Holiday 2007 Picks

I have selected films opening this winter that I have either seen or have heard good buzz. A star () before a title means I strongly recommend this film.

See a complete schedule and more articles at the New York Times.

BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU ARE DEAD
Sidney Lumet, at 85, is making movies as good as at his career peaks (SERPICO, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, FAILSAFE, 12 ANGERY MEN, etc).

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
From the chillingly professional Coen brothers, Ethan and Joel, comes an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's thriller about a hunter (Josh Brolin) who finds $2 million in cash hidden near the Texas-Mexico border. With Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones and Woody Harrelson.

HOW TO COOK YOUR LIFE
The veteran German director Doris Dorrie ("Men ... ") delivers a documentary about Edward Espe Brown, a Zen Buddhist and cookbook author ("The Tassajara Recipe Book"). Sounds like this one has all the answers.

MARGOT AT THE WEDDING
Nicole Kidman, as an insecure and destructive short-story writer, is determined to break up the wedding of her sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to a slacker (Jack Black). Her son (Zane Pais) looks on in horror. Noah Baumbach (who is married to Ms. Leigh) directs. (Strong performances and writing though it falters in places. From director of SQUID AND THE WHALE.. GM)

ENCHANTED
What happens when a fairy-tale princess (Amy Adams) is banished to contemporary New York by an evil queen (Susan Sarandon)? She falls in love with a lawyer (Patrick Dempsey). With James Marsden and Timothy Spall; the erstwhile Disney animator Kevin Lima directs.

I'M NOT THERE
At each stage of his life, Bob Dylan is played by a different actor (Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw) Ñ a highly original device that dates back at least to Sacha Guitry's 1937 "Pearls of the Crown." Todd Haynes directed; with Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, David Cross and Charlotte Gainsbourg. (This isnÕt for everyone. Experimental but fascinating if you lived through and are interested in DylanÕs ever-changing persona). GM)

YIDDISH THEATER: A LOVE STORY
The impresario Zypora Spaisman struggles to keep her Yiddish-language theater alive for one more Hanukkah in a documentary directed by Dan Katzir and featuring the Yiddish theater actors Shifra Lerer, Felix Fibich and Seymour Rechzeit.

STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING
An aging novelist (Frank Langella) falls under the spell of an ambitious young graduate student (Lauren Ambrose). Adapted from Brian Morton's acclaimed 1997 novel, it also stars Lili Taylor and Adrian Lester. Andrew Wagner directs.

WHO IS NORMAN LLOYD
A profile of Norman Lloyd, now in his 90s, an actor and director who was an original member of Orson Welles's Mercury Theater and went on to work with an amazing array of talents, like Alfred Hitchcock, Jean Renoir, Charles Chaplin, Jules Dassin and Joseph Losey. Matthew Sussman directs.

Nov. 28

THE SAVAGES
Wendy and Jon Savage (Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman) are siblings, frantic intellectuals suddenly called on to care for their father (Philip Bosco), who is slipping into dementia. Tamara Jenkins ("Slums of Beverly Hills") writes and directs.

Nov. 30

THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
Julian Schnabel directed this adaptation of Jean-Dominique Bauby's autobiographical novel about his experiences when, at the age of 43, a stroke left him almost completely paralyzed. The impish French actor Mathieu Amalric plays Bauby; with Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-JosŽe Croze and, in one of his last roles, Jean-Pierre Cassel.

FLAWLESS
Sounds like a good old-fashioned heist picture, with a janitor (Michael Caine) teaming up with a midlevel executive (Demi Moore) for a raid on their mutual employer, the London Diamond Corporation. Directed by Michael Radford ("Nineteen Eighty-Four," "Il Postino").

PROTAGONIST
Inspired by the tragedies of Euripides, the filmmaker Jessica Yu follows four individuals through all-consuming quests: a German ex-terrorist, an evangelist who has turned from his gay past, a bank robber and a student of the martial arts.

Dec. 5

JUNO
When she finds herself pregnant by her high school boyfriend (Michael Cera), the take-charge title character (Ellen Page) lines up a perfect couple (Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner) to adopt her child. It's Jason Reitman's sophomore effort (after "Thank You for Smoking"). "UNDOING"Chris Chan Lee's crime film is set in Los Angeles's Korean neighborhood Ñ "K-Town" in local parlance Ñ where a Korean-American gangster (Sung Kang) looks for redemption with the help of his mentor, a retired hoodlum (Tom Bower).

THE VIOLIN
An aging musician finds an inventive way to help a peasant revolt in his corner of Mexico in the 1970s. Francisco Vargas directs.

Dec. 7

ATONEMENT
This year's Venice International Film Festival opened with this Joe Wright film, a British wartime romance based on the novel by Ian McEwan. Keira Knightley, who starred in Mr. Wright's "Pride & Prejudice," plays the victim of a vicious accusation made against her lover (James McAvoy) by her younger sister (Romola Garai).

THE BAND'S VISIT
This Israeli comedy came out of Cannes this year as the festival's one solid commercial prospect, and it was snapped up by Sony Pictures Classics. Eran Kolirin's heartwarming tale of an Egyptian brass band stranded in an Israeli desert village won eight Israeli Film Academy Awards.

