At the Movies: capsule reviews of new films

Capsule reviews of films now showing in theaters:

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"Closer" - Jude Law and Julia Roberts and Clive Owen and Natalie Portman fall giddily in love in London, but don't be fooled: This is the furthest thing possible from a date movie. These inordinately beautiful people end up doing extraordinarily ugly things to each other, which is both breathtaking and brutal to watch. The latest film from director Mike Nichols is reminiscent of his first - "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" from 1966 - for the intensity of its performances and the rawness of its emotions. Owen is especially scorching as Roberts' cuckolded dermatologist husband. "Closer" often has the claustrophobic vibe of a play (which is, in fact, the basis for the film), and it closes in on melodrama toward the end, but not in a way that's unbelievable. If these people didn't already have drama in their lives, they'd have to manufacture it. R for sequences of graphic sexual dialogue, nudity/sexuality and language. 103 min. Three stars out of four.

- Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic

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"House of Flying Daggers" - The second film in theaters this year from Chinese director Zhang Yimou provides an interesting companion piece to the first - the Oscar-nominated "Hero" - if only because it's slightly more rooted in reality. The characters still soar through the air with gravity-defying balletic grace, showing off their eye-popping martial-arts skills, but the leaves on the trees aren't a radioactive shade of fuchsia when they do it. Both feature love triangles, but "Flying Daggers" (starring Zhang Ziyi, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau) is a romance wrapped around an action movie, while "Hero" was more of an action movie with a bit of romance tucked inside of it. Zhang's latest offering is a dazzling celebration of style over substance - cleverly staged and sumptuously photographed - but in the end, little more than an art-house soap opera. PG-13 for sequences of stylized martial arts violence, and some sexuality. 119 min. Three and a half stars out of four.

- Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic