
It's a story of terror about a writer (played by John Cusack) who specializes in books about haunted tourist traps. He doesn't believe in ghosts, but he writes about them and helps historic, "haunted hotels" hawk their wares. One day he gets an anonymous postcard advising him to stay in room 1408 at New York's Dolphin Hotel. Even after his publisher's lawyer forces the hotel to let him stay there, the hotel manager (an uncharacteristically dapper and soft-spoken Samuel L. Jackson) tries to dissuade Cusack from staying in room 1408, where dozens of people have died - and where no one has ever made it through a night alive.
Long story short, the room is evil, and it plays with Cusack the way a cat plays with a mouse, ransacking him mentally, physically, and spiritually. In case you like a good spooking, I won't spoil any more of it. Mostly a one-man show, and mostly played out in the confines of a hotel suite, this movie nevertheless puts both its star and its set through an emotional and structural wringer, making it hard to watch and hard to look away at the same time.

It's a nice, clean, fun-for-the-whole-family type of film. Both Jim Carrey and Steve Carell have made a career out of making flagrantly offensive and tasteless movies, but this series is a surprising exception. The theology is not specifically Christian (one of the few references to the faith of the New Testament is, for example, a sight gag where a theatre marquee says "Now Showing: The 40-Year-Old Virgin Mary"). It is more the kind of inoffensive, vanilla, popular religion one used to see on the TV series Touched By An Angel. God says, "I love you." He smiles gently and gives heart-warming advice. He turns out to be completely right, and all the characters learn a lesson. It says nothing that anyone could disagree with, though churchgoers will be pleased that at least (for a change) a movie isn't flat-out insulting everyone who believes in God. Which is pretty faint praise from a theologian, but hey - it's all done with a light touch and plenty of humor, including a montage of Steve Carell repeatedly hitting his thumb with a hammer and, miraculously, not saying anything unsuitable for general audiences.

The chefs, critics, and rats in this movie are voiced by such actors as Ian Holm (a.k.a. "Bilbo Baggins"), Peter O'Toole, Brian Dennehy, Janeane Garofalo, and Brad Garrett. It's a fast-moving, visually engaging tale, enhanced by beautiful Parisian skylines, expressive animated characters, and moments of brilliant visual storytelling (my favorite being the food critic's reaction when he tastes the titular dish). In short, Brad Bird proves once again to be either a filmmaking genius, or at least the team leader of a collective genius. The ratio of adults to kids in the audience (for a 7:10 p.m. show on Friday night, mind you) was far higher than most animated films, but this was a very responsive audience that shared many good-natured laughs and, as the end credits rolled, applauded the screen. The last film I saw that had such a warm reception was...let's see...The Incredibles!
OK, maybe there was a Harry Potter movie since then, but you know Harry Potter fans; just seeing the Warner Bros. logo accompanied by Hedwig's Theme drives them bonkers with joy. I'll have more to say on this subject in a couple of weeks.
Finally, there was a short movie preceding the main feature tonight. This has been Pixar's standard practice, and sometimes the short is just as memorable as the feature. Their new animated short was titled Lifted. It begins with a flying saucer appearing over a lonely farmhouse; a beam shines down on the bedroom window where a farmer is fast asleep; an alien abduction is about to take place. But almost immediately, it takes a wacky turn. Entirely without dialogue, the short subject was nevertheless full of wit and warmth.
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