Our critics recommend...

Opening This Week

Due Date See Steven Rea's preview on H2.

Fair Game See Steven Rea's preview on H2.

For Colored Girls This ensemble piece, directed by Tyler Perry and adapted from Ntozake Shange's play, looks at the world of black women in today's world. Janet Jackson and Loretta Devine star.

Four Lions This farce about four incompetent British wannabe jihadists highlights how terrorism can be the result of stupidity rather than ideology.

Genius Within: Inner Life of Glenn Gould Documentary on the life of the late Canadian classical pianist.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest In this third movie in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series, Salander and Mikael must prove her innocence before she goes on trial for attempted murder. Swedish with subtitles.

Megamind See Steven Rea's preview on H2.

Tamara Drewe A young journalist (Gemma Arterton) returns to the small English town she was raised in and causes a stir among the locals, who are taken aback by how much she has changed. From the graphic novel.

Reviewed by critics Carrie Rickey (C.R.) and Steven Rea (S.R.).

W.S. denotes a wire-service review.

A Film Unfinished Extraordinarily powerful, disturbing documentary built around footage from a Nazi propaganda film shot inside the Warsaw Ghetto in the spring of 1942. Grim reportage (dead bodies on sidewalks; dull-eyed, emaciated children) and twisted fantasy (Jews feasting merrily in cafes) commingle like a nightmare. A profoundly unnerving piece of Holocaust history. 1 hr. 30 No MPAA rating (graphic images of dead and dying, naked bodies, adult themes) - S.R.

Mademoiselle Chambon A reclusive French teacher strikes up an unlikely relationship with the father of one of her students. Sandrine Kiberlain is superb in the title role. French with subtitles. 1 hr. 41 No MPAA rating (mature themes and sexual scenes) - W.S.

The Social Network An enthralling, near-perfect comedy of manners from director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin about the exhilarating creation and contested consolidation of Facebook. With Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake. 2 hrs. 01 PG-13 (profanity, sexual suggestiveness, drugs and alcohol) - C.R.

Hereafter

Clint Eastwood directs this uncharacteristically sweet, loping meditation on death and what happens next, with Matt Damon, Cécile de France and twin boys Frankie and George McLaren as far-flung strangers whose paths converge in fateful ways.

PG-13

(natural cataclysm, violence, adult themes) 1 hr. 49 -

S.R.

My Dog Tulip Wynnewood-based animators Paul and Sandra Fierlinger turn J.R. Ackerley's memoir about his "ideal" friendship with a German shepherd into a beautiful, funny, heartfelt tale. With Christopher Plummer as Ackerley.

A must-see for dog lovers, animation-lovers, and Ackerley aficionados. 1 hr. 22 No MPAA rating (animal fornication, adult themes) - S.R.

Never Let Me Go Sci-fi for the Belle & Sebastian set: a beautifully mopey adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's much-praised novel, with Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, and Andrew Garfield as young Brits in dark mood and rumpled mode, trapped in a mysterious - and, for them, tragic - alternate Britain of the 1970s and '80s. 1 hr. 44 R (adult themes, sex, nudity) - S.R.

Waiting for "Superman" Oscar-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim's devastating diagnosis of what's wrong with American public schools and what it would take to heal them. With Geoffrey Canada, Michelle Rhee, and Randi Weingarten. 1 hr. 42 PG (incidental smoking) - C.R.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole **1/2

Zach Snyder's eye-popping animated 3-D combat film about civil war in the owl kingdom has adversaries who wear armor on beaks, breasts, and talons. Beautifully rendered, but it's hard to tell the owls apart. 1 hr. 40

PG

(animated owl-on-owl combat) -

C.R.

Life as We Know It ** A glop

of rom-com pabulum starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel as mismatched foster parents who co-parent the orphaned infant of their respective best friends. 1 hr. 52 PG-13 (profanity, sexual candor, drugs) - C.R.

Paranormal Activity 2 *** Special-effects thriller about things that go bump in the night features many of the usual cliches that abound in this genre. With Brian Boland and Sprague Grayden. Directed by Tod Williams. R 1 hr. 28 - W.S.

Red **1/2 Bruce Willis drags innocent tagalong Mary-Louise Parker through this slapstick action romp full of CIA hugger-mugger, expensive hardware, and cool, glib dialogue. With Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren as Willis' old black-ops colleagues. 1 hr. 51 PG-13 (violence, mayhem, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.

Secretariat *** As horse breeder Penny Chenery, Diane Lane elevates Randall Wallace's workmanlike sports inspirational about the mighty chestnut stallion. 1 hr. 56 PG - C.R.

