Plot: Francie Nolan (Peggy Ann Garner), an imaginative and sensitive girl, lives with her family in a Brooklyn tenement. She adores her father, Johnny (James Dunn), a dreamer with a drinking problem, and respects but resents her down-to-earth mother, Katie (Dorothy McGuire). The family struggles to rise from poverty. Francie and her brother must each read a page aloud each night from the Bible and Shakespeare, and their parents are intent on their becoming the first family members to graduate from grade school. Francie dreams of going to a better school in a wealthier neighborhood, and her father makes it possible by telling the principal that she is moving in with a fictitious wealthy aunt. A teacher there encourages her to pursue her love of writing. But Katie is pregnant again, and decides that Francie should leave school. When Johnny dies, Francie is devastated. She is angry with her mother, feeling that her mother did not love Johnny enough, and does not love her enough either. But when her mother has the baby, Francie sees that she loves them both, and that Katie hates having to be practical and “hard.” A kind policeman asks permission to court Katie, and Francie knows that their life will be easier, and that her father and what they shared will be with her always.

Discussion: This family has a great deal of love but a lot of difficulty showing it. Although they clearly love each other, Johnny and Katie have too many shattered expectations to accept tenderness from each other, as we see when he comes home with the food from the party and sees her with her hair down, and when she tries to tell him how much she likes hearing him sing “Annie Laurie.”

They have trouble being honest and direct about their circumstances and their feelings. They have to move to a cheaper apartment, but insist — to themselves and to everyone else — that they are doing it to get more sunlight. When Katie decides that she wants her sister back in her life, she sends the message via the insurance collector. When Francie tries raising the subject of the school she wants to attend in a roundabout way, Katie tells her to speak more directly. But Johnny lets her tell him in her own way, and, over Katie’s objections, makes it possible for her dream to come true. Francie has a hard time understanding that Katie loves her and relies on her, until Katie is in labor and almost does not know what she is saying. This is a good opportunity to talk about the ways that families do (and do not) communicate with each other. Older kids may also want to discuss the impact that Johnny’s drinking and unreliability had on Katie and why it was different for Francie.

Questions for Kids:

· What does the title refer to?

· What did Francie’s teacher mean about the difference between imagination and pipe dreams?

· Why did the members of the family have such a hard time talking to each other about what mattered to them?

· Why does the family use the word “sick” to describe Johnny’s alcoholism? Why does Johnny seem so sad when Francie talks with him about being “sick”?

· Why was it so important to Kate that the death certificate be changed?

Connections: James Dunn won an Oscar for his performance. Joan Blondell appeared as a brassy second lead in a number of early musicals, including “Footlight Parade” and “Gold Diggers of 1933.” Peggy Ann Garner is also lovely as the young “Jane Eyre.”

Activities: Kids should read the book, by Betty Smith, who based it on her own childhood.

I got more enjoyment out of the squeals of joy from the 9-14-year-olds in the audience than from anything on the screen in this syrupy re-tread of “Love Story” set in a Beaufort, North Carolina high school.

Teen Beat pin-ups Mandy Moore and Shane West star as high school seniors Jamie and Landon. Landon is what passes for a glamorous bad boy in Beaufort. He and his friends spend most of their time partying and congratulating themselves on being better than anyone else. They play a prank on a boy who commits the great sin of thinking he might be worthy of hanging out with them. When the boy is seriously injured, Landon is sentenced to participation in school activities: tutoring a disadvantaged kid, sweeping up, and starring in the school play(!).

Landon keeps running into Jamie, a plain, Bible-toting girl who always wears the same sweater and does not care what other people think about her. He asks her for help learning his lines. When he sees her for the first time on opening night, all dolled up to play a nightclub singer (apparently their play had no dress rehearsals), it turns out that she is very pretty. He finds himself drawn to her, and, through her, drawn to a better notion of his own potential.

There is nothing that anyone over the age of 15 hasn’t seen a dozen times, including the plain girl who loosens her hair and turns out to be beautiful, the reunion with the estranged father, and that old favorite, movie star’s disease, in which the actress becomes more beautiful as she gets sicker. The direction, cinematography, and performances are barely adequate, but the Beaufort setting is lovely and the movie manages a couple of affecting moments. But “A Walk to Remember” is a movie to forget.

Parents should know that the movie has very strong language for a PG, with many “s-words.” Before Landon cleans up his act, he drinks and drives. It is clear that Jamie is very principled and their only physical involvement is some chaste kisses. At one point, she asks, “Are you trying to seduce me?” and he replies, “Are you seducible?” She says she is not and he respects her for it. Landon’s best friend is black (Al Thompson as Eric), but the character’s dialogue is so stereotyped that he seems like the “token black guy” in “Not Another Teen Movie.” He and Landon have an elaborate special friendship handshake, and there is an unintentionally hilarious moment when, after an exchange of sympathy and support, they somberly go into their handshake moves.

