To figure out what happened, however, you'd probably have to be MEGAMIND (November 5), the super-villain in Tom McGrath's animated comedy fantasy featuring the voices of Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell, Jonah Hill, and Tina Fey. For starters, I'd blame the media, who are the butt of the joke in Roger Michell's MORNING GLORY (November 11), a comedy about a TV producer trying to resuscitate a moribund morning show. Will Morning Globe follow in the hallowed tradition of Network, Broadcast News, and Anchorman? Stars Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, and Diane Keaton hope for the best. Or perhaps the forces of history are simply UNSTOPPABLE (November 12), like the runaway train in Tony Scott's thriller starring Denzel Washington, Rosario Dawson, and Chris Pine.
But maybe the time has come for a hero, like the reliable boy wizard in HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 1 (November 19). David Yates directs the penultimate episode in the saga, with Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, Ralph Fiennes, and Helena Bonham Carter. Or someone closer to home, like the faithful husband in Paul Haggis's THE NEXT THREE DAYS(November 19), who doesn't have the patience to get a law degree to clear his wrongly accused wife and decides to spring her from the joint the old-fashioned way. Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, and Liam Neeson star. But you know, even if you succeed at something heroic like that, most likely a beam of light will descend from the sky sucking up everybody out of existence, the way it does in SKYLINE (November 12), an apocalyptic frightfest from Colin and Greg Strause.
I suppose we can still take hope in uplifting stories from the past, such as Tom Hooper's THE KING'S SPEECH (November 26), the true story of the speech therapist who corrected the future King George VI's stammer. (Or was that My Fair Lady?) Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and the ubiquitous Helena Bonham Carter star. Or uplifting tales from the present, like Edward Zwick's LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS (November 24), which, with Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, and Gabriel Macht, is about the guy who invented Viagra. But if you're just in the mood to get away from it all — and it is Thanksgiving, for crying out loud — there's nothing like a fairy tale. So take the family to see TANGLED (November 24), Nathan Greno's animated version of Rapunzel, with the voices of Byron Howard and Mandy Moore.
