Nacho Libre
Infantile and dull comedy about a Mexican friar (Jack Black), working as a cook in a boys' orphanage, who secretly takes up "lucha libre" wrestling against the rules of his order, while hoping to earn the admiration of a pretty young nun (Ana de la Reguera). Director and co-writer Jared Hess's ...
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Nacho Libre (CNS)
Namesake, The
Superb, beautifully acted over-the-years saga about Indian newlyweds (Tabu and Irrfan Khan) who emigrate to New York to start their life, and the joys and vicissitudes which follow, including the son (Kal Penn) who grows away from them. Director Mira Nair's adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri's acclaimed novel holds ...
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Namesake, The (CNS)
Namesake, The
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Namesake, The (EDC)
Nancy Drew
Reasonably involving, though strictly formulaic, yarn about a plucky teenage detective (Emma Roberts) who, despite her father's (Tate Donovan) admonition to stop "sleuthing" when they move from a small town to Los Angeles, can't resist the urge to unravel the mystery behind a Hollywood actress's death years ago, with the aid ...
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Nancy Drew (CNS)
Nanny Diaries, The
When a recent college graduate (Scarlett Johansson) turns her back on Wall Street only to be accidentally hired by a wealthy couple (Laura Linney and Paul Giamatti) as a nanny for their son (Nicholas Resse Art), she must conceal the situation from her ambitious mother (Donna Murphy) and, as the stress ...
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Nanny Diaries, The (CNS)
Nanny McPhee
Enjoyable tale of magical nanny (Emma Thompson) who comes to the aid of (seven) out-of-control children and their befuddled widower father (Colin Firth), a mortician, and the servant (Kelly MacDonald) who loves him from afar. Director Kirk Jones, working from a screenplay by Thompson based on the "Nurse Matilda" books, has ...
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Nanny McPhee (CNS)
Nanny McPhee
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Nanny McPhee (EDC)
Nanny McPhee
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Nanny McPhee (SAM)
Nanny McPhee Returns
A sweetly nostalgic tale underpinned by lessons both children and their seniors would do well to take to heart, "Nanny McPhee Returns" (Universal) contains nothing genuinely objectionable. Running gags featuring mildly gross barnyard humor and a few scenes of slapstick violence, though, may give some parents pause.
Emma Thompson reprises ...
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Nanny McPhee Returns (CNS)
Napoleon Dynamite
Offbeat, low-budget comedy set in rural Idaho about the high school misadventures of an oddball, wooly-haired misfit (Jon Heder) who lives with his slacker older brother (Aaron Ruell) and cheesy uncle (Jon Gries), and who befriends a shy Mexican student (Efren Ramirez) running for class president against the school's reigning queen ...
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Napoleon Dynamite (CNS)
Napoleon Dynamite
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Napoleon Dynamite (SAM)
Narc
Gritty morality tale about two Detroit undercover narcotics officers (Jason Patric and Ray Liotta) obsessed with solving the murder of a fellow cop killed in the line of duty. Director Joe Carnahan buttresses a compelling story with solid performances and dynamic pacing, although the explicit violence and sometimes oblique narrative may ...
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Narc (CNS)
National Lampoon's Gold Diggers
Atrociously unfunny comedy about two twenty-something numskulls (Will Friedle and Chris Owen) who scheme to wed a pair of elderly sisters (Louise Lasser and Renee Taylor), then kill them for their inheritance. What they don't realize is that the geriatric heiresses are actually broke and are only marrying the greedy gigolos ...
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National Lampoon's Gold Diggers (CNS)
National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj
Sophomoric sequel to 2002's "Van Wilder" with American college student Taj Mahal Badalandabad (played again by Kal Penn) continuing his academic and partying pursuits at a prestigious English university where he inspires a group of campus outcasts (Glenn Barry, Anthony Cozens, Steve Rathman and Holly Davidson) to take on some snooty ...
