my week at the movies: ‘Shutter Island,’ ‘The Ghost Writer,’ ‘Mother’

When I posted the trailer for Shutter Island (opens in the U.S. and Canada on February 19, and in the U.K. on March 12) back in June of last year, the film was scheduled to open in October. That release date got pushed back, and I thought that at some point between then and now, I might have a chance to read the Dennis Lehane novel the film is based on [Amazon U.S.] [Amazon Canada] [Amazon U.K.]. That never happened. I do suspect, however, from the trailer alone, that there’s a Big Twist in the offing, and I’m pretty sure I know what it is. I hope there’s gonna be some more suspense to movie than me merely waiting to find out if I’m right...

According to the film’s official site, Roman Polanski’s new thriller The Ghost Writer is opening on four screens in the U.S. this coming Friday -- two in New York and two in Los Angeles -- and then in “select cities” on February 26 (no U.K. release date has been announced). All I can say is, I’m glad the movie appears not to feature any young girls, so perhaps I’ll be able to separate the art from the terrible things the artist has done.

My movie plans for last week got disrupted by the snowpocalypse, but I will catch up with Bong Joon-ho’s Mother (opens in the U.S on March 12; no Canadian or U.K. release dates have been announced). Unfortunately, it appears that Frozen -- which I was kinda looking forward to -- had only a one-week run in NYC, cuz it’s gone now. Guess I’m waiting for DVD...