Keira Knightley

It's good to be the queen. Or to be King Arthur's queen, Guinevere, at least, right? Well, maybe it's just good to be a blue-painted warrior princess who runs around beating up boys all day. Whatever, Keira Knightley is clearly having a blast. And why shouldn't she? The 19-year-old English actress became her country's hottest export last year with attention-getting roles in the soccer saga Bend It Like Beckham, the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and the all-star romantic roundelay Love, Actually.

DVD Games The Edge of Love * (1 star) Starring Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Matthew Rhys, Cillian Murphy. Directed by John Maybury. Released by Image Entertainment. $27.95 (Blu-ray $35.95). It's so hard, being a poet. Or the wife of a poet. Or the childhood sweetheart of a poet. Or the husband of the childhood sweetheart of a poet. Such is the wisdom of The Edge of Love, a movie unfortunately as banal as its tagline, "The only thing more dangerous than war is love." Oh, really? Some soldiers on the front lines may disagree.

For [Jane] Austen," writes scholar Robert Polhemus, "love, like dance, ought to be a rational pursuit, leading to what is pleasurable, useful, and beautiful."

[Paramount Home Video] Starring Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes Directed by Saul Dibb. $29.98, Blu-ray $39.99. ** dvds The Duchess, in stores Saturday, may be lovely to look at, but even Keira Knightley's best efforts can't shake up this curiously inert film, the tale of an 18th-century British lass who married into the aristocracy, only to find the marriage doomed her to a life of little more than servitude to her vain, pompous husband. Knightley, corseted and wigged beyond any reasonable measure, is Georgiana Spencer, who starts off thrilled that she is to be betrothed to the esteemed Duke of Devonshire.

Nothing exceeds like excess in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, delighted audiences because it's a genuine shiver-me-timbers sea frolic, not merely the movie based on a beloved Disneyland ride. The second movie, Dead Man's Chest, is everything you feared the first would be: a theme-park spectacle lasting 2 1/2 hours. It doesn't just make you seasick - the action on land is equally overblown, repetitive and clumsy.

The magnificent Atonement, like Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour, depicts what Hellman called "the power of a lie." Then it ripples into a panorama that encompasses so much more. The meanness that ruins innocents and tears families apart seems to flow from the same evil that erupts into World War II. Yet through unexpected and cathartic twists, this movie leaves you with atonement and redemption. The key action takes place during a single day in 1935. On a British estate, the crush of 13-year-old Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan)

[Paramount Home Video] Starring Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes Directed by Saul Dibb. $29.98, Blu-ray $39.99. ** dvds The Duchess, in stores Saturday, may be lovely to look at, but even Keira Knightley's best efforts can't shake up this curiously inert film, the tale of an 18th-century British lass who married into the aristocracy, only to find the marriage doomed her to a life of little more than servitude to her vain, pompous husband. Knightley, corseted and wigged beyond any reasonable measure, is Georgiana Spencer, who starts off thrilled that she is to be betrothed to the esteemed Duke of Devonshire.

DVD Games The Edge of Love * (1 star) Starring Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Matthew Rhys, Cillian Murphy. Directed by John Maybury. Released by Image Entertainment. $27.95 (Blu-ray $35.95). It's so hard, being a poet. Or the wife of a poet. Or the childhood sweetheart of a poet. Or the husband of the childhood sweetheart of a poet. Such is the wisdom of The Edge of Love, a movie unfortunately as banal as its tagline, "The only thing more dangerous than war is love." Oh, really? Some soldiers on the front lines may disagree.

It was a night to recognize cowboys, eccentric literary geniuses and powerful 1950s senators. But the style honors went to a handful of lovely ladies who managed to pull off a nearly flawless red carpet during last night's Academy Awards. There was very little to complain about as veterans such as Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, as well as newbies such as Keira Knightley and Jessica Alba, strolled past a parade of cameras and microphones in one elegant look after another. It was almost disappointing, all that perfection.