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National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj (CNS)
National Security
Obnoxious, racially charged odd-couple action-comedy pairing a put-upon white ex-cop (Steve Zahn) with the churlish, chronically offended black security guard (Martin Lawrence) who got him fired and imprisoned on false charges of police brutality. As directed by Dennis Dugan, the film plays Lawrence's racist rants for laughs, while potential sympathy for ...
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National Security (CNS)
National Treasure
Unevenly entertaining action adventure about a fortune hunter (Nicolas Cage), who steals the Declaration of Independence, which he believes holds the key to unlocking a 200-year-old mystery surrounding a fabled treasure hidden by America's Founding Fathers. Combining Indiana Jones-inspired action sequences with "Da Vinci Code" intrigues involving secret societies like the ...
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National Treasure (CNS)
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Diverting, though paper-thin adventure sequel in which a treasure hunter (Nicolas Cage), helped by his technologically gifted but hapless partner (Justin Bartha), his estranged parents (Jon Voight and Helen Mirren) and his archivist girlfriend (Diane Kruger), sets out to vindicate an ancestor accused of conspiring in the Lincoln assassination and to ...
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National Treasure: Book of Secrets (CNS)
Nativity Story, The
Dramatization of the New Testament birth narratives from the Annunciation to the birth of Jesus, focusing on the relationship between Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes) and Joseph (Oscar Isaac) and their arduous trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem, with subplots tracking the journey of the three Magi and the efforts of King Herod (Ciaran ...
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Nativity Story, The (CNS)
Nativity Story, The
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Nativity Story, The (SAM)
Nearing Grace
Melancholy coming-of-age drama set in 1979 about an 18-year-old (Gregory Smith) trying to cope after the recent death of his mother -- his despairing father (David Morse) numbs the pain with booze and his older brother (David Moscow) retreats into mind-altering drugs -- while torn between lust for a sexually aggressive ...
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Nearing Grace (CNS)
Negotiator, The
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Negotiator, The (SAM)
Never Back Down
Pointless celebration of violent machismo in which a high school student (Sean Faris) moves to Florida with his widowed mother (Leslie Hope) and tennis champ brother (Wyatt Smith) where he turns to a fight coach (Djimon Hounsou) to train him in the technique of mixed martial arts after being beaten unconscious ...
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Never Back Down (CNS)
Never Been Kissed
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Never Been Kissed (SAM)
Never Say Never
Teenybopper ecstasy comes to the local multiplex with the arrival of "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" (Paramount).
Happily for parents, this genial 3-D profile of the 16-year-old pop singer and musician not only provides entirely wholesome entertainment—threatening only in the sense that frenzied audience members may screech themselves hoarse—it also ...
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Never Say Never (CNS)
New in Town
Quirky, low-key but ultimately endearing romantic comedy about an ambitious Miami-based executive (Renee Zellweger) sent to downsize a food manufacturing plant in New Ulm, Minn., who learns to adjust her values from the eccentric locals and a good-looking union rep (Harry Connick Jr.). Danish director Jonas Elmer helms an engaging cast, ...
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New in Town (CNS)
New World, The
Visually exquisite, but listless and long-winded telling of the semi-legendary love affair between English explorer Captain John Smith (Colin Farrell) and his Native American paramour, Pocahontas (Q'Orianka Kilcher), who saves his life in 1607 Virginia, with their star-crossed romance playing out against mounting tensions between their two peoples. Directed by Terrence ...
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New World, The (CNS)
New Year's Eve
A disappointing salute to an often disappointing social event, "New Year's Eve" (Warner Bros.) wastes a talented ensemble cast on a painfully forced romantic comedy.
Reuniting for a follow-up to 2010's "Valentine's Day," director Garry Marshall and screenwriter Katherine Fugate weave a web of love stories largely free of the moral ...
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New Year's Eve (CNS)
New York Minute
Cotton-candy comedy about twin sisters (Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen) with polar opposite personalities—one studious, the other a slacker—who are sidelined on their way to an important scholarship competition and rock concert, respectively, and wind up being pursued around Manhattan by a bungling gangster (Andy Richter) and an overzealous truant officer (Eugene ...
