OMAN TRIBUNE CINEMA WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 23 CELEB TALK Hathaway plans road trip to memorise lines ACTRESS Anne Hathaway plans to learn lines for her upcoming one-woman show while driving. The actress will feature in a show named “Grounded”, which is about a fighter pilot who is assigned to operate drones when she gets pregnant. According to a source, the 32-year-old will leave on a road trip with her husband and dog and will memorise the lines while travelling, reports nypost.com. “Anne’s learning 41-pages of dialogue. She’s going to drive. (Husband) Adam Shulman’s going to run the lines with her as they go,” said a source. Directed by Julie Taymor, the show will begin on April 7 at the Public Theatre in New York. Liam Gallagher turns chef to destress Prestigious biopic Official German entry for Oscars is a slow-moving drama on life of poet Friedrich Schiller W HETHER Friedrich Schiller was engaged in a longterm ménage à trois with his wife and her sister is a matter for scholarly debate. But “scholarly” isn’t the first word that springs to mind when looking at the movie poster for this German biographical epic, which features a shirtless Florian Stetter as the famous writer/beefcake, sandwiched between the sisters Caroline and Charlotte von Lengefeld, who are making some serious goo-goo eyes at each other. Dudes (or anyone else) hoping for a little three-way action will be disappointed with “Beloved Sisters.” Although writer-director Dominik Graf’s speculative historical drama does, in fact, assume there was a love triangle between Schiller (1759-1805), his wife, Charlotte (Henriette Confurius), and Charlotte’s unhappily married older sister, Caroline (Hannah Herzsprung), the three protagonists never share a bed. And what little sex there is in the nearly three-hour director’s cut of the film (which is a full halfhour longer than as originally released) takes place only between Schiller and Caroline. To be fair, Graf exercises appropriate restraint throughout, concerning himself with such themes as class, the French Revolution and innovations in printing technology. Arguably, “Beloved Sisters” is really about the dawn of modernity, with its subtext of female empowerment. (Caroline was a writer, eventually becoming Schiller’s biographer, although she makes no mention of their putative relationship in that book.) But without at least the tawdry pleasure of a little bodice ripping, the film moves along sluggishly, even though it is well acted and handsomely shot. “Beloved Sisters” was Germany’s official submission to this year’s Academy Awards competition, but it’s too pulpy, despite the gloss of historical prestige, to ever have been a serious contender. The at-times intrusive narration is annoying, if necessary, to help propel the action. Much is made of Caroline and Charlotte’s youthful oath that they would always “share everything,” made after their father’s death leaves them and their mother (Claudia Messner) in dire financial straits. But rather than marry a wealthy man who could help support all three — as Caroline has done with a pompous courtier named von Beulwitz (Andreas Pietschmann) — Charlotte falls for the pauper Schiller, despite knowing that her sister also loves him, and vice versa. For much of the film, this triad — operating for periods under the same roof — runs smoothly enough, thanks to suppressed jealousies that manifest themselves only in the occasional dagger shot from the eyes and subtly stiffening body language. It isn’t until close to the end of the film that the inevitable resentment between the sisters bursts out in a scene of screaming, smashed dishes and slapping, which some viewers might think should have occurred 90 minutes earlier. “What a melodrama,” Schiller says, in the kind of understatement you don’t have to be a literary scholar to appreciate. Washington Post-Bloomberg FORMER Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher has turned to cooking to relieve stress of court battles. The 42-year-old has two court battles -- one over his love child with Liza Ghorbani in New York, and the other as he finalises his divorce settlement with Nicole Appleton. And he is trying to destress by cooking. “Liam’s never cooked before but it’s helped him relax. His girlfriend Debbie Gwyther has been showing him the ropes. He’s been having a go at lentil stews, stir-fries and soups,” a source was quoted by mirror.co.uk as saying. “It’s all part of his plan to get healthy in 2015. He’s been getting fit by going on jogs. He’s trying not to let the stress of everything get on top of him,” added the source. It’s Shruti Haasan’s turn to give back to fans Kid-friendly humour ‘Paddington’ features the affable bear of Michael Bond’s children’s classic, writes Sandie Angulo Chen ACTRESS Shruti Haasan, who will turn 29 on Wednesday, has decided to celebrate her birthday with her fans on a social networking platform. She has asked her fans to post details and pictures of a good deed they may have done. “Shruti has always believed in doing things that matter and help make a difference to others’ lives. On her birthday, she wants to share this very belief with her fans for which she will run a special online birthday exercise,” a source close to Shruti said. “She has asked her fans to send her information and a picture of their act of kindness -- something nice they did for someone else lately, via social media. From those entries, she will pick the best five and send them personalised autographed merchandise with a special message from her,” the source said. Shruti believes “the greatest gift is the gift of giving”. J ANUARY is when studios generally release their low-expectation titles to wither and die against award-nominated fare, so it’s a considerable gamble to watch a film starring a CGI-talking animal released in the first weeks of the year. But this live-action “Paddington” adaptation pays off. Based on a half-century of classic children’s books by Michael Bond, the movie is set in the present and keeps the focus in London, which is depicted as the ideal place for bears and other exiles. A marmalade-loving bear cub (voiced by Ben Whishaw after Colin Firth exited the project) travels from “Darkest Peru” to England to find the explorer who long ago discovered the bear’s Aunt Lucy and Uncle Pastuzo (voiced by Imelda Staunton and Michael Gambon). Wearing only the explorer’s red hat, the cuddly bear arrives at London’s Paddington Station, where he waits all day for someone to adopt him. Finally, Mrs Brown (Sally Hawkins) overcomes the doubts of her cautious husband (Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville) and two kids’ embarrassment and takes the newly named Paddington home. Home is where the kid-friendly humor begins. In one crowd-pleasing bit of bathroom humor, Paddington uses the Browns’ toothbrushes to pick his ears, drinks a bottle of mouthwash, sticks his head in the toilet and causes a massive overflow — all while Mr Brown desperately tries to add “bear coverage” to his home insurance. While the slapstick isn’t particularly original, director Paul King makes the silliness work. In addition to Bonneville and Hawkins, the cast includes other comically adept actors, such as Julie Walters (Harry Potter’s Molly Weasley) as the Browns’ live-in aunt; Peter Capaldi (the latest star of “Doctor Who”) as their busybody neighbor; and, most notably, Nicole Kidman as the story’s main antagonist — a greedy museum taxidermist who wants to “stuff” Paddington and put him on display. Sporting animal-skin stilettos and severe bangs, Kidman is campier than she is creepy, but her Cruella de Villike character is just menacing enough to make kids fear for Paddington’s happily ever after. Because of its adorable protagonist, laugh-out-loud gags and touching premise, “Paddington” succeeds in a way most CGI/live-action hybrids do not. This isn’t a commercial for bear merchandise (yet), but a sweet little film about a cub who finds a family and a home in London. Washington Post-Bloomberg