“THE EAGLE”

★ (out of four)

Where to begin? For starters, the film takes the deadpan tone of a serious, old-school epic, making it feel like the most lifeless and uninspired adventure movie of 1957. (Watching Macdonald’s film, my mind couldn’t help but wander to Neil Marshall’s similar but vastly superior “Centurion,” which, in contrast, embraced its tawdry nature with infectious enthusiasm.) There is no rousing spirit or good-natured fun to be found in “The Eagle,” which is a slow-moving, dreary affair that has the attitude of an Old Hollywood production without any of the actual spectacle.

“BLUE VALENTINE”

★★★★

The film, assembled in nonlinear fashion, tells the “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy doesn’t get girl back” story of Dean and Cindy (Gosling and Williams, respectively). As the movie opens, the couple is roughly five years into their tumultuous marriage. He’s a balding, chain-smoking alcoholic with a dead-end job, but seems content with a simple existence. She’s a stressed, frigid, overworked nurse who is not as content. They have a daughter together (it is soon established that she is not Dean’s biological child), and seeking a much-needed escape from domestic pressures, Dean suggests that Cindy accompany him to a “theme motel” for the night. From here the film delves heavily into flashback as we witness the couple’s charming, sexually charged courtship intercut with their significantly less friendly encounters in the oppressively blue-lit “future room.” It is a night of pain and humiliation, and it’s the last that they will spend together.

“THE KING’S SPEECH”

★★★★

I must admit some trepidation when approaching films that rely on what could be perceived as “gimmick” performances — those “challenging” roles that Oscar voters love but, in actuality, offer very little to viewers looking for more than mere exaggerated caricatures (e.g. Tom Hanks in “Forrest Gump,” Sean Penn in “Milk,” et. al.).

Despite the sustained critical raves for Colin Firth’s performance as the verbally impaired King George VI of England in “The King’s Speech,” up until seeing it I remained skeptical that even an actor as talented as Firth could transcend the limitations of such a role  — could craft a fully formed character and performance that is defined by more than a stammer.

“THE FIGHTER”

★★★ 1/2

I responded so strongly to David O. Russell’s “The Fighter,” an old-fashioned underdog narrative that wears sentimentality on its sleeve.

The difference between Russell’s film and the dozens of other similar, less successful sports dramas is that here, the filmmaker lets emotion develop organically from the characters and their histories. Instead of attempting to manipulate viewer responses via swelling music and tearful exchanges and all manner of riffraff, Russell (most noted for “Three Kings” and “I Heart Huckabees”) has gone back to basics.