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New York Minute (CNS)
Next Day Air
Brisk, low-budget brew of violence, street language and stoner comedy mixing dimwitted criminals with a Mexican drug lord as a pot-smoking overnight-delivery driver (Donald Faison from TV's "Scrubs") accidentally takes a package containing 10 kilos of cocaine to the wrong apartment, which just happens to contain misfit criminals (Mike Epps and ...
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Next Day Air (CNS)
Next Stop Wonderland
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Next Stop Wonderland (SAM)
Nicholas Nickelby
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Nicholas Nickelby (EDC)
Nicholas Nickleby
Genial adaptation of the 1839 Charles Dickens classic in which penniless Nicholas (Charlie Hunnam) sets out to reunite with and provide for his mother, sister and crippled friend (Jamie Bell) despite the machinations of his malevolent uncle (Christopher Plummer). A masterful Plummer steals the show in writer-director Douglas McGrath's compressed tale ...
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Nicholas Nickleby (CNS)
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
Clever but morally indulgent romantic comedy set in New York in which the straight teen guitarist (Michael Cera) in a gay underground rock band, dumped by his girlfriend (Alexis Dziena), falls for one of his fans (Kat Dennings) as they search for the secret location of their favorite group's next concert ...
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Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (CNS)
Night at the Museum
Lightweight but diverting comedy-fantasy about a perennial loser (Ben Stiller) who takes a job as night watchman at New York's Museum of Natural History only to learn that the dinosaur bones, stuffed animals, mummies and diorama characters (played by Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan and others) all come to life ...
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Night at the Museum (CNS)
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Enjoyable sequel, again directed by Shawn Levy, has the ex-Museum of Natural History night guard (Ben Stiller) traveling to Washington to rescue his formerly inanimate friends—the museum's display figures (Owen Wilson, Robin Williams, Steve Coogan)—from being archived in the Smithsonian. With the help of Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) and General Custer ...
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Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (CNS)
Night Falls on Manhattan
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Night Falls on Manhattan (SAM)
Night Listener, The
Adaptation of Armistead Maupin novel -- "inspired by true events" -- about a gay radio host (Robin Williams) who develops a paternal phone friendship with a young fan (Rory Culkin) who has AIDS and was sexually abused as a child, but then begins to doubt the boy's existence, and wonders if ...
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Night Listener, The (CNS)
Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor)
Visually splashy but violent adaptation of book one of Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko's best-selling fantasy trilogy set in modern Moscow, about a young man (Konstantin Khabensky) drawn into a battle between the forces of light and darkness, whose uneasy millennial truce is threatened by a prophesied child (Dima Martynov) who, in ...
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Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor) (CNS)
A Nightmare on Elm Street
What the world needs now, to paraphrase an old song, is a reboot of the 1980s slasher franchise "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (Warner Bros.). Well, no, not really.
Ex-janitor-turned-crazed-killer Freddy Krueger (formerly Robert Englund, now Jackie Earle Haley) and his famously fatal fingers return to prey on the dreams—and, ...
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A Nightmare on Elm Street (CNS)
Nights in Rodanthe
Sensitively played but synthetic tale of a betrayed wife (Diane Lane), mulling her errant husband's (Christopher Meloni) surprising request to return to her, and a troubled plastic surgeon (Richard Gere), coming to terms with the death of a patient, who connect at a North Carolina waterfront inn, offer each other comfort ...
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Nights in Rodanthe (CNS)
Nim's Island
Winning yarn set on a solitary South Pacific island where an 11-year-old girl (Abigail Breslin) e-mails a heroic adventurer for help when her widowed marine biologist father (Gerard Butler) fails to return from a two-day research expedition, not realizing that her hero is actually a highly phobic fiction writer (Jodie Foster ...
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Nim's Island (CNS)
Nine
The stylish world of mid-1960s Rome provides the backdrop for the glossy but morally shallow musical drama "Nine" (Weinstein).
