FILM REVIEWS

Invictus (PG-13), Clint Eastwood’s latest film, shows newly elected Nelson Mandela’s support of the South African rugby team to bring unity to the country. The examples of Mandela’s leadership and the exciting rugby scenes are powerful; otherwise the film settles into an above average sports movie. It gets off to a slow start and misses opportunities throughout to explain the transformation of the rugby captain.—Anna Groff

An Education (PG-13) is a coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age. The script is smart and the acting outstanding, particularly Carey Mulligan as the girl. The story’s turnabout is no surprise but well played. The film raises a good question: What is education for?—gh

DVD REVIEW

Goodbye Solo (unrated) tells a simple story that resonates on many levels. Solo, a Senegalese man living in Winston-Salem, N.C., picks up William, an older white Southerner who wants to pay him hundreds of dollars to take him to a spot in the mountains. Solo is relentlessly optimistic and friendly and tries to talk William out of what appears to be a suicide wish. A mysterious grace pervades this film.—gh

BOOK REVIEW

The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See by Richard Rohr (Crossroad, 2009, $19.95) explores the mystical traditions of Christianity that most Christians have lost sight of. Rohr draws on Scripture to prod readers into “a nondualistic way of seeing the moment,” both-and rather than either-or. “How you love,” he writes, “is how you have accessed Love.”—gh