As Helena Bonham Carter's genetically accurate rendition of Elizabeth in The King's Speech fades from memory, there's a new Queen Mother in town—England's rather splendid Olivia Colman. Perfectly cast in Hyde Park on Hudson, the story of what happened when the British royals visited FDR on the eve of World War II, she is nevertheless upstaged remorselessly in this teaser by Bill Murray's showboating as America's greatest 20th-century Caesar.
Competing for your teary smiles are that terrifying-looking Gerard Butler romantic comedy Playing for Keeps, about an ex-professional footballer's woes, and Ed Burns joint The Fitzgerald Family Christmas, about an OIrish family reunion. The former claims its territory with cameos by Betty-Whites-in-the-making Uma Thurman and Catherine Zeta-Jones, while the latter leads with endless close-ups of ruby complexions on the faces of the extended family of seasonal tipplers bracing themselves for the return of an errant father.
Competing for your happy chills are the thrillers Deadfall, seemingly a would-be Fargo-esque heist-gone-wrong flick starring Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde as the cutest-looking sibling Bonnie and Clyde of all time, and the let's-not-beat-about-the-bush horror show Bad Kids Go to Hell. Both trailers superconform to their specific genre dimensions in rather satisfying ways.
Parallel-universe curiosity of the week is Lay the Favorite, in which willowy and toothy English rose Rebecca Hall plays Bruce Willis's apprentice in the Vegas of high-roller gambling. It only makes any sense at all because it is based on a true story. Directed by Stephen Frears in 2012, it looks like something directed by Stephen Frears in the mid-1980s, at least according to this trailer.
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