RED

Retired black-ops agents get back together for one last hit when Frank Moses [Bruce Willis, clearly in his element] gets a threat from a former foe. There’s a lot of shooting but it’s a fun film with Willis, Helen Mirren, Mary Louise Parker, Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich. I can’t say I really understood the minutiae of the hit on Moses but the camaraderie and his connection with Parker is fun. Plus anytime Mirren is in a film, it’s a few notches classier.

Fair Game

Intense film that starts out by showing Valerie Plame [Naomi Watts] in action throughout the Middle East as a covert operative for the CIA. She’s meticulous in developing her contacts and following up. Her mostly-male coworkers clearly admire her skills. Not long after the invasion of Iraq, Plame’s husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joe Wilson [Sean Penn], writes an op-ed about the lack of data on weapons of mass destruction. The Bush administration publicly reveals Plame’s CIA position to punish the couple. Overnight, Plame and her husband are fighting to maintain credibility and dignity. Watts turns in an impeccably smart and dignified performance. It’s obvious that Plame adores her work and her family in equal measures. As Wilson, Penn is stoic and tenacious. It’s still a shocking scandal and Fair Game makes an engrossing film.

Conviction

Based on the real-life inspirational story of Betty Ann Waters [Hilary Swank] and her brother Kenny [Sam Rockwell], Conviction is both compelling and emotional. The siblings are extremely close due to their tumultuous childhoods. When Kenny becomes wrongfully convicted of murder, Betty Ann dedicates nearly twenty years to getting him exonerated. The working class bartender mom gets her GED, goes to college and then to law school in order to assist her brother who she believes in when everyone else has nearly forgotten him. It’s not as impressive as Swank’s previous real-life depictions but she morphs herself into the character and makes the audience root for her.