As is customary in the early part of January this is another quiet movie week with just two movies opening in wide release and three films epanding in theaters. Just click on the corresponding link to purchase the movie posters:

• One Missed Call (Horror/Thriller) – What will it sound like when you die? In “One Missed Call,” a chain of people receive terrifying cell phone messages of their own final fatal moments. Though the messages can be deleted, their number is up.

  Cast: Edward Burns, Shannyn Sossamon, Ray Wise, Margaret Cho; Directed by: Eric Valette

  View the One Missed Call movie trailer

• The Killing of John Lennon (no poster available yet) – A dramatization of Mark Champman’s plan to murder John Lennon.

  Cast: Jonas Ball, Thomas A. McMahon, Robert C. Kirk, Krisha Fairchild

  Expanding:

• The Orphanage (Horror/Thriller) – In The Orphanage Laura (Belén Rueda from “The Sea Inside”) who purchases her beloved childhood orphanage with dreams of restoring and reopening the long abandoned facility as a place for disabled children. Once there, Laura discovers that the new environment awakens her son’s imagination, but the ongoing fantasy games he plays with an invisible friend quickly turn into something more disturbing. Upon seeing her family increasingly threatened by the strange occurrences in the house, Laura looks to a group of parapsychologists for help in unraveling the mystery that has taken over the place.

  Cast: Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Príncep, Mabel Rivera, Montserrat Carulla, Andrés Gertrúdix ; Directed by: Juan Antonio Bayona

  View The Orphanage movie trailer

• Juno (Comedy/Drama) – “Juno” stars Ellen Page as the title character, a whip-smart teen confronting an unplanned pregnancy by her classmate Bleeker (Cera). With the help of her hot best friend Leah (Thirlby), Juno finds her unborn child a “perfect” set of parents: an affluent suburban couple, Mark and Vanessa (Bateman and Garner), longing to adopt. Luckily, Juno has the total support of her parents (Simmons and Janney) as she faces some tough decisions, flirts with adulthood and ultimately figures out where she belongs.

  Cast: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, J.K. Simmons, Allison Janney, Rainn Wilson; Directed by: Jason Reitman

  View the Juno trailer

• Atonement (Drama) – Shot on location in the U.K., the film’s story spans several decades. In 1935, 13-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) and her family live a life of wealth and privilege in their enormous mansion. On the warmest day of the year, the country estate takes on an unsettling hothouse atmosphere, stoking Briony’s vivid imagination. Robbie Turner (Mr. McAvoy), the educated son of the family’s housekeeper, carries a torch for Briony’s headstrong older sister Cecilia (Ms. Knightley). Cecilia, he hopes, has comparable feelings; all it will take is one spark for this relationship to combust. When it does, Briony – who has a crush on Robbie – is compelled to interfere, going so far as accusing Robbie of a crime he did not commit. Cecilia and Robbie declare their love for each other, but he is arrested – and with Briony bearing false witness, the course of three lives is changed forever.

  View the Atonement movie trailer

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Atonement starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy arrive in theaters December 7th and there is already talk of several Oscar nominations for this film.

Atonement makes you thankful for DNA evidence, as it could have spared the main characters of this Joe Wright-directed drama decades of tragedy had it existed at the time the story is set. Christopher Hampton penned the screenplay adaptation of Ian McEwan’s best-selling 2002 novel, which recounts how one child’s spiteful accusation forever alters the course of three lives.

Nearly the entire first hour is spent at the sprawling English estate that the Tallis family calls home, a grand and lustrous world marked by wealth and privilege. Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) is a 13 year-old aspiring playwright who witnesses a pair of encounters between her smoldering older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and the housekeeper’s charming son, Robbie Turner (James McAvoy).

Briony’s confused adolescent emotions and spurned overtures prompt her to make a horrible accusation against Robbie, one that we know to be untrue but there is enough circumstantial evidence to convict Robbie. His life ruined and his romance with Cecilia cut short, Robbie is offered a reprieve from prison if he enlists to fight in World War II. He does so, but longs for the day when he and Cecilia can be reunited.

Briony, meanwhile, has grown up (and is now played by Romola Garai) and realizes how horrible her actions were. Briony — who, like Cecilia, serves as a nurse for wounded soldiers back from the war — struggles to find the right way to atone for her past transgressions. Is it too late for Briony to set things right with Robbie and Cecilia? Or can these two lovers be reunited by the very person who tore them apart?

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Atonement Movie Posters

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Release date: Friday February 15, 2008
Genre: Drama
Running time: 123 min.
Studio: Odeon Films
Producer(s): Eric Fellner, Paul Webster, Tim Bevan
Screenplay: Christopher Hampton
Cast: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Brenda Blethyn, Vanessa Redgrave; Directed by: Joe Wright
Rating: R
Official site: www.atonementthemovie.co.uk

Synopsis:
In 1935, 13-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) and her family live a life of wealth and privilege in their enormous mansion. On the warmest day of the year, the country estate takes on an unsettling hothouse atmosphere, stoking Briony’s vivid imagination. Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), the educated son of the family’s housekeeper, carries a torch for Briony’s headstrong older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley). Cecilia, he hopes, has comparable feelings; all it will take is one spark for this relationship to combust. When it does, Briony — who has a crush on Robbie — is compelled to interfere, going so far as accusing Robbie of a crime he did not commit. Cecilia and Robbie declare their love for each other, but he is arrested — and with Briony bearing false witness, the course of three lives is changed forever.

Briony continues to seek forgiveness for her childhood misdeed. Through a terrible and courageous act of imagination, she finds the path to her uncertain atonement, and to an understanding of the power of enduring love.

Based on the novel by Ian McEwan

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