One Day: A Page Turner Becomes a Head Scratcher
Even with cute stars Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, this adaptation of David Nicholls’ best-selling novel lacks the punch of its source material
Accidentally on Purpose: The True Tale of a Happy Single Mother is available for nearly nothing at various online bookstores and from boxes in Pols' barn.
Mary Pols
Mary Pols has been reviewing film and occasionally books for TIME since 2009. She has degrees from Duke University, where she studied art history, and the University of California Berkeley’s School of Journalism. Before joining TIME, she worked as a reporter and a movie critic for several California newspapers. She wrote a memoir about parenthood that was turned into a television comedy (not Weeds).
Articles from Contributor
The Help: The Secret Lives of Maids
It is safe to say actress Viola Davis will get an Oscar nomination for her uncompromising performance in this adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s best seller
The Whistleblower: Rachel Weisz Against the Sex Trade
The Oscar winner delivers a great, subtle performance as a Nebraska cop trying to right wrongs in Bosnia
The Change-Up: Body Swapping, Plus Fake Boobs and F Bombs
Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds trade bodies, but this comedy does little to switch up a familiar movie formula
Friends with Benefits: Soft Porn, Meet Snarky Charm
Romantic comedies tend to be lousy. This is a given that director Will Gluck’s Friends with Benefits uses to its advantage. It revels in poking fun at the formula that of course it won’t be able to avoid: pretty people fall in …
Another Earth: Sister from Another Planet
Screenwriter-star Brit Marling enters a new atmosphere in the dreamy sci-fi film Another Earth
Winnie the Pooh: A Sublimely Silly Old Bear
Disney aims for a new classic and succeeds
Horrible Bosses. So-So Movie. Excellent Jason Bateman!
It’s Hangover Hitchcock, with guys putting toothbrushes down their pants, locking each other out of cars, debating who would get raped in prison first and bumbling through a plot to commit murder
Larry Crowne: Tom Hanks’s Unemployment for Beginners
Losing your job ain’t so bad when you get to date Julia Roberts
Cameron Diaz in Bad Teacher: What’s Her Motivation?
The saggy premise of her new comedy could use some augmentation
Cars 2: A Pixar Fantasy That Runs Out of Gas
In Pixar’s latest, an unlikely friendship runs out of gas
A Q&A with Cars 2 Director John Lasseter
Lasseter talked to TIME about the latest installment of his beloved ‘Cars’ franchise, working with Michael Caine and the late Paul Newman, as well as the future of 3-D
Buck: Horseman, Don’t Pass By
Real-life horse whisperer Buck Brannaman is the star of an affecting new documentary
