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Colette, directed by Wash Westmoreland

(R, 1 hour, 51 minutes)

Wash Westmoreland’s Colette starts out as an stiffly orthodox literary bio-pic concerning French novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (Keira Knightley).

But Westmoreland has something else in mind, concentrate on the crucial years she was married to rakish literary entrepreneur Henry Gauthier-Villars (Dominic West), known as Willy. This is the story of her becoming Colette, and despite the conventionality of the first 40 minutes or so, the movie eventually engages us to the point that we might wish for a sequel. It stops before the World War begins, more than 30 years before she writes Gigi.

She was 20 when they married. He was 34. Her first four novels, featuring a heroine named Claudine (based on Colette) and were probably written by her, were first published under Willy’s name, as he convinced her that readers would react negatively to a scandalous roman a clef published under a woman’s name. At least that was his story

Colette is a great role for Knightley because she needn’t suppress her modernity. This is no Merchant-Ivory prestige production; there are warm bodies beneath those Renoir-worthy duds.

The film wraps up about the same time Colette’s marriage to Willy did, upon the first publication under her own name, La Vagabonde (1910), a feminist work about her days working in the theater.

Colette went on to write 30 more novels, most of which drew on her life and offered a sharp critique of sexual politics. She committed some fine journalism during the World War and eventually established herself as the author of the Claudine novels. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, and in 1951, personally selected the then unknown Audrey Hepburn for the lead role in the Broadway version of Gigi.

Colette was, as they say, a pistol. Westmoreland and company do fine by her, as far as they go.

The Equalizer 2, (R, 2 hours, 1 minutes)

There’s nothing to brag about in this violent cookie-cutter actioner, but fans of Denzel Washington might enjoy seeing him in the first sequel of his noteworthy career. He repopulates the character of former CIA assassin Robert McCall, who’s dedicated to delivering righteous justice for the exploited and oppressed in Boston, where he’s working as a Lyft driver. As you might expect, his relatively peaceful existence shifts when he comes up against yet another global conspiracy. With Pedro Pascal, Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo; directed by Antoine Fuqua.

Peppermint (R, 1 hour, 41 minutes) What, more vigilantes? More violence? Afraid so. Here we have Jennifer Garner struggling for relevance as Riley North, who emerges from a coma (interesting how often movies have characters in comas, isn’t it?) after her husband and daughter are killed by an attacker. When evil forces protect the murderers from the long arm of justice, Riley takes on a transformation into an urban guerrilla. With John Gallagher Jr., Richard Cabral, Juan Pablo Raba, John Ortiz; directed by Pierre Morel.

Lizzie (R, 1 hour, 45 minutes) More ferocious females! Meet Lizzie Borden (Chloe Sevigny), a complicated, constrained, and epileptic 32-year-old woman who, in uptight 1892 Massachusetts, experiences a sexual awakening when a pretty new maid is hired and the two develop an intimate relationship; that’s before she explodes in rage and violence when her domineering parents try to control her desires. It works thanks to the compelling performances by the leading ladies. With Kristen Stewart, Kim Dickens, Fiona Shaw; directed by Craig William Macneill.

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