Director Rob Marshall's adaptation of Arthur L. Kopit and Maury Yeston's 1982 Broadway hit—itself an homage to Federico Fellini's classic autobiographical fantasy "8 1/2," released in 1963—is, like both its sources, ...
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Nine (CNS)
Nine Lives
Finely acted nine-part anthology with a central female character in each segment: prison inmate Sandra (Elpidia Carrillo); pregnant Diana (Robin Wright Penn) reconnecting with her old flame in the supermarket; powder keg Holly (Lisa Gay Hamilton) seething with serious stepfather issues; Sonia (Holly Hunter), with a troubled relationship below the surface; ...
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Nine Lives (CNS)
Nine Lives
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Nine Lives (SAM)
Nine Queens
Sharp caper movie in which an older con man (Ricardo Darin) cajoles a younger one (Gaston Pauls) into swindling a billionaire (Ignasi Abadal) by selling him a forged set of extremely rare stamps. First-time director Fabian Bielinsky presents likable characters, despite their line of work, in a smart script that seduces ...
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Nine Queens (CNS)
Nines, The
This complex and challenging but ultimately flawed film tells three interlocking stories, all featuring one male protagonist (Ryan Reynolds) and two female protagonists (Melissa McCarthy and Hope Davis) who struggle to guide him in opposite directions, as well as a recurring cast of witnesses to the struggle (Elle Fanning, David Denman ...
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Nines, The (CNS)
Ninth Day, The
Quietly compelling drama about a Catholic priest (Ulrich Matthes) temporarily released from a concentration camp and returned to his native Luxembourg, where a young SS officer (August Diehl) informs him that he has nine days to convince the staunchly anti-Nazi bishop to sign a letter supporting Hitler, leading to a battle ...
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Ninth Day, The (CNS)
No Country for Old Men
Spellbinding, richly detailed thriller based on Cormac McCarthy's 2003 novel set in the Texas borderlands as a cold-blooded, psychopathic killer (Javier Bardem) ruthlessly pursues a welder (Josh Brolin) who's taken a suitcase of loot after stumbling across a brutal drug slaying, while a philosophical small-town sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) pursues them ...
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No Country for Old Men (CNS)
No Impact Man
"Reduce, reuse, recycle." That's the green-minded
mantra of author Colin Beavan, the central figure in the
thought-provoking documentary "No Impact Man" (Oscilloscope).
Filmmakers Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein chart a bold
yearlong experiment by the New York City resident and his journalist
wife, Michelle Conlin, during which they gradually give up every aspect
of their ...
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No Impact Man (CNS)
No Reservations
Sweet story, adapted from the 2001 German film "Mostly Martha," now set in New York, about a work-obsessed master chef (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who takes in her orphaned 9-year-old niece (Abigail Breslin) and her subsequent rivalry with and then growing admiration for the restaurant's happy-go-lucky sous-chef (Aaron Eckhart) who helps open her ...
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No Reservations (CNS)
Nobel Son
Convoluted and gritty thriller in which the slacker son (Bryan Greenberg) of an arrogant chemistry professor (Alan Rickman) and a forensic psychologist (Mary Steenburgen) is kidnapped by a psychopath (Shawn Hatosy) and held to ransom for his father's recently won Nobel Prize money. Though the initial twists of director and co-writer ...
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Nobel Son (CNS)
Noel
Life-affirming holiday drama about five people struggling with personal pain -- including a lonely, middle-aged divorcee (Susan Sarandon) taking care of her ailing mother and a hotheaded cop (Mike Walker) whose uncontrollable jealous fits have driven a wedge between him and his beautiful fiancee (Penelope Cruz) -- as their lives intersect ...
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Noel (CNS)
Noel
It may be difficult to find this low-budget film about five lonely people whose lives cross on Christmas Eve: It's set to air once on cable (TNT) and is being sold through Amazon.com (for $4.99 on disposable DVDs). But its message about finding love and companionship in the midst of loneliness ...
