Tom Hanks playing not so nice, Sarah Polley letting women talk and an entangled story from Korea

Two of the films I cover today have been reviewed before in other places. That's because they've already been in select theaters for a week or so and are now going wide. Release patterns are like that this time of year. For instance, a very good Canadian film called Adult Adoption had a world premiere at a Scottish film festival, starts today in one theater in Toronto and arrives elsewhere next week. And that excellent film, Living, which stars Bill Nighy and was widely publicized as starting this week, has been delayed to next Friday. I'll catch up to them then.

Catch-up or not, these are my new ones today:

A Man Called Otto: 3 stars

Women Talking: 4

Broker: 3

Door Mouse: 2 ½

A MAN CALLED OTTO: It's a bit unexpected to see Tom Hanks playing a grumpy curmudgeon. He's usually such a nice guy, his Col. Tom Parker in Elvis being an exception. But here he is snapping at anybody who violates his rules on the small gated street he patrols every morning. Drivers who dare enter it without a permit, people who misuse the recycling bins, or anybody else who annoys him get termed “idiots”. And don't ever leave the gate open if you don't want to hear a blast from him. He also rails against real estate developers.

Some neighborhoods do have guardians like him and he originated in a Swedish novel and film (A Man Called Ove, a big hit and Oscar nominee six years ago). This re-make, co-produced by Hanks and directed by Marc Forster, now goes wide after starting in a few theaters last week and managing to hit #4 on the box office chart. Why, is not hard to explain. It's a heartwarming film, light and amiable and easy to take.

You know that Otto will have a personality turnaround. A new family on the street will help with that. The mother, played by Mariana Treviño, will appeal to his better side, serve him Mexican food and appeal for his help. He meanwhile will reveal why he's such a grump in flashbacks that show his real-life son (Truman Hanks) as a young Otto, meeting and romancing his wife Sonya (Rachel Keller). Later memories drive him suicidal (unsuccessfully). That fit better in the grittier Swedish film as does an argument about cars. Ford versus Chevrolet isn't the same as Volvo versus Saab. But this is time spent with Tom Hanks. That's the attraction. (In theaters) 3 out of 5

WOMEN TALKING: Here's a case where “talky” is not at all a criticism. It describes the film perfectly. There are eight women in a hayloft, and a man taking notes. They debate and discuss, argue and pit anger against appeasement and the result is powerful. You'll follow every word as they decide which of three options to take. They're in a Mennonite community where men and even their sons have been abusing the women. Apparently for years. Drugging them and raping them. Complaints are dismissed as “female imagination.” Something like it did happen in a colony in Bolivia and that inspired the novel by Miriam Toews. In Sarah Polley's film it's a universal discussion about women's rights and response to patriarchal control. I imagine debates like it went on all the time when the women's movement emerged in the 1960s. And still do.

This has the added factor of religious faith. Do they forgive? Do they fight back? Or do they leave? The latter two are pretty well tied when the woman vote. Two young women (Jessie Buckley and Claire Foy) are full of rage. One would kill. Another (Rooney Mara) is looking for a peaceful solution even though she's pregnant after a rape. Two older women (Judith Ivey and Sheila McCarthy) regret not having spoken up before. Everybody discusses how men pass their bad ways on to their sons. So, if the women decide to leave, do they take the boys? If they forgive, does that imply permission? It's a lively debate in a surprisingly lively movie, which also has brief flashes of humor. That you might not expect but strong acting and Polley's scorching script make this a powerful movie. (In theaters) 4 out of 5

BROKER: Here's a road trip, a heartwarming family drama and a police story all in one and with so many elements it's no wonder it is immensely engaging. It's from South Korea and in the tradition of Parasite stars Song Kang Ho as a man running a shady baby adoption scheme. Unwanted infants can be dropped off in a church's “baby box.” They'll be cared for and passed on to child welfare agencies. One mother believes that but has second thoughts and returns to reclaim her child. It has been intercepted though by an employee who works with Sang Hong Ko's character to sell babies to couples who can't have any of their own.

The mother (played by singer Lee Ji-eun) demands to come along so that she can approve of the people who buy her baby. A boy, a stowaway in the van they drive, comes along too. In effect they form a family on the road. They debate what they're doing: “kidnapping” or “benevolence.” There's a running gag about the baby's skimpy eyebrows and what to do about them. Backstories are revealled. The accomplice was an orphan himself and still questions why his mother game him up. Also why did the young woman in this story want to give up her child? It's a complex story that gradually emerges.

The group drives from city to city to check out various prospective parents and two police women follow, hoping to catch them in the act of selling. There are also two hoods on their tail but that's another strand in this tangled web spun by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda. Intricate but recommended. (in theaters) 3 out of 5

DOOR MOUSE: Canadians can do cynicism as well as anybody. The main character here “used to think there was a system of ethics” only to find the real truth: there are only predators or prey. That's from Vancouver-born actor Avan Jogia who wrote and directed this modern film noir which takes us deep down into the underbelly of proper society. And on “a full pack of cigarettes sort of night” too.

A young woman nicknamed Mouse (Hayley Law) is trying to make it as a comic book artist and supports herself as a dancer in a strip club run by Mama (Famke Janssen). Another dancer goes missing; nobody cares and Mouse, along with her friend Ugly ((Keith Powers) goes to investigate. That takes her, in six chapters that simulate a graphic novel's structure and with frequent sequences in animation, down into an underworld of drug dealers and pimps, seedy characters like Crawdaddy and “The Dame” and an ongoing party that attracts proper people like judges. There's a comic book and punk vibe here, with a bleak view of the world. Stylish but scuzzy, if you want to go down there. (Theaters) 2 ½ out of 5