Weekend movie guide: See it or flee it?

​

"What do you wanna see?"
"I dunno. What do you wanna see?"
Don't let this happen to you! Here's our guide to the best and worst films playing this weekend.

OPENING

SEE: The Last Station
This lushly scenic drama tells a story of the last days of Leo Tolstoy (a suitably grumpy Christopher Plummer), who apparently was a rich and randy old geezer who fought a love-hate war with his bipolar wife (Helen Mirren). (Edina Cinema)
City Pages: "Mirren waltzes away with the movie."
Star Tribune: 3.5 stars Pioneer Press: 3.5 stars RottenTomatoes.com: 69% positive

SEE: That Evening Sun
First-time writer-director Scott Teems has given 84-year-old master actor Hal Holbrook a dream role in Abner Meecham, a Tennessean who walks out of a nursing home and returns to the remote farm where he spent his life. But when he discovers that his son has rented the place to a local bad apple, he takes up residence in a rundown cabin nearby, triggering a volatile feud between the two men. (St. Anthony Main)
City Pages: "As an actor, Holbrook is as unsentimental as Abner himself, and the beauty of his work here lies in his refusal to soften the character's hard edges."
Star Tribune: 4 stars Pioneer Press: 3 stars RottenTomatoes.com: 81% positive

MAYBE: Dear John
A soldier on leave falls for a college coed, but when he reenlists after 9/11, their relationship is strained by distance and war. (area theaters)
City Pages: "To cut through the shameless syrup of their source material, adaptations of Nicholas Sparks novels require that real heat be generated between love-torn leads. Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried exhibit that chemistry."
Star Tribune: 1.5 stars Pioneer Press: 2.5 stars RottenTomatoes.com: 30% positive

FLEE: From Paris With Love
A personal assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to France (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) longs for some more adventurous way to serve his country. His big break comes when he's called on to chaperone a top American field agent in Paris (John Travolta), who turns out to be an efficient but destructive loose cannon. (area theaters)
City Pages: "A shoo-in part for Travolta, here in all his compellingly horrible jivey splendor."
Star Tribune: 0 stars Pioneer Press: 2 stars RottenTomatoes.com: 33% positive

FLEE: Frozen
Three skiers face death when they are trapped on a ski lift during a blizzard. The resort has closed, and a pack of wolves are circling below. (area theaters)
City Pages:"The director can't maintain the suspension of disbelief necessary as we watch three charmlessly written characters bicker and attempt inane ideas. It's one thing to be scared with them and quite another to feel trapped with them."
Star Tribune: 1.5 stars Pioneer Press: 2.5 stars RottenTomatoes.com: 49% positive

Next pages: Special screenings, art houses, and ongoing films