MMMIIMIIIIUIMHUMtmtllHIMIIIIIillllllili MSC, OPAS Three Decades of Performing Arts Tuesday-Wednesday Nights! February 11 -12 at 7:30 PM Rudder Auditorium TICKETS Call 845-1234 or logon to www.MSCOPAS.org For Mature Audiences Featuring Your Favorite Songs from the Hit Movie! 'The Hours" Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore Paramount/Miramax Director: Stephen Daldry “The Hours” centers around three women who are strongly affected by the classic Virginia Woolf novel “Mrs. Dalloway.” One is writing it, one is reading it and the other is liv ing it. It is the Golden Globe winner for Best Drama, and Nicole Kidman won the Golden Globe for Best Actress. In the film, Kidman portrays famed but trou bled author Virginia Woolf as she pens the acclaimed novel. Kidman’s character is becoming increasingly depressed as her cre ativity is stifled under suburban life. Meryl Streep portrays Clarissa Vaughan, a modern-day Mrs. Dalloway, who begins to ques tion the purpose of her life when her friend asks, “When was the last time you were happy?” Julianne Moore gives the most convincing performance in the film as Laura Brown, a 1950s homemaker whose loneliness increases as her family grows larger. Ultimately, these three women must make life-altering choices to either overcome the inequities and mundane nature of life or live with the knowledge that they will remain unhappy and unfulfilled until death. “The Hours” attempts to preach empower ment in a story in which suicide and running away appear to be the only options. However, in addition to the characters’ lack of choices, some of their shocking actions render the film somewhat unbelievable. The film attempts to salvage the message, “Life is the answer,” at the very end, but it is too late. The audience is left questioning the full ness and meaning of their own lives. While this may have been the intent of the filmmakers, and a reality for many, it is not the feeling one wants to carry home from the movie theater. While all three actresses deliver incredible performances, this film lacks the substance to fully explore their talents. It limps along at an incredibly slow pace because no explanation is given how these women arrive in their respective situations. The screenplay is a watered-down version of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, and the film’s producers should have remembered that not everyone has read the book. Exercise caution within regard to whom you see this film. The intense, mature subject mat ter makes this film’s PG-13 rating a joke. “The Hours” is a complex novel that should not have been adapted to the screen. It is neither the “feel-good movie of the year,” nor the best. —Jeremy Osborne "About Schimdt" Jack Nicholson, Kathy Bates,] Hope Davis, Durmot Mulronq New Line Cinema Director: Alexander Payne Warren Schmidt, played by Jack Nicholson, just retired from an Omaha insurance company* he worked for almost 40 years. During a rather depressing retirement party al drab, third-rate steakhouse, where co-workers stand and congratulate him on a successful career, Scl heads to the restaurant bar feeling completely tied with his life, which for him was only hisci Schmidt’s life as a retiree leaves him with the option of joining in the daily life of his wife of years, Helen, whom Schmidt feels he does not anymore, asking, “who is this old woman who is my house?” It is not the restlessness of retirement but rat desperation that inspires Schmidt to explore theq highway in his 30-foot Winnebago Adventtu Schmidt heads to Colorado with the mission ofsavi his somewhat estranged daughter, Janie (Hope Davit from marrying mullet-sporting, waterbed salesi Randall Hertzel (Durmot Mulroney, “My Bi Friend’s Wedding”). This is where the real fun begins as Schmidt introduced into a counterculture of fellow Winnel travellers on the road and begins correspondencewi a 6-year- old Tanzanian boy whom he sponsors for cents a day as part of his efforts to make an impact the world. Schmidt’s loneliness on the road evoki some sympathy as he struggles with how to his life. Director Alexander Payne makes a graceful transit from the comedic lives of Schmidt’s trip and the Hei family whom Janie joins into dramatic moments Schmidt’s solitude and complete loneliness. Look out for Kathy Bates as Randall Hertzel New Age, rather crass mother, especially in a scene with Nicholson. The role of Warren Schmidt is a big one thatoi someone like Jack Nicholson could effortlesslyexi cute without running the possibility of gettingte/M Nicholson has already received a Golden Globe for his brilliant portrayal of Warren Sc\\w4 m another Oscar would be well-deserved for this id New Line Cinema’s “About Schmidt” g/Vesy people an accurate view of the world of a man neaS the end of his life, lost, and desperately on a search what he will leave on this earth when he is gone.Ti this journey with Warren Schmidt. —Lauren Swl f ven a lit I l it* anJ Junii i' Minis (Vl SJK || fo set it on virltc ffiWB l uij fititls cnline usf out ijpiir itni aid i imp oil kvt niqlifc All tickets only $7*50!] When Gerda's best friend disappears, the young girl embarks! on a courageous adventure through| mysterious lands to bring him home. Now, you and your friends can join Gerda's theatrical journey- filled with puppets, masks, music and mesmerizing special effects. ENCH ANTMENT THEATRE COMPANY and OPAS JR present THE SNOW QUEEN by Hans Christian Andersen Sunday, February 2 at 2 PM and 4 PM Rudder Theatre iamworiesp. lEurr lISENlIAliENLiiii DEI HE 1EAI0J1ES OJIMOD LISABDNEE BREHFEDD JHfATEJDUK ■iiiStJiAEEGDDGIS WS “lAHAIAHN RIM10PSIECWER0SS "SGECILIAI11 pSBGGEGORIGARDINER BOOM lANlEAEll GIGRIEfliOO EUNSIDff "IGAIGFERNANDEZ■GEGGIEROCKBflHEiD TICKETS: 845-1234 www.IVISCOPAS.org PG-13] PARENTS STRONGLY CAUTIONED ■SO* SOUNOICK MIlABlf ON WHCUI tU Some Material May Be Inappropriate for Children Under 13 ORfftMWORKSRtCflfiOS [JR. VIOLENCE, SEXUAL CONTENT AND LANGUAGE Coming Soon To Theatres [verywhern www.bikerboyz.cam FOR THE YOUNG AT ART! A/r/Ve early and meet Junior and his y f OPAS JR puppet pals! The OPAS JR puppet show starts about 15 minutes before each show.