For all its energy and seeming inventiveness, The Jacket doesn't really go anywhere or amount to anything - a fatal flaw in a time-travel movie designed not only to keep you guessing, but to build genuine suspense as well. Adrien Brody, still looking for that worthy follow-up to his Oscar win for The Pianist, is Jack Starks, an American soldier shot in the head while on duty in Iraq during the gulf war. He survives, but now finds himself prone to hallucinations and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

theater 'The Matchmaker': Hello Dolly! this is not. Thornton Wilder's classic play, which was the basis for the 1964 musical, has tons of wit and charm. But it makes pointed observations that were given short shrift in the musical. The show runs through Oct. 12 at Center Stage, 700 N. Calvert St.. Showtimes vary. Tickets cost $10-$60. Call 410-332-0033 or go to centerstage.org. Mary Carole McCauley art Ireland photos: Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, lived at 800 E. Lombard St., now one of the Carroll Museums.

The magnificent Atonement, like Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour, depicts what Hellman called "the power of a lie." Then it ripples into a panorama that encompasses so much more. The meanness that ruins innocents and tears families apart seems to flow from the same evil that erupts into World War II. Yet through unexpected and cathartic twists, this movie leaves you with atonement and redemption. The key action takes place during a single day in 1935. On a British estate, the crush of 13-year-old Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan)

Nothing exceeds like excess in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, delighted audiences because it's a genuine shiver-me-timbers sea frolic, not merely the movie based on a beloved Disneyland ride. The second movie, Dead Man's Chest, is everything you feared the first would be: a theme-park spectacle lasting 2 1/2 hours. It doesn't just make you seasick - the action on land is equally overblown, repetitive and clumsy.

It was a night to recognize cowboys, eccentric literary geniuses and powerful 1950s senators. But the style honors went to a handful of lovely ladies who managed to pull off a nearly flawless red carpet during last night's Academy Awards. There was very little to complain about as veterans such as Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, as well as newbies such as Keira Knightley and Jessica Alba, strolled past a parade of cameras and microphones in one elegant look after another. It was almost disappointing, all that perfection.

Capsules are by critics Michael Sragow and Chris Kaltenbach, plus wire services. Full reviews at baltimoresun.com/movies. Capote -- is a bleakly funny, profoundly unsettling depiction of Truman Capote as a young literary lion, or maybe an overgrown cub, on the scent of his Next Big Thing: a "non-fiction novel" about a Kansas murder. It begins as a deft high comedy about a cosmopolitan man of letters endearing himself to the boondocks. Then it expands into a heart-stabbing, dizzying examination of the exploitation that occurs in friendships, work relations and the connection between a journalist and his subject.

For [Jane] Austen," writes scholar Robert Polhemus, "love, like dance, ought to be a rational pursuit, leading to what is pleasurable, useful, and beautiful."

theater 'The Matchmaker': Hello Dolly! this is not. Thornton Wilder's classic play, which was the basis for the 1964 musical, has tons of wit and charm. But it makes pointed observations that were given short shrift in the musical. The show runs through Oct. 12 at Center Stage, 700 N. Calvert St.. Showtimes vary. Tickets cost $10-$60. Call 410-332-0033 or go to centerstage.org. Mary Carole McCauley art Ireland photos: Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, lived at 800 E. Lombard St., now one of the Carroll Museums.

LOS ANGELES - Oh, to have been a fly on the wall for the negotiations between Johnny Depp and Disney over his portrayal of Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Depp plays the pirate antihero with a staggering, sashaying gait to reflect a lifetime at sea. His speech drips with too many days in the sun and too much rum. He has gold teeth (Depp had to get rid of a few as part of a compromise), and he braids his beard into two strands. Depp says he told the Mouse Factory brass to let him do what he was hired to do. "I'm a sucker for my own brain," Depp says during a recent interview at the St. Regis Hotel.

For all its energy and seeming inventiveness, The Jacket doesn't really go anywhere or amount to anything - a fatal flaw in a time-travel movie designed not only to keep you guessing, but to build genuine suspense as well. Adrien Brody, still looking for that worthy follow-up to his Oscar win for The Pianist, is Jack Starks, an American soldier shot in the head while on duty in Iraq during the gulf war. He survives, but now finds himself prone to hallucinations and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.