Reviews

You can't help imagining the pitch meeting for this movie -- a full-length feature film, done in claymation (animated characters made with latex and photographed), set on an English chicken farm in the 1950s but inspired by "Stalag 17." Talk about "high concept" -- plucky chicken meets cocky rooster, and together they lead the imprisoned flock to the Promised Land. Younger kids will love its endearingly goofy-looking, wide-eyed characters and its action sequences (just don't serve them chicken pot pie for a few days after!), and older kids will get a kick out of the non-stop stream of pop culture references.

A haunting movie -- one that lingers in the mind (and the heart) for a long time afterwards. Mimi Rogers turns in a stunning performance as a woman trapped in a cycle of dull work and duller play, whose life is transformed twice -- first by a religious conversion, and then by coming face to face with the literal meaning of that conversion. She is incandescent in her belief, and in the movie's final scenes, takes on the epic proportions of a Job or King Lear. You may be puzzled, conflicted, or even offended by what the movie "means," but you won't be able to walk away from it untouched.