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TV film fare — week of August 17

The following are capsule reviews of theatrical movies on network and cable television the week of Aug 17. Please note that televised versions may or may not be edited for language, nudity, violence and sexual situations.
 
Monday, Aug. 18, 10 p.m.-midnight EDT (TCM) “Monte Walsh” (1970). Once the Wild West was tamed, cowboys like Monte Walsh (Lee Marvin) found it hard to adapt to the demands of society. Jeanne Moreau and Jack Palance join Marvin in strong performances in a serio-comic study of ordinary cowpokes put out of work by a changing cattle industry that director William Fraker makes interesting despite a weak and aimless script with a hopelessly melodramatic climax. Some Hollywood heroics featuring fist fights and gunplay. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification of the theatrical version was A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
 
Tuesday, Aug. 19, 3:30-5:30 a.m. EDT (Cinemax) “Introducing the Dwights” (2007).
Heartfelt but overly explicit Australian coming-of-age drama about an off-color comedienne (Brenda Blethyn) trying desperately to retain control of her emotionally repressed younger son (Khan Chittenden) and prevent him from romancing the girl for whom he’s fallen (Emma Booth), while caring for her brain-damaged older son (Richard Wilson) and struggling to revive her long-faded career. Director Cherie Nowlan’s film lacks subtlety, especially in its presentation of monster mom Blethyn, but Chittenden’s character is sympathetically awkward, and the script illuminates the handicapped brother’s full humanity without mawkishness. Graphic premarital sexual activity, upper female and rear nudity, frequent obscenities and profanities, sexual humor, gay references and a condom reference. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification of the theatrical version was L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
 
Thursday, Aug. 21, 6:15-8 p.m. EDT (TCM) “The Angel Wore Red” (1960). Muddled tale in which a priest (Dirk Bogarde) loses his faith during the Spanish Civil War, then falls in love with a kindhearted prostitute (Ava Gardner), but winds up on his own safeguarding a holy relic sought by all sides. Written and directed by Nunnally Johnson, the unwieldy plot has interesting characters and compelling situations but grows increasingly unsure of where it is going with this mixture of love story, political fable and saga of faith until ending in a welter of sentimentality. Wartime violence, anti-clerical rhetoric and an illicit romance. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification of the theatrical version was A-III — adults. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.
 
Thursday, Aug. 21, 8-11 p.m. EDT (AMC) “Matchstick Men” (2003). Clever shell-game drama about an obsessive-compulsive small-time con artist (Nicolas Cage) whose neurotically routine life unravels when he learns he has a teenage daughter (Alison Lohman) with a gift for the grift, complicating a potentially lucrative scheme to fleece a heavy-hitting millionaire. Full of triple-dealings and exploiting viewers’ fascination for confidence games, the film, directed by Ridley Scott, while morally glossing over its protagonist’s dishonest actions, ultimately imparts a message that crime burns you in the end. A benign attitude toward larceny, some violence, a scene in a strip club with partial nudity, and an instance of fleeting rear nudity and rough language, as well as recurring crude language and profanity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification of the theatrical version was A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
 
Thursday, Aug. 21, 9-11 p.m. EDT (Lifetime) “Under the Tuscan Sun” (2003). Standard but enjoyable yarn about a recently divorced San Francisco author (Diane Lane) suffering from depression and writer’s block who impulsively buys a Tuscan villa in Italy with the hopes of recharging her life. Based loosely on Frances Mayes’ travel memoir, writer-director Audrey Wells’ film is light on believable plot, but packed with lovely Italian vistas with Lane’s appealing performance elevating an otherwise predictable fairy tale. An implied sexual encounter, references to a lesbian relationship, brief crass words, and an instance of rough language and profanity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification of the theatrical version was A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
 
Friday, Aug. 22, 8-10 p.m. EDT (ABC) “Collateral” (2004). Sleek and stylish crime thriller set in Los Angeles about a cab driver (Jamie Foxx) forced to drive a contract killer (Tom Cruise) on his appointed rounds to assassinate five federal witnesses in one night. Returning to familiar genre terrain, director Michael Mann crafts a tautly paced, multilayered film oozing with L.A.-noir moodiness and hard-boiled menace, by turns violent and reflective in tone, featuring knockout performances by Cruise and Foxx. Recurring intense violence, autopsy gore and much rough language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification of the theatrical version was L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
 
Saturday, Aug. 23, 8-10 p.m. EDT (ABC) “Madagascar” (2005). Entertaining animated comedy about a quartet of pampered zoo animals (voiced by Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith) who find themselves shipped back to the wild, where they discover that the jungle is not all it’s cracked up to be. Directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath and imparting a positive message about friendship, the visually vibrant and at times funny film starts out well (the motley menagerie is a hoot), but its early wit gives way to cartoonish slapstick humor that stresses sight gags more than story. Mildly crass language and humor and cartoon violence, as well as some thematic elements that may be disturbing to very young children. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification of the theatrical version was A-II - adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

Saturday, Aug. 23, 10-11:30 p.m. EDT (Cinemax) “The Comebacks” (2007). Absurd sports satire in which a perennially losing coach (David Koechner), at the request of a colleague (Carl Weathers), returns from retirement to try to lead a college football team to victory, even at the risk of alienating his wife (Melora Hardin), while two of his players (Matthew Lawrence and Jackie Long) compete for the affections of his daughter (Brooke Nevin). Director Tom Brady’s broad, bawdy comedy is as much slapdash as slapstick, lurching incoherently from one gag to the next and scoring a few hits, but more often than not missing the ball. Pervasive sexual and scatological humor, nongraphic sexual activity, a same-sex kiss, some crude and crass language, five uses of profanity, adultery and drug references, and a transvestite character. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification of the theatrical version was L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

TV program notes — week of Aug. 17

Here are some television program notes for the week of Aug. 17 with their TV Parental Guidelines ratings if available. They have not been reviewed and therefore are not necessarily recommended by the Office for Film & Broadcasting.
 