The Town *** Ben Affleck stars in and directed this compelling crime thriller, about a band of Boston bank robbers and the relationship one falls into with their hostage - a bank manager. With Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, and Jeremy Renner. 2 hrs. 05 R (violence, profanity, drugs, adult themes) - S.R.

Reviewed by critics Wendy Rosenfield (W.R.), Howard Shapiro (H.S.), and Toby Zinman (T.Z.).

Molumby's Millions

(Iron Age Theatre) A comedy about the sleazy, corrupt world of boxer Jack Dempsey. Opens Friday.

Rent (11th Hour) Jonathan Larsen abides. Preview Friday, opens Saturday.

An Iliad

(McCarter Theatre) A brilliant adaptation of Homer's Iliad, with Stephen Spinella playing the epic poet as well as all his characters in a heroic performance. Perhaps the most powerful antiwar play I've ever seen. Through next Sunday.

- T.Z.

Carrie (Brat Productions) Neither scary nor funny, this campy Carrie-in-drag misses Stephen King and Brian De Palma by a mile. Through next Sunday. - T.Z.

The Early Bird (Inis Nua Theatre Company) A child vanishes. Through Nov. 7.

Ghost-Writer (Arden Theatre Company) Michael Hollinger's fine new play starts the Arden season with a quiet bang. This engrossing, old-fashioned work about a novelist and his secretary is about writing - and typing - and creativity and love. Through next Sunday. - T.Z.

Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical (Media Theatre) This muddled, heavy-breather, pop-schlock musical gets much more support from its strong lead performers than it deserves. Ends Sunday. - W.R.

Jersey Boys (Forrest Theatre) A good-time, song-stuffed musical biography of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Through Dec. 12. - T.Z.

Legacy of Light (People's Light & Theatre) Two science-minded moms - one Voltaire's lover, another in today's New Jersey - try to make sense of it all in this sweetly comic drama. Through next Sunday. - W.R.

Macbeth (Wilma Theater) The Wilma's Macbeth is a visual and aural dazzler, but, like the cold, dark set, the acting never gives the play the necessary emotional juice. Through Nov. 13. - T.Z.

Murder on the Nile (Hedgerow Theatre) Secrets and more secrets in the Agatha Christie classic. Through Nov. 21.

My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish, I'm in Therapy (Society Hill Playhouse) A stale one-man comedy routine about ethnic upbringing masquerading as theater. Through Dec. 12. - W.R.

Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom (Azuka Theatre) Takes the old idea of soul-killing conformity in the ticky-tacky suburbs and updates it with disaffected teenagers and online gaming. Good cast, good effects, not much of a play. Ends Sunday. - T.Z.

Norma Doesmen (Society Hill Playhouse) It's the production and the performance that got smaller in this silly, unimpressive drag parody of Sunset Boulevard. Through next Sunday. - W.R.

The Old Settler (South Camden Theatre Company) Harlem, 1940s. Things change when a young man moves in with two older sisters. Through next Sunday.

Oleanna (Curio Theatre Company) Mamet's college-campus battle of the sexes. Through Nov. 13.

The Philly Fan (Kimmel Center Innovation Theatre) Bruce Graham's resilient one-man show about the trials and triumphs of Philly sports fans is either a realistic look at our passion or a lowbrow look at ourselves. Ends Sunday.

Run Mourner Run (Flashpoint Theatre Company) Tarell Alvin McCraney's play about a man caught between his town's two biggest powers. Through Nov. 20.

Silverhill (InterAct Theatre Company) This engrossing new drama by Thomas Gibbons, our local playwright of political ideas, explores - with remarkable evenhandedness - a 19th-century utopian religious community undermined by love and money. Through Nov.14. - T.Z.

Uncle Vanya (Lantern Theatre Company) Fluid staging, true-to-life acting make Chekhov's tale of unrequited passion and misspent lives as fresh as if it were written today. Through Nov. 21. - H.S.

Sylvia (Delaware Theatre Company) A man, a woman, a dog, problems: Dog-lovers will especially lap up this nicely staged production of a cutesy play about empty-nesters and their new pooch. Through next Sunday. - H.S.

The Threepenny Opera (Arden Theatre) Mack needs to sharpen his knife in this friendly but dull version of Brecht and Weill's classic musical. Through next Sunday.- W.R.

Why I'm Scared of Dance by Jen Childs (1812 Productions) Jen Childs' one-woman show, filled with clever lines, frames the story of her life through chorophobia - fear of dancing. Ends Sunday.

Toy Story 3 ***

Pixar's second sequel finds Buzz, Woody, and the gang shipped off to a day-care center, and the toys have to figure out how to get back home. The CG animation is dazzling, but by the inherent nature of a sequel, the glow of originality has dissipated. 1 hr. 43

G

(moments of intense action and creepiness) -

S.R.