TV film fare -- week of March 31, 2019

NEW YORK (CNS) -- The following are capsule reviews of theatrical movies on network and cable television the week of March 31. Please note that televised versions may or may not be edited for language, nudity, violence and sexual situations.

Tuesday, April 2, 9:30-11:30 p.m. EDT (TCM) "Grand Hotel" (1932). Grandiose MGM star vehicle from Vicki Baum's novel about life-and-death events in a posh Berlin hotel whose guests include a depressed Russian ballerina (Greta Garbo), an aristocratic jewel thief (John Barrymore), a nasty Prussian industrialist (Wallace Beery), a pragmatic stenographer (Joan Crawford) and a dying bookkeeper (Lionel Barrymore). Directed by Edmund Goulding, the melodramatic proceedings are of less interest today than the cast's memorable performances in roles tailored to their screen personae, including Garbo's statement, "I want to be alone." Stylized violence including an off-camera murder, sexual situations and several attempts at larceny. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-III -- adults. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.

Wednesday, April 3, 5:30-8 p.m. EDT (Showtime) "Into the Wild" (2007). Episodic but absorbing road movie, based on Jon Krakauer's 1998 biography of idealistic 22-year-old Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch) who abandoned his home, troubled parents (Marcia Gay Harden and William Hurt) and sister (Jena Malone) after college graduation to avoid the "poison" of civilization and get back to nature, embarking on an epic two-year road trip from Atlanta to Alaska. Actor Sean Penn directed, wrote and produced the film, which gains in emotional power as it progresses, fueled by excellent performances, including those of Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, nonactor (one of several in the cast) Brian Dierker and especially Hal Holbrook, playing colorful characters Chris encounters on his journey, with underlying themes of family connection, individualism versus community and the primal pull of the wilderness, leading toward a moving climax of forgiveness, redemption and intense spirituality. Some rough language and profanity, upper female and brief full-frontal male nudity, the killing and then cutting up of an animal carcass, a beating, implied premarital situations and reference to a bigamous relationship. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Saturday, April 6, 6-9 p.m. EDT (AMC) "Cast Away" (2000). Finely crafted drama in which a harried businessman (Tom Hanks) is transformed after surviving a plane crash that leaves him stranded on an uninhabited island for four years before he makes a daring escape in hopes of returning to the woman (Helen Hunt) he loves. With Hanks' superb performance at its center, director Robert Zemeckis movingly probes what matters most when someone is stripped of his everyday life and possessions. A violent accident and an instance of profanity. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Saturday, April 6, 8:15-10 p.m. EDT (HBO) "The Nun" (2018). Made with a big budget, this fifth film in "The Conjuring" franchise pulls out all the stops in an attempt to rank as the "That's Entertainment!" of Catholic-themed horror films. But a surfeit of questionable elements, including the tasteless treatment of a relic deserving the deepest possible reverence, makes this inappropriate for many. A creepy white-faced demon nun (Bonnie Aarons) skitters through catacomb tunnels and pops out of the darkness in an ancient, sprawling Romanian abbey for a nice series of jump-scares. A priest (Demian Birchir) and, unlikely as it seems, a cheerful novice (Taissa Farmiga) are dispatched by Vatican officials to investigate. The remainder of the movie consists of the familiar Catholic shtick of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the self-styled lay exorcism "authorities" of decades ago, lifted, by director Corin Hardy and screenwriter Gary Dauberman, to the heights of the old-time Hammer Studios horror outings. Navigating the close boundary line between sacred and profane, sometimes without success, the movie is likely to make grown viewers of faith slightly uncomfortable, to say the least. As for young and impressionable moviegoers, they should steer clear altogether Occult themes, the misguided use of a sacred object, a scene of suicide, some physical violence and gore, a single rough term. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Saturday, April 6, 9:55-11:30 p.m. EDT (Cinemax) "The 15:17 to Paris" (2018). Uneven drama recounting the circumstances that led up to the thwarting, in August 2015, of a terrorist attack and potential massacre on the train of the title. Traveling from Amsterdam to the French capital as tourists, a trio of Americans (Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone all portraying themselves), two of them with military backgrounds, courageously stop a heavily armed jihadist bent on a shooting spree among the captive passengers. The portion of director Clint Eastwood's film devoted to this headline grabbing incident is taut and compelling. But, in adapting the three friends' book about their exploit and their lives before it, written with Jeffrey E. Stern, screenwriter Dorothy Blyskal fails to evoke much interest in the lads' humdrum childhoods and fitful careers. More honorable than entertaining, their faith-friendly story does emphasize self-sacrificing heroism and the potential of ordinary people to achieve great things. Gunplay and nonlethal violence, a sequence involving gory wounds, a bit of sexual humor, a couple of uses of profanity and a pair of milder oaths, numerous crude and crass terms. The Catholic News Service classification of the theatrical version was A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating was PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service.