Here is the good news: Britney Spears is a better actress than Mariah Carey. Here is the bad news: the movie is not very good. Here is the worse news: it is not appropriate for the girls who should have been its prime target, Britney fans ages 8-14. Instead, the movie has subject matter that is too mature for that age group, but treats those subjects without any of the originality, maturity, or genuine understanding that would hold the attention of older teens or adults. Its biggest fault is not having a clear idea of its audience.

Britney plays Lucy, who finds herself feeling empty as she prepares for her high school graduation. She has achieved all of her father’s dreams for her, graduating as valedictorian and preparing to enroll in a rigorous pre-med program. And she is about to fulfill someone else’s dream, too — she has agreed to have sex with her lab partner so that they can go to college and not be ostracized as virgins.

She can’t go through with it, though, because it isn’t special enough. When her estranged pregnant friend invites her to come along with a guy neither has ever met before and drive to Los Angeles, she impulsively accepts. So does a third estranged friend, the engaged prom queen, who wants to go to LA to see her boyfriend.

So off we go on a road trip, which will give these old friends a chance to remember their connections and have some adventures. Yes, the car breaks down. Yes, they don’t have the money to repair it. Guess what? There’s a karaoke contest! Maybe if they win, they can earn enough money to pay for the repairs! Britney sings the old Joan Jett song, “I Love Rock and Roll” and the crowd throws tomatoes and runs them out of town. Okay, no, just kidding, the crowd goes wild and showers the girls with money.

Everyone learns some important lessons, and the three wishes made by the girls when they were eight and swore to be lifelong friends turn out to be not exactly what they had in mind. But they learn that the friendship was more than they had expected, and that not knowing exactly what their dreams are might make life more interesting.

Parents should know that in addition to one of the girls being pregnant (we learn later, the result of a rape when she was drunk), the girls get drunk (and giggle about who has “touched it”). Lucy has sex with a man, and it is clear that unlike the planned prom night encounter, it is very special. The girls take a very big risk by getting in a car with a man they do not know, who turns out to have a prison record, and setting off with him for California with no plans and no money. They all stay in the same rooms along the way. Some family members may be upset by Lucy’s meeting with the mother who left her when she was three.

Families who see this movie should talk about why it was so difficult for Lucy to talk to her father and why Kit thought that all she wanted was to get married. What do you think the girls will do next? How did Lucy decide that it was the right time for her to become intimate with Ben?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy Britney’s video collection.

This is a ravishing fairy tale/epic, and the best movie of the year.

It is passionately romantic — the story of two sets of star-crossed lovers who face enormous obstacles, within themselves as well as those imposed by the outside world. It is a thrilling adventure saga that includes a magical 400-year-old sword called “Green Destiny,” a warrior who must avenge the murder of his master, a handsome bandit, the spoiled daughter of a high-ranking official who dreams of the freedom to do what she wants, and the bitter villain who wants to destroy them all. It is dazzling, with breathtaking landscapes, gorgeous costumes, and magnificent cello music played by Yo Yo Ma. And it has, unquestionably, the most brilliantly staged fight scenes ever put on film, possibly the best that ever will be put on film.

Director Ang Lee is best known in the United States for indoor dramas about families struggling with their feelings and with societal constructs of reputation and honor: “The Ice Storm” and “Sense and Sensibility.” He has described this movie as “‘Sense and Sensibility’ with kick-boxing,” and that is indeed very apt. As in Jane Austen’s novel and his adaptation, this is the story of two women, one led too much by her heart, one led too much by her head, and of the men they love.

Michele Yeoh plays Yu Shu Lien, who runs a company that provides secure transport for shipments of goods to be sold. She is visited by Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat), who has come to give his famous sword to Sir Te, a mutual friend, for safekeeping. Li has been a warrior-hero, using the Green Destiny sword to fight for justice. He is tired of killing and wants to retire to a life of meditation, but instead of enlightenment he has found “endless sorrow,” and that “something was pulling me back.” He has one unfinished obligation — to avenge the death of his master at the hands of a villain named Jade Fox. And it may be that there was something else pulling him back, his love, never expressed, for Yu.

At the home of Sir Te, Yu meets another guest, the pampered daughter of a governor named Jen Yu (Ziyi Zhang). Jen and Yu each dream of freedom. That night, the sword is stolen. Yu races after the masked thief to get it back. It turns out they have both achieved the highest levels of fighting skills, so advanced that they can actually defeat gravity, levitating effortlessly to float from rooftop to rooftop.

