Skip this one and embrace the magic of the original Babe on home video. Though it may seem disjointed and patchy in places, Beloved never strays away from capturing the persistence and courage of an African-American family in their struggle to pave a new life through a world designed to humiliate them. At the dinner table of a wealthy family's boozy reunion, the son of the clan's patriarch rises and recounts how he was raped as a child by the old man. The party goes downhill. Woody Allen has rotated in recent years between dud comedies and funny comedies.
Celebrity is among the latter.
Allen's neurotic character to perfection in this bittersweet romp among star-crossed Manhattanites. The trailer makes the biopic of England's Elizabeth I look like a heavy metal video, and the movie itself has enough torchlit gothic gore to sate the appetites of Ozzie Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio. Cate Blanchett's portrayal of the iron-fisted monarch brings to mind Lilith Fair more than Windsor Castle. Kapur confesses that he knew nothing about his subject before he made this picture. Will Smith with the aid of spy satellites and computers.