Horror films always catch more flak, but is there a genre more consistently disposable than the romantic comedy? A couple of forgettable examples arrive on DVD this week: In spite of Juliette Lewis' supporting role, Catch & Release (Sony) is the more tolerable of the two, thanks in large part to likeable turns by Timothy Olyphant and Kevin Smith, who add some color to the otherwise generic material. More officious is Because I Said So (Universal), which finds the limits of Diane Keaton's flighty charms by casting her as a mother whose interest in her youngest daughter's love life borders on psychosis…
There are many things to recommend about the W. Somerset Maugham adaptation The Painted Veil (Warner): the lush evocation of inland China in the '20s, strong lead performances by Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, and the contemporary relevance of following an arrogant Westerner's misadventures overseas. And yet the film doesn't quite work anyway, because there's so little depth beneath its undeniably appealing surface…
In an amazing coup, the makers of Deliver Us From Evil (Lions Gate)—a powerful Oscar-nominated documentary about sexual molestation within the Catholic Church—were granted access to Father Oliver O'Grady, a convicted offender who was exiled to his native Ireland after violating dozens of children in California. The footage of O'Grady speaking frankly about his perversions is sickening to behold, but equally revolting are the lengths to which the Catholic establishment has gone to cover up his sins…
Though Steven Shainberg's overrated breakthrough Secretary got all kinds of attention, nobody went to bat for his Fur: An Imaginary Portrait Of Diane Arbus (New Line), and who could blame them? The title promises a bold flight of fancy that the turgid film never delivers, and the muted tone rarely captures the excitement of Arbus the housewife morphing into Arbus the artist…
Anthony Minghella's Breaking And Entering (Weinstein Company) gets a lot of mileage of its novel premise, involving urban planner Jude Law, his stressed-out girlfriend Robin Wright Penn, her autistic daughter, and an office break-in that drags Bosnian refugee Juliette Binoche and her thuggish teenage son into the picture. Minghella mars the movie with a tidy finale that doesn't seem entirely thought through, but for the most part, he uses his characters' crises to explore the state of the culture in the UK circa 2006, from technology to sports to the disorders du jour.