HE LOVES ME, HE LOVES ME NOT
Opens Fri., March 21 at Seven Gables
The sweet, slow smiles and beguiling gestures she made famous in Am鬩e live on in Audrey Tautou’s latest starring role, but beneath the long lashes and dimples now lies something much darker. Her character, art student/waitress Ang鬩que, is in the throes of a passionate, uneven affair with a handsome cardiologist. When he apparently returns to his wife, she’s left to drift further and further into grief and obsession. It’s a sad story, and one that’s been handled on-screen a thousand times before, but this time, director Laetitia Colombani takes a more ambitious route, neatly jackknifing the movie halfway through. It’s impressively slick for a first-time filmmaker, though it’s ultimately not half as clever as it thinks it is. Go if you’re a fan of Tautou, who brings an eerie, against-type rightness to her role, or if you’ve just been dumpedbut skip it for a first date, unless you don’t want a second. (NR) LEAH GREENBLATT
PIGLET’S BIG MOVIE
Opens Fri., March 21 at Pacific Place and others
In a movie truly aimed at the 5-year-old set, it seems that Piglet feels helpless much of the time because of his small sizeeveryone else in the Hundred Acre Wood is so much bigger than him. When he gets lost in the woods and his friends hunt for him, the animals recap all the adventures they’ve had, realizing that Piglet has played a big part in all their lives. If parents aren’t in the mood to hear song lyrics like “With a few good friends and a stick or two/A house is built at a corner called Pooh” (sung by Carly Simon!), bring a book and sneak out to the lobby. But while the story is saccharine sweet, Disney sure knows how to tug on those heartstringsscenes that show a depressed Piglet elicited tearful blinks from this jaded reviewer. Piglet should please those who hold A.A. Milne dear to their heart. (PG) ROSIE BOWKER
POWER AND TERROR
Runs Fri., March 21-Sun., March 30 at Little Theatre
I watched this 2002 documentary on the morning Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated, soalthough I was practically alone in the theaterI actually nodded enthusiastically as Noam Chomsky pointed out that the events of Sept. 11 and everything that’s followed have had a catalytic power on practically all the evil forces on earth. Chomsky is an engaging and erudite speaker, but all in all, this slavishly worshipful doc features way too much footage of him signing autographs and interacting with fans. Had the filmmakers simply let him impart his pro-peace message instead of intercutting the lecture and town-hall footage with these schlocky images of fandom, Terror would be far more worthwhileespecially for anyone who’s been asleep for the past few years. Citizens requiring the footnotes but wary of the excess veneration would be wise to check out Chomsky’s recently released CD lecture, The New War on Terrorism: Fact and Fiction. (NR) LAURA CASSIDY