Sunday, Aug. 17, 1:30-3 p.m. EDT (EWTN) “In Concert: Sacred Music of the 20th Century.” Host Jacqueline Leary-Warsaw presents the choral works of three outstanding 20th-century composers: Leonard Bernstein, John Rutter and Francis Poulenc; performed by the Choir of Clare College and others.

Sunday, Aug. 17, 8-10 p.m. EDT (Animal Planet) “Tiger: Spy in the Jungle.” This special follows the different stages of development in the lives of tiger cubs in India’s Pench National Park (TV-G — general audience).

Sunday, Aug. 17, 10:30-11 p.m. EDT (PBS) “American Horizons: The Photographs of Art Sinsabaugh.” Art Sinsabaugh’s Midwest landscapes, photographed between 1960 and 1963, were unprecedented in both subject matter and format (TV-PG — parental guidance suggested).

Monday, Aug. 18, 6-7 p.m. EDT (EWTN) “Chronicles of a Holy Man.” Part one of a five-part miniseries on the life of St. Alberto Hurtado, a Chilean Jesuit, focusing on his early years, the death of his father and his time at a monastery school. Continues each night 6-7 p.m. EDT through Friday, Aug. 22.

Monday, Aug. 18, 9-9:45 p.m. EDT (HBO) “Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House.” Documentarian Rory Kennedy’s portrait of the veteran correspondent, nicknamed the “first lady of the press,” who has been reporting on the presidency since 1960.

Monday, Aug. 18, 10-11 p.m. EDT (PBS) “Documenting the Face of America: Roy Stryker and the FSA/OWI Photographers.” This film brings to life the remarkable stories behind the legendary group of New Deal-sponsored photographers who captured the face of Depression-era America. FSA stands for Farm Security Administration; OWI is the Office of War Information. Julian Bond narrates (TV-14 — parents strongly cautioned).

Monday, Aug. 18, 10-11 p.m. EDT (Science) “Future Life.” Premiere of a series examining innovations that may become reality within the next few decades, including space tourism and bionic suits (TV-G — general audience).

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 9-10 p.m. EDT (PBS) “Iraqi Refugees” (this is a working title for the program). The “Wide Angle” series reports from the front lines of the staggering refugee crisis that is unfolding in the Middle East as Iraqis flee their war-torn country at the rate of up to 50,000 people per month.

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 10-11:30 p.m. EDT (PBS) “The Judge and the General.” This “P.O.V.” film by Elizabeth Farnsworth and Patricio Lanfranco traces Chilean judge Juan Guzman’s criminal cases against the country’s ex-dictator, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, whose 1973 coup left democratically elected President Salvador Allende and thousands of others dead or “disappeared” (TV-PG/V — parental guidance suggested; moderate violence).
 
Wednesday, Aug. 20, 8-8:15 p.m. EDT (Cinemax) “Salim Baba.” Documentary profile of Kolkata, India, resident Salim Muhammad who makes his living screening discarded film scraps for local children. Directed by Tim Sternberg (TV-G — general audience).

Saturday, Aug. 23, 8-9 p.m. EDT (EWTN) “The Nun.” A documentary look at the shaping of a religious vocation within a Swedish Catholic family as the daughter Marta decides to become a Carmelite nun.

 

TV REVIEW

Little Girl Lost: The Delimar Vera Story

The remarkable true-life ordeal of a mother who continued to insist that her daughter was alive long after everyone else had given her up for dead provides the emotional core of the made-for-TV movie “Little Girl Lost: The Delimar Vera Story,” premiering Sunday, Aug. 17, 8-9:30 p.m. EDT on cable’s Lifetime Movie Network.

Set in a predominantly Hispanic section of Philadelphia, the film begins joyfully with parents Luz (Judy Reyes) and Pedro Vera (Hector Luiz Bustamante) welcoming the arrival of Delimar, their first daughter. But when a fire breaks out at their home during a crowded Christmas party, the distraught parents are told the newborn has perished.

And yet, when Luz had rushed to her daughter’s room during the blaze, she was sure the crib was empty and that a closed window was now mysteriously open. All of which convinced her that Delimar had, in fact, been kidnapped by one of the partygoers, who set the fire as a deliberate distraction.

What first seems understandable denial begins to look like obstinate delusion, and Pedro threatens to walk out.

Six years later, Luz’s chance meeting with Valerie Valleja (Ana Ortiz), a distant relative and one of the party guests, provides a startling revelation, and Luz turns to State Rep.
Angel Cruz (played here by A Martinez) for legal assistance.

Reyes crafts a moving portrait of an increasingly isolated woman holding fast to her convictions. That part of her strength comes from her Catholic faith is shown by a scene in which she stops in church to pray before a statue of Mary.

Directed by Paul A. Kaufman, the film is part of an initiative by the cable outlet and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to provide families with resources that will help keep their children safe. These include the National Center’s hotline, (800) THE-LOST ((800) 843-5678), and tips for teaching children about personal safety on the channel’s Web site, www.lmn.tv.

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