Check out the movies opening this week

If last year's "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" marked the beginning of the end with a gripping feeling of doom and gloom, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" wraps things up once and for all on a note of melancholy.

Oh, it's dramatic, to be sure: gorgeous, somber and startling as the young wizard faces his destiny and fights the evil Lord Voldemort. But the end of this staggeringly successful movie franchise, an epic fantasy saga spanning eight films over the past decade, provides a necessary emotional catharsis for Harry and for us.

Even those who aren't ardent Potterphiles - who aren't waiting in a line around the theater with their homemade wands and hand-drawn lightning scars - might find themselves getting unexpectedly choked up a couple of times.

That's always been the real magic of the series, based on J.K. Rowling's novels: that mixture of the exotic and the everyday, the otherworldly and the utterly relatable. No longer the innocent children they were when they entered Hogwarts, Harry, Ron and Hermione are growing up and moving on, and so must we. That the future of the wizarding world hangs in the balance in this final installment is only part of the tale.

Still, director David Yates has accomplished the difficult task of bringing it all to a close in satisfying fashion. Having directed the last four of the eight films, Yates has provided a momentum and cohesion to the "Harry Potter" canon, which has gotten progressively darker and more mature. And Steve Kloves, who's written all but one of the screenplays in the series, has once again risen to the challenge of trying to please purists and casual viewers alike in adapting Rowling's revered writing.

It's hard to imagine how complicated this must have been, given the density of the mythology, even though the final book was divided into two films. (However, the epilogue, which features some of the main characters decked out in grown-up makeup, does seem a bit cheesy and hasty, and it might inspire a few giggles.)

At the same time, because it took two films to depict the action in the last installment, this second half doesn't feel overstuffed or overlong. It moves with great urgency toward the final showdown between Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes, deeply disturbing as usual); danger infuses every moment, and it never overstays its welcome.

Much of that has to do with the look of the film, both in its attention to inventive detail and to the sweeping, elaborate set pieces. The cinematography from Eduardo Serra, who also shot "Deathly Hallows: Part 1," is once again richly ominous and beautifully bleak. Here, Hogwarts isn't a warm, bustling place full of possibilities but rather a fearsome fortress swarming with Death Eaters, where professor Severus Snape (the deliciously icy Alan Rickman) rules as if leading his own fascist regime.

Yes, "Deathly Hallows: Part 2" is in 3-D - it's the only installment in the series to be presented that way - and as usual, that was unnecessary. The technical elements all looked flawless and impressive in the previous film. (Warner Bros. wisely chose not to rush the conversion from 2-D on "Deathly Hallows: Part 1," and instead took more time for the process here.) But the addition of a third dimension does allow some details to pop, and it's never a distraction.

Although the "Potter" films have always been about the escape of the spectacle, the kids and their struggle to navigate both good and evil provides some much-needed rooting in reality. Radcliffe has never been better, and brief flashbacks to the earliest images of him in the role serve as a reminder of how far he's come. The character has long since been cemented into his identity, but more is required of him physically and emotionally than ever before, and he's more than up for it all.

"Deathly Hallows: Part 2" drops us into a menacing version of this world we've come to know, immediately and without explanation; it's a bit disorienting at first, even if you've seen all that's come before. Then again, if you're bothering to check out the finale, you should know what's going on.

Harry, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) are still hunting Horcruxes - scattered containers that hold pieces of Voldemort's soul, which are crucial to Harry's survival - in order to destroy them. One of them is being stored in Bellatrix Lestrange's bank vault, which allows Helena Bonham Carter to have a bit of fun with her wicked character. Hogwarts is no longer a place of refuge as Voldemort draws ever closer; his attack on the stately school is thrilling, but it also provides moments of heroism for some characters you might not expect.

Still, this is the place where all the narrative and emotional threads must converge and tie up at last. While "Deathly Hallows: Part 2" offers long-promised answers, it also dares to pose some eternal questions, and it'll stay with you after the final chapter has closed.

Review

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

*** 1/2

• Rated: PG-13 for some sequence of intense action violence and frightening images.

• Director: David Yates.

• Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter.

• Running time: 130 minutes.

