FILM REVIEWS

Inception (PG-13) showcases director Christopher Nolan’s talent for creating an alternative world. In this one, a team of “extractors” who enter people’s dreams to steal information try to plant an idea that will change the direction of an energy company. Despite the film’s technical artistry, the story is muddled, with a succession of implausible gunfights, and fails to engage us emotionally.—Gordon Houser

The Secret in Their Eyes (R) is an Argentinean film that won last year’s Oscar for best foreign-language film. A retired legal attorney writes a novel to find closure for a past unsolved homicide case and for his unreciprocated love with his superior—both of which haunt him decades later. This powerful film raises the question of how one confronts a seemingly empty life.—gh
The Kids Are All Right (R) follows the ups and downs of an unconventional family of lesbian mothers with two high school children. Despite the realistic dialogue and superb acting of Julianne Moore and Annette Benning, the plot remains shallow. However, the film demonstrates the resilience and power of families.—Anna Groff

BOOK REVIEWS

Death and Afterlife: A Theological Introduction by Terence Nichols (Brazos Press, 2010, $22.99) addresses contemporary and perennial human questions about death and what lies beyond, making a Christian case for an afterlife with God. Nichols examines views of death and the afterlife in Scripture and the Christian tradition, then looks at scientific and philosophical challenges to the afterlife and what we can learn from near- death experiences. He tackles subjects—heaven, hell, purgatory—most avoid and argues that the soul can survive death and that bodily resurrection is possible.—gh