Beyond the Multiplex

Forget the blockbusters: Try the sumptuous "Curse of the Golden Flower," the ambitious "Perfume" or the unflinching "The Dead Girl."

By Andrew O'Hehir

Read more: Andrew O'Hehir, Movies, Roberto Benigni, Tom Tykwer, Movie Reviews, Arts & Entertainment, Reviews, Zhang Yimou, Beyond the Multiplex

The empress (Gong Li) and her son Prince Jai (Jay Chou).

Dec. 21, 2006 | Ho ho ho! Merry Judeo-Christian-Taoist-Wiccan solstice celebration, everybody! Now let's leave the presents and the roast Tofurkey and the crackling logs and the ginormous inflated Santa-in-a-manger on your front lawn, and go see some disturbing, ambitious movies. Yes, it's that time again, not just for the blazing neon-lit menorah and Mariah Carey's terrifying versions of Christmas songs and the passing of the Kwanzaa chalice, but also for a few dozen potentially worthwhile films to descend on us all at once.

Many things about the movie industry seem to derive from ancient ancestral wisdom rather than rational business considerations, and the onslaught of films in Christmas week is paramount among these. I realize that distributors must open movies before the New Year to make them eligible for the Oscars. But the logic of carving up the adult audience, not to mention the limited attention span of film critics, into many pieces, at exactly the moment when we're all supposed to be abandoning the cares of the workplace and embracing our neglected parents, spouses and/or offspring escapes me somehow.

Still, I have good news. If your family is the adventurous type -- or if you just need to get the hell away from them -- there's some good stuff to see this season. (Most of the week's big releases are opening first in New York and Los Angeles, and spreading out gradually. I've done my best to provide specific info below.) The list begins with a film I'm not reviewing here, the beautiful and troubling fantasy "Pan's Labyrinth." It's too dark and violent for most children (certainly those under 12 or so) but it's the one picture of 2006 that no film-lover can afford to miss.

Zhang Yimou's "Curse of the Golden Flower" might not be that director's best big-budget spectacle (fans of "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" can fight it out), but it's a sumptuous, decadent, subtly poisonous film, with some of the most amazing widescreen cinematography in recent memory. Tom Tykwer's long-awaited adaptation of Patrick Süskind's international bestseller "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" is almost as ambitious, and probably not as successful. Still, it's fascinating, a relentlessly grotesque chiaroscuro vision of 18th century Europe, a serial-killer film that simultaneously channels early David Cronenberg, "Barry Lyndon" and "Oliver!"

There might be no movie of the entire year with less feel-good holiday mojo than Karen Moncrieff's second feature, "The Dead Girl." An anthology of intimate mini-films about the characters surrounding a murdered Hollywood prostitute, it's an unflinching gaze into some of the darkest subject matter our society has to offer. Moncrieff marshals a strong and diverse cast and her technical command is impressive. But does she admit enough light to this meticulously imagined universe to make it worth visiting? Much friendlier, at least on the surface, is Roberto Benigni's "The Tiger and the Snow," which brings his "Life Is Beautiful" tragi-clowning to the Iraq war.

Now pass me that eggnog and some of that mysterious cake your aunt always makes. No, don't tell me what's in it, please. Then we're off to the movies. Have a great holiday season, everybody.

Next page: Zhang Yimou's eye-popping "Curse"