Families who see this movie should talk about whether they have lists of things they want to do before they die, and how we can help each other realize our dreams. How can we tell that Landon was not happy when he thought he was better than Jamie? How did she show him that he could be something more? When should we care about what other people think of us, and when shouldn’t we?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy Love Story and a better performance from Mandy Moore in The Princess Diaries.

Plot: John MacReedy (Spencer Tracy) gets off a train in a tiny, dusty little Western town. It is rare for any stranger to come to the town; it is the first time the train has stopped there in four years. The town residents move from suspicion of the one-armed man in a suit to open hostility when MacReedy enters the local hotel and asks about a local farmer named Komoko. Pete Wirth (John Ericson), the hotel manager, refuses to give him a room, saying they are all booked. When MacReedy takes a key anyway, a bully named Hector David (Lee Marvin) insists that it is his room. MacReedy takes another room. Hector and most of the rest of the town report to Reno (Robert Ryan). When he tells them to push MacReedy without giving him information, they are happy to oblige. But the town doctor (Walter Brennan) tells MacReedy how to get to Komoko’s farm, and Liz Wirth (Anne Francis), Pete’s sister, rents him a jeep to get there. MacReedy finds the farm deserted. Coley Trimble (Ernest Borgnine), another of Reno’s henchmen, chases MacReedy back to town, driving him off the road and slamming into the jeep with his truck.

MacReedy realizes that Reno will never let him get out of town alive. He tries to make a phone call or send a telegram, but Reno has cut him off. When Trimble harasses him at the diner, he refuses to fight, then finally, when Trimble persists, MacReedy devastates him with a karate chop to the neck. That buys him some time, but MacReedy is cornered and he knows it. He persuades Liz Wirth to drive him out of Black Rock. But it is a trap. Reno is waiting for them. As Liz runs to Reno, he shoots her; he no longer trusts her to keep his secret. MacReedy puts the jeep’s leaking gas into a bottle, stuffs it with his tie, lights it, and throws it at Reno, who is killed.

MacReedy had come to Black Rock to give Komoko the medal his son had been awarded by the U.S. Army for heroism. Komoko’s son had saved MacReedy’s life before he was killed in battle. But Komoko was also dead. Reno and his henchmen killed him at the start of World War II because he was Japanese.

The doctor asks MacReedy if he will leave the medal in Black Rock. MacReedy gives it to him, then puts out the flag so that the train will stop in Black Rock again, for the second time in four years.

Discussion: “A man is as big as what makes him mad.” MacReedy says this to Reno in one of this movie’s key scenes, and it is a concept children (and parents) should think about. It is also interesting that Reno killed Komoko after he was found ineligible to enlist in the Army. His hostility toward Komoko was based on displaced of his anger and frustration as much as it was based on racism.

MacReedy did not choose this battle, but he never turns away from it. A man who had no direction, and no goal beyond the presentation of the medal to Komoko, becomes a man who will not allow Reno and his thugs to win. He is fighting them not just for Komoko, but for himself, and in doing so finds a pride and dignity that enables him to go on.

This is a good movie to use for a discussion of prejudice, not just about race, but also about disabilities.

Questions for Kids:

· What does it mean to say, “a man is only as big as what makes him mad?” Think about a time you got mad. How big was the thing that made you mad? How do you measure?

· The people in the town had different reasons for obeying Reno. What were they?

· How did MacReedy change? What did he learn about himself?

Connections: Compare this to “High Noon,” another movie about a lone force for justice. Anne Francis, known to baby boomers as television’s “Honey West,” plays opposite Robby the Robot in the science fiction classic “Forbidden Planet.” In both movies, she is the only woman in the cast.

Interestingly, MacReedy’s handicap, so central to the story, was a last-minute addition in order to make the character challenging enough to attract Tracy to the role.

This is the true story of the brave dog who saved the lives of Alaskan children with diphtheria when he brought medicine to them through the snow. Kevin Bacon provides the voice for the heroic canine, half wolf, half dog, and not accepted by either species. A jealous rival frames Balto for theft that he will be selected to lead the rescue mission. But when they get lost, Balto steps in to save the day, with the help of his friends, a Russian goose (voice of Bob Hoskins) and two polar bears (both voice of pop star Phil Collins).

Children who visit Central Park in New York City can see a statue of Balto.