Winnie the Pooh tends to amble unhurriedly through his days, enjoying his life and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood at his own pace. But "Winnie the Pooh," the movie, couldn't have come along at a better time.

It is the ideal alternative to all those big, shiny, effects-laden spectacles that tend to dominate during the summer - animated or otherwise. It's not jammed with computer-generated trickery and, mercifully, it doesn't pop out at you in 3-D.

This is just 68 minutes of pure, hunny-covered satisfaction.

Given the source material - A.A. Milne's enduring writing for children - "Winnie the Pooh" is naturally geared toward the little ones, with its cuddly characters and pleasingly soft watercolor strokes, but not at the expense of adults' enjoyment. Quite the contrary: Grown-ups may find themselves even more engaged by it and perhaps even moved to tears.

"Winnie the Pooh" is hilariously funny, though; there's a great goofiness about it, an earnestness to the adventures of Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and pals that results in abject zaniness. Nobody here is nearly as smart or as competent as they pretend to be, but they mean well, and that makes us not just care about them but actively root for them.

At the same time, it offers an irresistibly sweet tug of nostalgia, of childhood memories and simpler times. The live-action opening sequence features stuffed-animal versions of all those beloved characters basking in the peaceful sunlight of a little boy's bedroom - Christopher Robin's bedroom, to be exact - reinforcing the fact that these stories spring from a child's imagination.

That it works so well on both levels at once is a testament to the clarity of vision at work. Directors Stephen Anderson and Don Hall return not only to hand-drawn animation but also to some of the narrative structure of the original "Pooh" films. They invite us in by breaking the fourth wall and reminding us that the source material is literary. Characters leap from one page to the next; they frolic atop sentences and find letters tumbling down all around them.

Later, as Owl spins an increasingly frantic tale about a mysterious monster in the woods, his crude chalkboard drawings spring to life in an entirely different kind of animation. The beauty of this aesthetic is that it's simultaneously elaborate and imperfect. The multicolored chalk lines are a bit messy; you can almost see dust flying off the screen.

In this musical scene, as in so many of the film's numbers, the lively tunes and clever lyrics create a delirious energy. You can't help but be swept away. Just to give you a clue as to the tone we're talking about, they're the work of Robert Lopez - a Tony Award winner for "Avenue Q" and "The Book of Mormon" - and his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Again, this is one of the ways in which "Winnie the Pooh" works on multiple levels: Kids will enjoy the fun of the music, while adults will be laughing out loud at the rapid-fire words the animals are singing.

Pooh (voiced lovingly by Jim Cummings) wakes up one morning and finds, totally unsurprisingly, that he has a rumbly in his tumbly. While hunting for honey, he gets sidetracked by a contest to find a new tail for the sad-sack Eeyore (a deadpan, scene-stealing Bud Luckey). But a series of misunderstandings and some shoddy reading skills on the part of the arrogant Owl (a terrific Craig Ferguson) lead the whole group - including Tigger (Cummings again), Piglet (Travis Oates) and Rabbit (Tom Kenny of "SpongeBob SquarePants") - to believe that a hideous, fearsome creature has kidnapped Christopher Robin (Jack Boulter).

From here they devise one crazy, mixed-up scheme after another to track down and rescue their human pal. Yes, each character exists in his or her own reliable, one-joke bubble - Owl is always preening, Piglet is always fearful, Tigger is always hyper - but they all get a moment to shine. Still, these guys are at their best when they're at their worst, including a "Who's on First?"-style misunderstanding that's a major highlight.

Here's something that is certain: This is the perfect first movie to take your kids to see in a theater.

"Winnie the Pooh," a Walt Disney Pictures release, is rated G. Running time: 68 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

This is a persuasive documentary on the health benefits of a whole-foods and plant-based diet.

With our debt-wracked nation spending five times as much on health care as on defense, why isn't more attention paid to healthy lifestyle choices? The answer, according to writer-director Lee Fulkerson, is that U.S. agriculture policy promotes diets that are calorie-rich and nutrient-poor, while high-tech, high-cost treatments are deeply entrenched in the health-care establishment.