THE GOLDEN COMPASS
Nicole Kidman, who really could use some time off, headlines this first installment in New Line's new franchise, "His Dark Materials," based on the trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman. It's got kidnapped children, mad doctors and journeys into unknown worlds, as well as Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Sam Elliott, Dakota Blue Richards and direction by Chris Weitz.

GRACE IS GONE
How a father of two (John Cusack) informs his daughters that their mother has been killed in Iraq. A Sundance favorite; Clint Eastwood has since contributed a new score. James C. Strouse writes and directs.

MAN IN THE CHAIR
A troubled young man (Michael Angarano) who dreams of becoming a movie director befriends a retired set electrician (Christopher Plummer) who once worked for Orson Welles. They get together with a depressed writer (M. Emmet Walsh) to make a documentary about neglect in nursing homes. Michael Schroeder writes and directs. (Flawed but entertaining and Plummer acts up a storm. Walsh is great. GM)

Dec. 14

THE KITE RUNNER
Khaled Hosseini's novel of youthful betrayal and adult guilt set against the recent, tragic history of Afghanistan, as directed by Marc Forster of "Monster's Ball" and the forthcoming James Bond film.

THE SINGING REVOLUTION
James and Maureen Tusty's documentary looks at the Estonian revolution of 1986-91, a movement apparently accomplished through the concentrated singing of patriotic songs.

YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH
Francis Ford Coppola's first feature since "The Rainmaker" in 1997 is an adaptation of a novel by the Romanian author Mircea Eliade. Tim Roth plays a professor who becomes a fugitive in the years leading to World War II. Filmed in Bucharest with (for a Hollywood film) a large number of locals on the crew, including the director of photography, Mihai Malaimare Jr. With Alexandra Maria Lara and Bruno Ganz.

Dec. 19

FLAKES
Aaron Stanford and Zooey Deschanel star as the boho proprietors of the title restaurant where only breakfast cereal is served, but postmodern irony seems to be the main item on the menu. Michael Lehmann ("The Truth About Cats & Dogs") directs.

Dec. 21

P.S. , I LOVE YOU
Based on Cecelia Ahern's novel, centered on a young widow (Hilary Swank) who finds that her late husband has left her a list of 10 things to do to rebuild her life. Gerard Butler, Gina Gershon, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lisa Kudrow, Kathy Bates and Harry Connick Jr. star under the professionally sincere direction of Richard LaGravenese.

STEEP The sport of extreme skiing, explored in a documentary by Mark Obenhaus. (Amazing footage that will make you gasp. GM)

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET Johnny Depp is the bloodthirsty barber; Helena Bonham Carter his suspicious landlady. They make beautiful meat pies together. With Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall and Sacha Baron Cohen (as an Italian this time); Tim Burton directs.

WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY
The unstoppable Judd Apatow producing machine ("Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," "Knocked Up," "Superbad") roars on with a parody of a country-music biopic, directed by Jake Kasdan and starring John C. Reilly as a farm boy who rises to fame and fortune. With Jack White as Elvis Presley.

Dec. 25

THE BUCKET LIST
Two terminal cancer patients (Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman) break out of the hospital and set off in search of adventure, which somehow involves Sean Hayes and Rob Morrow. Rob Reiner directs.

CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR
How a Texas congressman (Tom Hanks) teams up with a rogue C.I.A. agent (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to finance the Afghan revolt against the Soviet occupation. Mike Nichols directs from a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin; with Julia Roberts and Amy Adams.

THE GREAT DEBATERS
The triumph of the underdog formula, this time applied to the exciting world of college debating. Denzel Washington directs this story of a team from East Texas that took on Harvard's feared front line in the 1930s. With Kimberly Elise, Nate Parker and Forest Whitaker.

PERSEPOLIS
A young woman's life in Iran after the revolution of 1978, via an animated film based on the graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi. It's a French production, and at this point Sony Pictures Classics seems to be retaining the French soundtrack, on which the voices of Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve and Danielle Darrieux can be heard. Ms. Satrapi directed with Vincent Paronnaud.

Dec. 26

THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Paul Thomas Anderson, working on a big canvas for the first time since "Magnolia" (1999) and for the first time at all since "Punch-Drunk Love" (2002), adapts Upton Sinclair's "Oil!," a 1927 novel about the pioneering oil scandals of the Harding administration. Daniel Day-Lewis is the central character, a Texas prospector who finds a gusher and begets a corporation. Paul Dano, Ciaran Hinds and Kevin J. O'Connor also star.

Dec. 28

CASSANDRA'S DREAM
Woody (Anglophile) Allen returns to London for the story of two cockney brothers (Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor) who are lured into a crime by a classic femme fatale (Hayley Atwell). (A decent but not memorable Woody film. GM)

HONEYDRIPPER
Danny Glover as the owner of an Alabama honky-tonk on the brink of bankruptcy. When his headline attraction, Guitar Sam, doesn't appear for a crucial gig, he pulls a boastful kid out of jail and puts him onstage. John Sayles wrote and directed; with Charles S. Dutton, Stacy Keach and Mary Steenburgen.

THE ORPHANAGE
A single mother (Belén Rueda) hopes to refurbish the orphanage where she was happily raised, but she has second thoughts when her young son acquires a new and invisible friend. Guillermo del Toro is one of the producers of this Mexican horror film; the director is Juan Antonio Bayona.

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