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Noel (SAM)
Norbit
Mild-mannered nebbish (a sweet Eddie Murphy), raised in the Golden Wonton Restaurant Orphanage by an eccentric-but-caring Asian man (also Murphy), is later browbeaten into marrying an abusive and monstrously large battleaxe (Murphy again), but reunites with his childhood sweetheart (Thandie Newton) who comes back to town engaged to an unscrupulous con ...
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Norbit (CNS)
North Country
Compelling drama set in northern Minnesota about a struggling single mother of two (Charlize Theron), who takes a job at a local mine, and encounters hostility and abuse from the predominantly male ranks. With the help of a sympathetic lawyer (Woody Harrelson), she eventually stands up for herself and her female ...
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North Country (CNS)
Northfork
Surrealistic fairytale about a fictitious town in Montana slated to be flooded by the government in order to power a hydroelectric plant and the lives of its residents, including a state evacuation agent (James Woods), a young terminally ill boy (Duel Farnes), a country priest (Nick Nolte), and a quartet of ...
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Northfork (CNS)
Notebook, The
Florid romance set in both present-day and 1940s' North Carolina about a vacationing prep school debutante (Rachel McAdams) and a local working-class boy (Ryan Gosling) whose passion echoes through the decades and has a healing effect on an aging couple (James Garner and Gena Rowlands) who read their star-crossed saga in ...
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Notebook, The (CNS)
Notebook, The
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Notebook, The (SAM)
Notes on a Scandal
Lurid but skillful melodrama set in England about a lonely history teacher (Judi Dench) whose unhealthy interest in an attractive younger art teacher (Cate Blanchett) leads her to help conceal the latter's reprehensible affair with a determined 15-year-old student (Andrew Simpson) in the hope of fostering the woman's dependence on her. ...
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Notes on a Scandal (CNS)
Nothing Like the Holidays
A wounded Iraq War vet (Freddy Rodriguez) returns to his Puerto Rican neighborhood in Chicago for Christmas where he pursues an old flame (Melonie Diaz) as his parents (Alfred Molina and Elizabeth Pena) announce they're divorcing, and his siblings—an aspiring Hollywood actress (Vanessa Ferlito) and an up-and-coming lawyer (John Leguizamo) married ...
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Nothing Like the Holidays (CNS)
Notorious
Gritty but powerful biography of rapper Christopher Wallace, aka Notorious BIG (gifted newcomer Jamal Woolard) from his working-class childhood under the care of his stern but devoted mother (Angela Bassett) and his sudden rise from streetwise drug dealer to musical star, to his tangled personal life and the events leading up ...
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Notorious (CNS)
Notorious Bettie Page, The
Biographical drama about the 1950s' fetish pinup icon (Gretchen Mol) who, raised in a strict Christian home in rural Tennessee, escaped abuse by her father and then her first husband to pursue an acting career in New York, where, after failing at that, she began modeling -- sometimes nude -- for ...
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Notorious Bettie Page, The (CNS)
Notting Hill
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Notting Hill (SAM)
Nowhere in Africa
Absorbing drama set in 1938 about a Jewish couple (Merab Ninidze and Juliane Kohler) and their young daughter (Lea Kurka) who are forced to flee their home in Germany and relocate to a remote farm in Kenya to escape Nazi persecution. Beautifully filmed, writer-director Caroline Link's period piece weaves together various ...
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Nowhere in Africa (CNS)
Number 23, The
Psychological thriller about a man (Jim Carrey) whose reading of a curious novel -- in which the hard-boiled detective-protagonist's story eerily mirrors elements of his own life -- leads him to increasing paranoia and madness, as he, like his fictional counterpart, becomes obsessed with the "23 enigma," the theory that the ...
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Number 23, The (CNS)
Nun's Story, The
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Nun's Story, The (SAM)
Nurse Betty
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Nurse Betty (SAM)
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