Belle - 3 1/2 smiles

“Belle” blends romance with a political drama that explores slavery from a different perspective. The 1779 double portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle and Lady Elizabeth Murray, that appears at the end of “Belle,” and that actresses Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Sarah Gadon pose for in the film, is remarkable in that it captures the two young women who moved in the aristocratic circles of 18^th-century England. It is believed to be the only painting of its kind from that era – a black girl and a white girl, both in beautiful satin dresses, posing together, equally positioned in the portrait’s space. Director Amma Asante packs a lot of story and the quick pace of early scenes feel rushed, but once the story involved the grown-up Belle, the pace evens out. Dido Elizabeth Belle is the daughter of British admiral Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode) and an enslaved African woman, Maria Belle, After her mother dies, and before her father is dispatched for duty with the British navy, Dido is placed in the care of her father’s uncle, William Murray (Tom Wilkinson), who also happens to be lord chief justice, tasked with ruling on cases involving England’s slave trade, and his wife (Emily Watson). Gugu Mbatha-Raw is outstanding as Dido, a very confused young woman who exists in a state of limbo. She is too highborn to mingle with commoners and too dark-skinned to eat dinner with her own family. She is raised with her cousin, Elizabeth (Gadon), who was abandoned by her father and the pair grow up like sisters although Dido isn’t afforded certain basic accommodations that Elizabeth is. However, Elizabeth has been disowned, left with no dowry so she must marry a wealthy man. The death of Dido’s father leaves her a rich woman so she doesn’t have to marry if she doesn’t want to. One of the men willing to buck the system to be with Dido is John Davinier (Sam Reid), a passionate aspiring lawyer and devout anti-slavery activist.

The most interesting story line involves Lord Mansfield’s work as he decides the Zong massacre case, in which a ship of slave traders threw 142 slaves overboard, claiming it was necessary because supplies were running low. As if that wasn’t horrifying enough, the owners of the Zong then tried to get insurance money for the financial loss. (The trial was not a murder case but an issue of insurance fraud.) Whether Lord Mansfield will side with the insurance company or the slave traders becomes a point of contention in the family. Although Misan Sagay’s script is occasionally too talky, “Belle” is a beautiful period piece that explores racism, classism and sexism in 18^th-century England. 5/4/14

Chef - 3 1/2 smiles

Producer, writer, director, actor. Jon Favreau does it all in “Chef” and he does it well. Although a bit long, this movie is a nuanced film that’s one of the most heartwarming of the year. Favreau plays Carl Casper, a talented but burned-out chef in a trendy Los Angeles eatery owned by Riva (Dustin Hoffman), who recognizes his chef’s talents and frustrations, but is not interested in a cutting-edge menu, especially when a well-known critic, Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt), comes to dine. Carl’s clash with the critic, in which he upbraids the speechless Michel for ruining careers for the sake of cleverness and not realizing that words hurt, goes viral. And when the technologically illiterate Carl engages in a public war of words, he becomes a Twitter sensation and is immediately fired. This is a lengthy set-up for what will become a cross-country road trip as Carl decides to refurbish a food truck that he will drive from Miami to Los Angeles with 10-year-old son Percy (a wonderful Emjay Anthony).

Favreau is good as Carl, but he also has a wonderful supporting cast. John Leguizamo is his right-hand man and sous-chef along with Dustin Hoffman, Sofia Vergara (as his ex-wife), Robert Downey Jr. (as Vergara’s ex-husband), Amy Sedaris is a hysterical bit involving Hell’s Kitchen, and Scarlett Johansson as Carl’s potential girlfriend. You need not be a foodie to appreciate the film’s reverence for a good meal. One meticulous scene in particular, of Carl making a grilled cheese sandwich for his son at home, underscores the art of cooking. And everyone in the audience audibly oooohed when he set it in front of Percy. Besides the great culinary scenes are the sweet moments between father and son and there’s palpable chemistry between Favreau and young Anthony. There are no surprises or bumps along the way, but that’s part of what’s so enjoyable about “Chef.” 5/11/14

The Amazing Spider-Man - 2 smiles

For about two-thirds of its overly long running time of 2 hours and 22 minutes, “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” doesn’t have any villains, which results in something much akin to a soap opera. Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), aka Spider-Man, wrestles with his parents abandoning him as a child, his fear that his girlfriend Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) will be injured if she stays with him and his awkward reunion with a childhood friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), who believes he needs Spider-Man’s blood to cure him from a disease that’s killing him. Meanwhile, one of Oscorp’s loyal electrical engineers, Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), has an accident. After being electrocuted, he falls into a tank of mutant eels and is repeatedly bitten by them. Of course, he doesn’t die, but becomes a super villain called ‘Electro.’ The screenplay explains a lot of things, but it doesn’t explain how Max knows he’s Electro or what Max wants to do with all the city’s electrical power once he gets it. Electro is imposing, all blue and glowing, but he’s just around to provide some spectacular CGI battle sequences with Spider-Man. The real villain is The Green Goblin, but he doesn’t show up until near the end.

The real-life couple of Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone display believable on-screen chemistry, but half of the time Garfield’s Spidey is too much of a smart aleck. Dane DeHaan’s transformation is more inevitable than tragic and his Green Goblin comes across as a generic homicidal maniac. However, the last 15 minutes, which seems more real and unexpected, saves the movie from being a by-the-numbers superhero flick. It’s unfortunate that the overall result is an overstuffed production that could have benefited from better writing. 5/2/14

Brick Mansions - 2 smiles

“Brick Mansions” is an English-language remake of the French action thriller District B13, which came out in the US in 2006 and is the last film completed by Paul Walker before his death in a November 2013 car crash. It is a good example of what Walker did best – be the strong stoic central character in a sea of larger-than-life villains and use his California-surfer good looks to project the image of an appealing and likable action hero. Plus he gets to be (sorta) funny as one half of a mismatched buddy duo. His partner, David Bell who co-founded the parkour movement, demonstrates his gravity-defying skills, leaping over bad guys, through windows, down stairwells and across alleys. Their banter is sporadically amusing and sometimes cringe-inducing and credit for that goes to Luc Besson, who wrote the screenplay. Director Camille Delamarre, longtime editor on Besson productions, uses the slo-mo camera during fight scenes way too much and if one car chase is good, two must be better. Too bad they’re so pedestrian.

Walker stars as Damien Collier, an undercover police detective in a dystopian, futuristic Detroit. City officials have built giant walls around crime-infested housing projects known as Brick Mansions, hoping to keep the crime in a single, self-contained space. Damien must team up with a longtime resident of the projects, Lino (David Belle), reprising his role from the original and making his English-language debut), to take down the drug kingpin who rules the area: Tremaine Alexander (a charismatic RZA). Each man has a score to settle with Tremaine. The best thing about this movie is Bell and his parkour. 4/27/14