Fulkerson marshals an array of statistics and studies to argue his points. He also follows a whole-foods regimen for 12 weeks and emerges slimmer and, he says, more mentally focused and vigorous.

To combat the notion that real men are carnivores, Fulkerson introduces tough-as-nails vegan mixed martial arts champ Mac Danzig and an engine company of hyper-competitive Texas firefighters who have gone vegetarian.

Mom was right. Eat your spinach. As an Egyptian proverb quoted in the film puts it: "One-quarter of the food you eat keeps you alive. The other three-quarters keeps your doctor alive."

Review

Forks Over Knives

***

• Unrated.

• Director: Lee Fulkerson.

• Running time: 90 minutes.

If you go

• What: Opening night event features a post-film discussion with local food and health experts, raffle and food tasting. Co-presented by Whole Foods.

• When: 7 p.m. Friday.

• Where: The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway.

• Cost: $9.

• More info: 795-0844.

Bad role models sometimes make the most interesting movie characters.

The ill-mannered, unkempt, foulmouthed and hot-tempered title character of "Hesher" is just such a walking contradiction. Although he lends his name to this dark and funny drama, the long-haired, tattooed loner (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is not the focal point of the film.

Rather, it's T.J. Forney (Devin Brochu), a grieving middle-schooler who has lost his mother in a car accident. When the film opens, T.J. is pretty much on his own, with his father, Paul (Rainn Wilson), stuck in a stupor of prescription medication and self-pity, and his grandmother Madeleine (Piper Laurie, never better) lost in a fog of incipient dementia.

If T.J. is the film's heart, Hesher is just off-center, moving through this cinematic universe in a cockeyed orbit that gives the story its offbeat energy and keeps the audience spellbound until the strange, and strangely touching, conclusion.

When we first meet Hesher, he's living in an abandoned building. After T.J. throws a rock through his window - inadvertently bringing the attention of the police - Hesher must find a new home. Soon he's set up camp in the Forneys' garage.

Before long, Hesher is sharing Grandma's home-cooked meals at the kitchen table and offering his unsolicited services to T.J. as a twisted kind of big brother. Meaning that he is at once both savior - from, for example, the local bully - and tormentor in his own right.

Perhaps the worst thing Hesher does, in a long string of misdeeds, is to betray T.J. by seducing a young grocery-store clerk named Nicole (Natalie Portman), who has taken the boy under her wing, filling T.J. with feelings that are part filial and part lustful.

The relationship between T.J. and Nicole is just one of several tender, off-kilter relationships in "Hesher." None, however, is sweeter or more unexpected than the friendship that develops between Hesher and Madeleine. The scene in which he gently tutors her on the use of a bong - as a way to cut the harshness of the medical marijuana she smokes for unspecified ailments - is heartbreaking and funny.

Make no mistake, though: Hesher is not the clichéd crazy man with a heart of gold we've seen in far too many movies. (Robin Williams to the white courtesy phone!) He is not lovable, let alone likable, despite a performance by Gordon-Levitt that makes it hard to take your eyes off him.

Hesher is not a healer. He's selfish, immature, impulsive and, quite frankly, dangerous. And, to the movie's great credit, he's determined to stay that way. Over the course of the film, he doesn't learn any valuable life lessons. And the one time he tries to offer one up - in a drunken, unprintable speech - his attempt falls apart in an explosion of inarticulate rage, punctuated by a beer can hurled at a wall.

Hesher doesn't fix things; he breaks them.

Which is, in the end, precisely what T.J. and his father need to knock them out of the emotional logjam they've found themselves in.

That drunken speech Hesher delivers? It culminates in the punch line "one good nut," the significance of which cannot be explained in a family newspaper. Trust me, it's a pretty hilarious line, in context. But it's also, as it turns out, a pretty accurate description of "Hesher."

Review

Hesher

***

• Rated: R. Contains frequent obscenity and sexual references, drug use, a brief sex scene, violence and other forms of antisocial behavior, some of which occurs in the presence of a minor child.

• Director: Spencer Susser.

• Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Devin Brochu, Rainn Wilson, Piper Laurie, Natalie Portman.

• Running time: 106 minutes.