The thief has ties to Jade Fox. And Jen, soon to enter into an arranged marriage, has a secret love, the leader of a pack of desert bandits.

The fight scenes, staged by Yuen Wo-Ping (of “The Matrix”) are balletic masterpieces. Like the dance numbers of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, they are both mesmerizingly graceful and more eloquent than dialogue. Jen takes on an entire restaurant full of attackers just for sport and spite. She twirls softly down from an upper story to the ground floor, just before she annihilates them with a blinding fury of fists and feet. Jen fights Lo (Chen Chang, the bandit leader who stole her comb, with a passion that allows them to open their hearts to each other. She fights Yu, the one person she thinks can understand her, because she is impetuous and proud, and because that is the only release she has in a world of constrictions and restrictions.

The story is told with great subtlety and power, giving it the quality of a myth or a collective dream. Yu reveals the identity of the masked thief by quietly allowing a teacup to slip out of her hands. When one person is able to catch it with a lightning-fast motion before it hits the floor, Yu knows that her suspicion was correct. When Li touches Yu’s hand for the first time, it is a moment of heartbreaking intimacy. The quest for honor and justice could be set in the old West, in ancient Greece, in medieval times, in a 1930’s San Francisco detective story, or in some Luke Skywalker-esque space fantasy. Its themes are enduring because they are inside all of us.

Parents should know that the movie features a lot of martial arts battles. Most are bloodless, but one character is killed when a blade is hurtled into his forehead. Major characters are killed, and one death could be interpreted as suicide. Although the women in the movie are treated with complete equality and are equal to or superior to the men in judgment and combat, one female character expresses bitterness that she was not permitted to train as a warrior. There is brief mild language.

Families who see this movie should talk about how we balance our heads and our hearts to forge lives that are grounded in honor and in love.

Families who see this movie will also enjoy seeing other movies starring Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun Fat, but nothing they have done before comes close to this masterpiece. Families might also like to watch the director’s Sense and Sensibility to decide whether they agree with his assessment of their similarity.

Three close friends get together every week to share their saddest stories about looking for love. The one with the worst story of the week gets the consolation prize of a box of candy. Then, one of them has a good story, and the others are not as happy for her as they thought they would be.

The women are Kate (Andie MacDowell), headmistress of a school; Janine (Imelda Staunton), a police chief; and Molly (Anna Chancellor), a doctor. All three are very successful and capable and involved in the community. They just can’t seem to get the love thing right. And, in this movie, they discover that they as individuals and as a group may be more responsible for that problem than they have been willing to recognize.

While she is attending a funeral, Kate sees a handsome young organist (Kenny Doughty as Jed) who looks familiar. He was once her student, but is now grown up and, whether a reaction to seeing how quickly life is passing or just a need to be close to someone, she impulsively has sex with him. The bigger surprise is that it turns into a relationship of great tenderness for both of them.

Molly and Janine find it disconcerting. Kate’s radiant happiness rattles them. They persuade themselves that they are acting in Kate’s best interest when they try to break up the relationship. But their meddling has unforgivably tragic consequences.

The movie is uneven, partly because of its unconventional choice to make the story about the relationship between the three women rather than about the relationship between Kate and Jed. But its biggest problem is the awkwardly melodramatic interjection of a tragic death followed by a melodramatic pregnancy that threatens to turn it into soap opera.

Parents should know that the movie has very strong language and many sexual references and explicit sexual situations. Characters drink and smoke and behave very foolishly and irresponsibly.

Families who see this movie should talk about how friends who are supportive when things are not going well may become jealous of each other’s happiness, and how important it is to search our own hearts to make sure that we do not make that mistake.

Families who enjoy this movie will enjoy seeing MacDowell and Chancellor in Four Weddings and a Funeral, where, like this movie, they are both in a church when a wedding ceremony is very unceremoniously interrupted. They may also want to watch two other movies about middle-aged women who have romances with younger men, Forty Carats and How Stella Got Her Groove Back.

