Capsule reviews of `W.' and other films (AP)

Capsule reviews of films opening this week:

"Happy-Go-Lucky" — Poppy, our perpetually sunny heroine, finds that her beloved bicycle has been stolen from outside a London bookstore at the film's start. Not only is she not angry when she makes this discovery, but rather she says to herself, wistfully and with a wry smile, that she never even got to say goodbye to it. The bully who torments his fellow students in the elementary-school class she teaches isn't a naughty boy to be scolded but rather a child in need of patience and understanding. And the homeless man she runs into while walking home alone one night isn't scary and potentially dangerous — he's just longing for a friend, like the rest of us. That last example pushes the limits of what we're willing to accept, but you get the idea. Poppy is an extraordinary creature, but in the hands of engaging star Sally Hawkins and veteran writer-director Mike Leigh, she becomes real, vibrant and alive. Leigh is known for far more serious fare like "Vera Drake" and "Secrets & Lies." "Happy-Go-Lucky" would seem to be a trifle by comparison, but he uses the collaborative improvisational technique that's become his trademark to create a warm, comfortable vibe around his characters. And if you look past the film's blithe veneer, it's really about something that's universally relatable: the quest for a deep and fulfilling happiness. A little bit of Poppy goes a long way, but two hours with her is perfect. Much of what makes her so compelling is the contradiction that lies within her. She seems to see the innate absurdity of the world, but instead of letting it get her down, she makes a game out of toying with it. She's not Forrest Gump — life isn't a box of chocolates for Poppy, it's a bag of Sweet Tarts. R for language. 118 min. Three stars out of four.

• Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic

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"Max Payne" — Here's the one thing that makes "Max Payne" comparatively painless: Unlike most movies based on video games — the entire filmography of German director Uwe Boll, for example — it doesn't try to replicate the sensation of playing. It doesn't make you think you're controlling the characters, doesn't place you in the middle of their nausea-inducing world. Instead, "Max Payne" is just a straight-up action picture, and a rather bombastic, familiar one at that. Director John Moore ("Behind Enemy Lines") rips off John Woo with endless, hyperstylized shootouts, all in slow motion with shattered glass showering everything in a million little pieces. All that's missing are the strategically placed doves. That's not all that's coming down, though: It seems to rain or snow constantly in the movie's darkly gothic vision of New York, an attempt at emulating classic noir style that instead feels dreary and smothering. Then again, "Max Payne" the video game was inspired by film noir, and has now, in turn, inspired a movie of its own. It's so meta. Mark Wahlberg looks like he's in perpetual agony as the title character, an NYPD detective still searching for the killers of his wife and infant son years later. He teams up with a Russian mob assassin (Mila Kunis, extraordinarily sexy but impossible to take seriously) whose sister's death may be tied to his family's. Somewhere amid the noise and the homicidal valkyries — oh yes, "Max Payne" has those, too — there may be a just-say-no-to-drugs message. There may also be an anti-war message. Hard to tell. PG-13 for violence including intense shooting sequences, drug content, some sexuality and brief strong language. 100 min. One and a half stars out of four.

• Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic

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"The Secret Life Of Bees" — How can a movie populate a house with Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson and NOT give us a song? Though the cast might suggest a musical, "The Secret Life of Bees" is an earnest, saccharine adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's best-selling 2002 novel, brought to the big screen by director Gina Prince-Bythewood ("Love & Basketball"). The novel, set in South Carolina in 1964, came out of nowhere to sell millions in paperback, so this adaptation arrives with much anticipation from its readers. The film stays close to the novel in telling the story of Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning), a 14-year-old girl who runs away from an abusive father, fleeing with her caretaker (Hudson). They end up serendipitously at the house of the bee-keeping Boatwright sisters (Latifah, Keys and Sophie Okonedo). The three, particularly Latifah's motherly character, rejuvenate Lily and teach her about love through bees. Keys is by far the most riveting thing in the otherwise one-dimensional, overly simplistic film. All distrust and uptight anger, she dominates the screen with a tension the movie can't find anywhere else — in the plot, in Lily, even in the early 1960s racial turmoil. PG-13 for thematic material and some violence. 110 min. One and a half stars out of four.

• Jake Coyle, AP Entertainment Writer

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"W." — All he wanted to do was watch baseball and drink beer all day. Sounds like a reasonable request. Instead, George W. Bush ended up being chosen as leader of the free world. Twice. That's Oliver Stone's surprisingly fair and balanced take on the president, who truly needs no further parodying. Bush is an easy target anyway, and he inadvertently supplies enough ammunition on his own. From the earliest announcements about the film, it seemed inevitable what we'd be in for: an evisceration. No other depiction could be possible from any director in Hollywood and especially not from Stone, who previously dug up the White House dirt with "JFK" and "Nixon." Instead, Stone has come up with a rather conventional biopic, albeit one about a person whose decisions have affected the entire planet for the last eight years. Considering its potential shock value, "W." hits all the expected notes: It could be "Walk the Line" or "Ray" in that regard. We see young Dubya as a drunk fraternity pledge at Yale, where he foreshadows his legendary method of handing out nicknames; as a swaggering party boy meeting Laura Welch, the woman who would become his wife and his rock, at a backyard barbecue; and as a reluctant worker in the West Texas oil fields, where he asks in twangy Spanish before noon, "Donde esta la cerveza?" He runs for Congress and loses, runs for Texas governor and wins, loses the booze and finds the Lord. Stone, working from a script by Stanley Weiser, doesn't shed much new light on the 43rd U.S. president and often tries to explain away Bush's flaws with pop-psychology insights about "daddy issues," but he makes his evenhanded case in entertaining fashion. As Bush himself, Josh Brolin certainly gets the innate humor within the frequent buffoonery — and he's got the voice and the demeanor down pat — but he also seems to recognize the tragedy of this figure, a man who was in way over his head for one of the toughest jobs in the world. Brolin's so good, he almost makes us feel sorry for Bush. Almost. PG-13 for language including sexual references, some alcohol abuse, smoking and brief disturbing war images. 129 min. Two and a half stars out of four.

• Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic

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"What Just Happened" — Hollywood is full of liars, back-stabbers, sycophants, would-be power players and egomaniacs. And your point is ... what? In skewering the movie business, "What Just Happened" treads delicately and benignly on some well-trampled territory, but offers no new insights. It comes from people who've been around a long time, so there's no doubt they know their way. Barry Levinson directs. Longtime producer Art Linson wrote the script based on his memoir. And Robert De Niro stars as a middle-aged producer juggling actors and agents with ex-wives and kids. You just wish these veterans had used their collective decades of experience to come up with a satire that has more freshness and bite to it. Maybe that's impossible, though. The navel-gazing is so commonplace now — look no further than the continued existence of HBO's "Entourage" — that it's long since grown tiresome. Truly, does anybody east of Barstow care about traffic patterns on the 405? That's the freeway De Niro's character, Ben, repeatedly finds himself as he shuttles among various studio lots, restaurants and women. Ben is the producer of an action picture which stars Sean Penn and is set to premiere on opening night of the Cannes Film Festival. But the brash British director (Michael Wincott) refuses to recut it, even after it tests horrifically, in the name of artistic integrity. (Maybe it was that last scene, in which Penn's dog gets shot in the head, that turned the audience off.) Everyone is so shallow and self-serving, there isn't a single person worth caring about, but De Niro does some of his best work in a while. R for language, some violent images, sexual content and some drug material. 110 min. One and a half stars out of four.

• Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic