2008 Winter Movie Guide

The Pitch
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, a lady aristo from England (Kidman) comes to the north of Australia to take over a sprawling cattle station she's inherited. What she knows about running a cattle station could balance on a kookaburra's bill, but with rival cattle barons trying to pick off her land and the Japanese turning their bellicose attention Down Under in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, she'd better learn fast. Perhaps a studly stockman (Jackman) can help drive her herd hundreds of miles overland to market.

The Scoop
It's been seven years since Luhrmann's last movie, the directorial tour de force "Moulin Rouge" that was Oscar-nominated as Best Picture while Luhrmann got zip. Now this extravagantly talented Australian filmmaker has taken on an epic treatment of his homeland. At the very least, it's bound to be an eyeful. Russell Crowe ceded the male lead to Jackman, but the teeming supporting cast includes practically every known Aussie actor: Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, Bill Hunter, David Gulpilil, Barry Otto, Tony Barry, Ray Barrett, John Jarratt ...

The Pitch
Two innocent 8-year-olds become fast friends during World War II. Trouble is, one's the son of a concentration camp commandant, and the other's a Jew behind barbed wire.

The Scoop
Talk about degree of difficulty! How do you honestly create the horrific reality of a "factory" for gassing and incinerating human beings -- in terms young people might grasp without being totally traumatized? Early reviews praise director Mark Herman ("Brassed Off," "Little Voice") for having achieved that impossible feat in his clear-eyed adaptation of John Boyne's best-selling children's novel. Kids are tougher and more resilient than we give them credit for. It's their parents who may not make it through this heartbreaking story.

The Pitch
Benjamin Button (Pitt) lives his life backward, from geezerhood to infancy. This curious case originates in an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story meant to illustrate Mark Twain's adage that "the first half of life consists of the capacity to enjoy without the chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity."

The Scoop
Who better to bring this wicked-strange premise to the screen than fearless Fincher, who directed Pitt in "Se7en" and "Fight Club," and most recently hit the ball out of the park with the brilliant "Zodiac"? Top talent Eric Roth (Oscar for "Forrest Gump," noms for "Munich" and "The Insider") adapted the Fitzgerald story. And talk about actress power! Swinton's on board and Blanchett plays Daisy, the love of Button's life, with whom he can only grow younger. Reportedly, state-of-the-art motion-capture technology made it possible for Pitt to play Button at every age. If you aren't hot to delve into this curious cinematic case on Christmas Day, you must lack a pulse.

The Pitch
In 1964, two nuns accuse the parish priest of molesting the only black student in their Bronx Catholic school.

The Scoop
His internationally successful play took a Tony home in 2004, and now Shanley has helmed a movie version that fairly screams Oscar-bait. Dropping the outstanding stage cast in favor of "a fresh take" -- courtesy of Streep (two Oscars and 12 noms) and Hoffman (one Oscar and another nom) -- Shanley might just earn another Oscar to keep company with the one he won for writing "Moonstruck" (1987). "Doubt" is the kind of morally challenging story that sits up and begs for juicy performances.

The Pitch
In 1977, transatlantic star TV interviewer David Frost sits down with the only American president ever to resign from office to get the inside story on the fall of Richard Nixon.

The Scoop
The core material is endlessly rich and fascinating, and it's hard to imagine sharper casting than Langella (shamefully passed over by Oscar for last year's "Starting Out in the Evening") as the slippery/contrite Nixon. As for Sheen, he played Tony Blair to Helen Mirren's "The Queen" -- and this dramatization of the historic interview sessions was undertaken by that film's screenwriter, Peter Morgan. Only detectable spanner in the works: The director is Ron Howard, and if there's a way to turn the enterprise into manipulative pap, he'll find it.

The Pitch
It surely doesn't make Walt Kowalski's day when a neighborhood kid tries to steal his much-cherished 1972 Gran Torino -- but reforming the Hmong teen forces the Korean War vet to face up to old prejudices. (Eastwood's in front of the camera for the first time since 2004's "Million Dollar Baby")

The Scoop
It's too bad the grizzled star of many a spaghetti Western and the lucrative "Dirty Harry" franchise has never quite made it as a director, despite 28 or so manful tries. Obviously Eastwood had hoped that this time, by churning out two movies in one year (his "Changeling" debuted in October), he might come within hailing distance of, say, Spike Lee, one of our truly great filmmakers. So give the geezer a break. Buy a ticket.

The Pitch
Post-Katrina, basketball players displaced from five schools destroyed in the hurricane join up with the team at Ehret High. After offloading 'hood antagonisms, they become winning hoopsters.

The Scoop
If you can stomach the umpteenth inspirational tale about debaters, swimmers, football players, et al., stepping into the winners' circle with the help of an earnest coach -- well, then this yuletide package is all yours. Sorry, but as a symbol of the Big Easy rising from ruin, sports just doesn't make it on my scorecard. "Hurricane" helmer Tim Story left the genial "Barbershop" (2002) behind to fly high, then crash and burn with "Fantastic Four" and "Silver Surfer." But like Denzel Washington ("The Great Debaters," "Remember the Titans"), Oscar-winner Whitaker is a prince of an actor, so maybe his hoops coach can make "Hurricane Season" a slam dunk.

The Pitch
Two losers (Hoffman and Thompson) drowning their sorrows at an airport bar meet cute and fall in love.

The Scoop
Could be dreadful treacle, but previewing the witty pitch-and-catch between Hoffman and Thompson made me hope that "Harvey" might actually turn out to be a slow-and-easy, sort-of screwball dramedy and an actors' showcase -- not just another testament to the pleasures of middle-aged love, an attempt at a "Bridges in Britain" or "Nights in London."

The Pitch
Harvey Milk made history in the 1970s by becoming the first openly gay individual to be elected to high-profile public office in the United States -- namely, to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He led an exemplary life as a citizen, an activist and a public figure of great wit and charm -- the self-styled "Mayor of Castro Street." Then, on Nov. 27, 1978, history of another, tragic kind was made ...

The Scoop
Esteemed indie director Gus Van Sant ("Drugstore Cowboy," "My Own Private Idaho") has never seemed likely casting as an epic filmmaker, yet in Harvey Milk and the gay liberation movement in San Francisco he's found an epic subject. With Sean Penn in the title role, this will be a rare Van Sant project poised for breakthrough to mainstream audiences -- something that's happened only once before, with "Good Will Hunting."