mild indicator of emotional incest. A strength of the movie is its portrayal of strong, intelligent, loyal, and capable women and minorities.

Families who see this movie should compare it to the original and talk about how each was a reflection of its times. Marco says, “I thought I knew who the enemy was.” Who was the enemy? What does the choice of bad guy tell us? Is an “emotionally compromised past” a “terrible burden” from which someone must be freed?

Families who see this movie will enjoy seeing the original The Manchurian Candidate as well as paranoia classics Three Days of the Condor, Conspiracy Theory, and The Parallax View.