Plot: Despite the title (insisted on by the studio following the producer’s very successful — and scary — “The Cat People”), this is a gentle story of a lonely and sensitive girl and her “friend,” who may be imaginary or may be the ghost of her father’s first wife. Amy (Ann Carter) is a dreamy kindergartener, not very clear about what is real and what is fantasy, and “a very sensitive and delicately adjusted child,” according to her teacher. Her father Oliver (Kent Smith), still in great pain from his first wife’s tragic death, is very protective, and worries about her “losing herself in a dream world.” When no one shows up for her birthday party, it turns out that Amy “mailed” the invitations in a tree, believing that it was a magic mailbox, as her father had whimsically told her years before. The party goes on with her parents and Edward, their Jamaican houseman. When she blows out the candles, she wishes to be a “good girl like Daddy wants me to be.” The next day, after the other girls refuse to play with her, she finds a spooky old house, where a voice speaks to her and invites her inside. A handkerchief falls from an upstairs window, containing a ring for Amy. She wishes on the ring for a friend, and later says she got her wish, and that her friend sang to her. Amy goes back to the spooky house and meets Julia Farren (Julia Dean), an elderly woman who was once an actress, and who insists that the other woman in the house is not her daughter, but her caretaker. Amy sees a photograph of Irena, her father’s first wife, and recognizes her as her “friend.” Irena promises to stay “as long as you want me” but tells Amy never to tell anyone about her. But when Amy sees a picture of Irena and her father together, she tells him. He spanks her for lying, and Irena tells Amy “now you must send me away.” Amy leaves the house in a snowstorm, looking for Irena. When she knocks on the Farren’s door, Mrs. Farren says she has to hide. Her daughter, bitterly jealous of the affection her mother denies her but lavishes on Amy, has said she will kill Amy if she ever comes back. Mrs. Farren collapses trying to take Amy upstairs. Barbara is furious. But Irena appears, her image flickering over Barbara, and Amy calls out “My friend!” and embraces her. Barbara, softening, hugs her back, as her parents arrive. “Amy, from now on, you and I are going to be friends,” her father tells her, and this time he says that he, too, sees Irena. Discussion: This movie is not for everyone, but children who can identify with Amy will like it, and may be able to talk about themselves in talking about her. Oliver worries that Amy’s dreams will lead to madness, as he believes they did for Irena. Amy just wants someone who will be her friend, and has a hard time connecting to other children. The counterpoint is Mrs. Farren, whose delusion that her child is dead is deeply upsetting to her daughter, in her own way as needy for friendship as Amy is. This movie does a good job of showing how Amy and her parents worry about each other, and that parents make mistakes. Amy blames herself when her parents argue about her, and you may want to make it clear that children are not responsible for family conflicts. Children may be concerned about Mrs. Farren’s delusions, and how upsetting they are for her daughter. They should know that most old people are fine, but that some have an illness that makes them forgetful.

Judith Traherne (Bette Davis) is an impetuous and headstrong heiress who lives life with furious energy. Her life revolves around parties and horses. She sees Dr. Frederick Steele (George Brent) for her headaches and dizzy spells, and he tells her she has a brain tumor. He operates, and she believes she is cured. Her soul is cured as well, because she and the doctor have fallen in love, and for the first time she feels genuine happiness and peace.

She learns that Frederick and her friends have kept the truth from her; her prognosis is negative, and she has very little time left. She breaks the engagement, telling Frederick he only wants to marry her out of pity. At first, she returns to her old life, trying to bury her fears and loneliness in a frenzy of parties. But she is terribly sad, and when Michael, her stableman (Humphrey Bogart) tells her that she should allow herself to see that Frederick really loves her, and take whatever happiness she can, in whatever time she has left, she knows he is right.

She marries Frederick, and has blissful months with him on his farm in Vermont before she dies, having had a lifetime of love and happiness in their time together.

This classic melodrama is also almost an encyclopedia of emotions. At first, Judith is in denial about her illness and about her feelings. She shows displaced anger when she breaks her engagement to Frederick. Most important to discuss with kids, though, is that she makes a classic mistake of confusing pleasure and happiness. The contrast between her frantic efforts to find distraction through parties (“horses, hats, and food”) and fast living, and the peace and joy of her time in Vermont with love and meaningful work (okay, it’s her husband’s meaningful work, but this was the 1930s) is exceptionally well portrayed by Davis and by director Goulding. This is one of the most important emotional distinctions for kids to learn, especially teenagers.

Families who see this movie should talk about questions like these: Why is it so hard for Judith to find happiness, even before she learns she is sick? How can you tell that she does not understand herself very well? Why does she break her engagement with Frederick? What does Michael tell her that makes her change her mind? Why doesn’t she tell Frederick that she is close to the end, sending him away instead?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy “The Big Lie,” another romantic drama with Davis and Brent.