[S.A.S.H.A.]

Movies for grown-ups Bid good riddance to lightweight summer fare and brace for a fall film slate to make adults sit up and maybe even applaud JAY STONE CanWest News Service September 10, 2005 Is everyone gone now? Have the superheroes departed, and the intergalactic creatures, and the left-over bits and pieces of the Star Wars cast? Are the guns all put away? Have the car chases ended? Is Rob Schneider safely back in wherever it is he spends his time between Deuce Bigalow sequels? Is it safe for the adults to come back to the movie theatre? Well, yes and no. After a summer of lost chances and comic-book excesses, the fall film season is the palate-cleanser between, say, The Devil's Rejects and The Chronicles of Narnia, which is part of an even more promising Christmas season. Fall is time to see the early Oscar contenders and the prestige movies: new versions of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice and Oliver Twist, this one directed by Roman Polanski; the movies they made from the Broadway musical Rent and the London play Proof, the latter of which pairs Gwyneth Paltrow with Anthony Hopkins; biographies of Johnny Cash and of Truman Capote during his In Cold Blood years. For the children - the thinking children - there is the feature-film debut of the incomparable Wallace & Gromit, a Tim Burton adventure, and the fourth Harry Potter film. For the reading public, there are movies of best-sellers like An Unfinished Life, Everything Is Illuminated, Jarhead, and Bee Season. There's a new Terrence Malick film, always an event for film buffs, and a David Cronenberg work that just might be the movie of the year. On the other hand, there is also the usual cast of silly comedies and naughty teen romps, a couple of horror movies, and - in a category all its own - the return of Tom Green. And we can't swear that one or two extraterrestrials might not still be lurking about somewhere. For the most part, though, things look promising this autumn. Here are film opening dates to watch for, starting with the 10 best bets for the best time of the year. Thumbsucker: Keanu Reeves and Vince Vaughn head the cast in this family comedy about a teenager trying to break his addiction to his own thumb.

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