200805091044.jpg Back from an unsched­uled lay­off, and hope­ful­ly in time for the week­end, here’s a run-down of this week’s cin­e­mat­ic open­ings. At the top of the list is Todd Haynes’ mas­ter­piece I’m Not There. fea­tur­ing Chris­t­ian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Mar­cus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw as ver­sions of the leg­end of Bob Dylan. I wasn’t expect­ing it be as fun­ny as it is but once I recal­i­brat­ed I enjoyed myself enor­mous­ly. Para­mount, Light­house Petone and Rial­to.

Cameron Diaz and Ash­ton Kutch­er team up for roman­tic com­e­dy about two indi­vid­u­als forced to become a cou­ple in order to win a $3m slot machine prize. Domin­ion Post film review­er Graeme Tuck­ett told me by text that he was sur­prised he liked it, but then he enjoyed Maid in Man­hat­tan too. Vegas is all over the place: Read­ings, Empire, Regent-on-Man­ners.

Music With­in is an indie Amer­i­can dra­ma based on a true sto­ry about a deaf Viet­nam vet­er­an (Ron Liv­ingston from “Band of Broth­er­s”) who returned to the States and began a bat­tle with the author­i­ties for sup­port for all Amer­i­cans with dis­abil­i­ties. Rial­to exclu­sive (and lim­it­ed ses­sions due to the build­ing work at the site so check in advance).

Final­ly, the Pent­house and Light­house (Petone) are play­ing an Irish film, set in a retire­ment home, called How About You, based on a short sto­ry by Maeve Binchy.

I’m Not There. and How About You have already been reviewed at Funer­als & Snakes. The oth­er two will appear next week.