Woody, Sticking Out

Woody Harrelson’s greatest challenge as an actor is to overpower, through force of performance, that little voice in your head that says, “Hey, it’s Woody Harrelson!” every time he appears. But say this for him: Lately he’s been enmeshing himself in great ensembles, in the likes of A Prairie Home Companion and No Country for Old Men, even if, in the latter, he landed in the film with all the subtlety of a can of soda clattering its way out of a vending machine. His role in Paul Schrader’s latest, The Walker, seems like vintage Harrelson, if there could be said to be such a thing. He’s a card-playing confidante to upper-crust Washington wives, who becomes entangled in a murder investigation. Critics have knocked it as a “thriller that’s barely thrilling,” so you may be inclined to think back to White Men Can’t Jump and The People vs. Larry Flynt as Harrelson glides across the screen at Cinema Paradiso (506 SE Sixth St., Ft. Lauderdale) at 8 p.m. But, hey, who listens to critics? General admission runs $8, while students and seniors pay $7 and Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival members sneak in for a five-spot. Call 954-525-3456.
Fri., Jan. 11, 8 p.m., 2008