Spike Lee’s new movie is ambitious, provocative, complex, thoughtful, and just about review-proof. Anyone who doesn’t like it could be accused of not getting it. Anyone who does like it could be accused of liking it for the wrong reasons and not getting it, either. So the best I can do is describe it and react to it and hope that it will give readers some idea about whether they want to see it for themselves. I hope they do.

Damon Wayans plays the lone black executive for a troubled television network. He has given himself the name “Pierre Delacroix,” which has no association with his racial, cultural, or family heritage. He has adjusted his speech so that speaks with a precise, Ivy League accent. And he has adjusted his ideas so severely that even he is not sure what he thinks about the compromises he has had to make to work in the white world.

His boss, Mr. Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport) insists that he is blacker than Delacroix. He decorates his office with photos of black athletes and African art. Dunwitty says that his black wife, bi-racial children, and identification with black culture give him the right to use words like “nigger.” He says, “If Old Dirty Bastard can use it, why can’t I?” He says that he is the one who is “keepin’ it real.”

Dunwitty tells Delacroix to develop a new television show that will boost the station’s ratings, a real “coon show.” Delacroix, disgusted with himself, sets out to create a program so offensive that he will be fired. With the help of his dedicated assistant, Sloan (Jada Pinkett Smith), he puts together the most racist, insulting program imaginable. It is a minstrel show performed by black people in blackface, set in a watermelon patch, with every possible stereotype from Topsy to Aunt Jemima to a black man wearing a leopardskin loincloth.

The show is a huge hit. All across America, white and black fans put on blackface and happily yell out, “I’m a nigger!” adopting the exaggerated mannerisms of black images from our bigoted past.

The show’s stars, former street performers, are thrilled to be rich and famous, but increasingly haunted by the roles they must play. Sloan’s militant brother Julius, who wants to be called Big Black Africa, is the leader of a gang called the Mau Maus. They want their own television show (“Like the Monkees!”) and they want to do something to protest the minstrel show. They kidhap the star, with tragic results.

This movie has some of the most striking images ever put on film. The stars of the minstrel show put on blackface made from burnt cork, exactly as their predecessors did a century ago. They peer into mirrors to put on exaggerated red lips. A tear slips down a blackened cheek. Two characters argue in front of highly stylized life-size cutouts of the minstrel show characters. While Dinwitty collects African art, Delacroix begins to surround himself with racist items, beginning with a “jolly nigger bank.” Delacroix visits his father, a black entertainer who does not compromise to be acceptable to white audiences. He is comfortable with himself and with his all-black audiences, but he is an alcoholic. Lee, himself a maker of award-winning commercials, creates searing parody ads for malt liquor and “Timmi Hillnigger” clothes. The sole white member of the Mau Maus is the only one who survives a shoot-out. Montages of minstrel images from real old movies and racist toys and collectibles are devastating.

The movie draws from earlier films like “Network,” “Putney Swope,” and “The Producers” (in which an intentionally terrible show — a musical about Hitler — becomes a huge success). It raises dozens of important questions about the roles that both blacks and whites play in perpetuating racist stereotypes. Lee suggests that the current UPN and WB sitcoms featuring black characters may be the modern-day equivalent of a minstrel show.

In this movie, militant protesters take names like “Big Black Africa” and decide that they are oppressed by the “C” in “black” — but are willing to compromise their values to be on television. A street performer desperate to make a living is told that he will have to perform in blackface and all he says is, “Hey, we’re going to need a little more money for this.” When one of the minstrel show stars tries to perform as himself instead of the caricature, the audience hates it. As soon as another performer appears behind that reassuring, almost anonymous blackface, they applaud.

The movie is uneven. Dialogue has never been Lee’s strong point. But each scene has depth, integrity, intelligence — and anger — that is a welcome antidote to the usual formulaic Hollywood product. It is a profound and stimulating movie. I walked out of the theater with a thousand ideas and reactions. I heard the black woman walking out ahead of me say to her friend, “That is the best movie I ever saw.” It made me want to call every black person I know to ask them what they thought. Maybe that’s the point.

Parents should know that the movie has strong language and violence. Characters are shot and killed. There is some social drinking and one character abuses alcohol. There are sexual references and the movie makes some telling points about sexist assumptions about a woman’s use of sex to advance her career.

Families who see this movie will find a lot to talk about, including this country’s history of racism and the difficulty of bridging the gulf it has created.

Families who enjoy this movie should see some of Lee’s other films, including “Do the Right Thing” and “School Daze.” They may also like “Putney Swope,” “Network,” and “The Man in the Glass Booth.”