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Show SpecialFeatures Monday, Aug. 29, 2011 Page 17 New Newseum exhibit includes Sept. 11 artifacts BY JACQUELINE TRESCOTT (c) 2011, The Washington Post Since Sept. 11, 2001, covering terrorism has been a priority for the news industry, while fighting terrorism has been a priority of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Newseum has melded the two pursuits in a special exhibit called "War on Terror: The FBI's New Focus." The new display, which opens Sept. 2, fits neatly into an ongoing exhibition, "G-Men and Journalists: Top News Stories of the FBI's First Century." Fragments of the engines of United Flight 175 recall the power of the terrorists' weapons. One engine part is 1,500 pounds, the other 800 pounds. Found just blocks from the World Trade Center towers and on loan from the FBI, the engine parts will be suspended from the ceiling. Another item is Ruth McCourt's red wallet, twisted and caked with mud. She was on Flight 175 taking her 4-year-old daughter, Juliana, to Disneyland. The FBI found the wallet in a Staten Island, N.Y., landfill. "We want to show things in the state in which they were found," said Carrie Christoffersen, the museum's curator of collections. "The purpose is to help demonstrate the range of conditions that these pieces have come through. We didn't want to make them look lovely again. The point is the horrible circumstances." The FBI has lent the museum the rigged hiking boots of the "shoe bomber." On a flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001, Richard Reid tried to light up the explosives hidden in his heavy black shoes. One of the 'Our Idiot Brother': An Easygoing Misfire holds Ned up as a paragon of decency and trust, to the "Our Idiot Brother" turns out to be mis-titled. It should be called "The Brother We Treat Like an Idiot," and that goes as much for the filmmakers as the dysfunctional family at the core of this easygoing misfire. Paul Rudd plays Ned Rochlin, a perpetually blissed-out biodynamic farmer who in the film's first scene sells pot to a police officer. When he gets out of jail, he embarks on a serial-crash with his three sisters, upending their lives with his anarchic honesty and unbridled naivete. Peeking out from a curtain of shaggy hair and a beard, Rudd invests Ned with every ounce of the effusive, natural warmth that has become his trademark. And like so many movies in his career, he makes "Our Idiot Brother" much more tolerable than it deserves to be. Screenwriters Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall play up Ned's innocence by making his sisters thoroughly unappealing: Emily Mortimer plays a dowdy, sad-sack hausfrau married to a pompous documentarian (played with withering contempt by Steve Coogan); Elizabeth Banks flails in a misguided brunet pageboy as a ruthless Vanity Fair reporter; and Zooey Deschanel lends spaced-out self-absorption to a lesbian tempted by a similarly navel-gazing male artist. Director Jesse Peretz happens to be the screenwriter's brother, but surely he's no idiot. Still, one wonders whose idea it was that Deschanel's partner - played by Rashida Jones - would take her sartorial style points from Urkel. Or whether the scene-stealing Kathryn Hahn, as Ned's witchy hippie ex-girlfriend, had to be such a witch. "Our Idiot Brother" point where in one scene, he cheerfully asks a guy on the subway to hold a wad of cash - and the man does, gobsmacked. As Ned himself says, if you give people the benefit of the doubt, they'll live up to it. But the filmmakers are so intent on demonizing everyone else in Ned's life that it suggests they don't believe their own tag line. There are times when "Our Idiot Brother" possesses a loping, genial sweetness. But it lacks conviction, and it doesn't hold a beeswax candle to such similarly themed films as "You Can Count on Me" and "Momma's Man." Rudd has created a genuinely engaging character in the Candide-like Ned, but "Our Idiot Brother" gives him very little garden to cultivate. R. Contains sexual content including nudity, and for profanity throughout. 96 minutes. By Ann Hornaday (c) 2011, The Washington Post 'Don't Be Afraid of the Dark': Cellar! Beware!! Cliche coming! Augmented by just enough CGI to bring its icky gremlins to life, "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" feels retro in all the right ways; it's a bump-in-the-night tale that, if not for the occasional glimpse of a cellphone or reference to Adderall, could have been told decades ago.cActually, it was. Screenwriters Guillermo del Toro and Matthew Robbins adapted the script from a 1973 TV movie of the same name. The changes they made pull the tale further back, though, into the realm of fable - especially their decision to change the protagonist from an adult to a little girl: Sally (Bailee Madison, convincingly apprehensive and sullen) has been sent by her preoccupied mother to live with her father and his new girlfriend (Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes) in the grand old mansion they're renovating. (Adults being mainly an obstacle in this sort of tale, it's not inappropriate that Pearce and Holmes both offer thin performances.) Sally doesn't want to be there but can't resist exploring. Soon she discovers a hidden basement - unsafe for little girls, an aging caretaker warns knowingly - whose rusty, bolted-up ash pit speaks to her. Scratchy, faint voices whisper to Sally, offering friendship. When her first encounter is cut short, we hear them whisper among themselves: "She'll come back. They always do ..." Followers of del Toro's work will see reminders of "Pan's Labyrinth" here - little girl, strange environs, enticing and perhaps magical creatures known only to her - but the storyteller is writing for another director, first-timer Troy Nixey, and keeps the action rooted in the real world. He'll save the fantastic recesses of his personal mythology for his own films, though he does eventu- ally work old folk tales into "Dark," in thoroughly creepy ways best left for the viewer to discover. Nixey nails the look and vibe of the tale, starting with a chilling prologue in which the house's 19th-century inhabitants do horrible things to one another. In the presentday story, scares build steadily as Nixey's camera creeps through heavy shadows that obscure the source of ratlike skittering noises. Identifying strongly with Sally, the movie is seduced by the monsters' voices - when they're speaking to her, the film's surroundsound mix makes them seem to be hiding all around us. It's inevitable that she will set the things free and that her fascination will soon turn to dread. After milking the beasties' first few appearances for big shocks, Nixey shows us perhaps a bit too much of them; as the film moves into full-scale action mode, it's slightly less satisfying than its creepy buildup was. (And, perhaps intentionally, it relies on a couple of shameless bits of illogic.) Even its imperfect moments, though, benefit from a literary and artistic richness most contemporary spook stories can't muster. It would be a shame if side projects like this slowed del Toro's pace in making films of his own, like the deeply personal "Pan's Labyrinth," "Cronos," and "Devil's Backbone." But the more movies he can put his stamp on, the richer horror cinema will be. . By John DeFore Special to The Washington Post DeFore is a freelance critic. R. Contains mildly gory violence and terror. 99 minutes. TV's Sept. 11 anniversary: The five best shows to watch BY HANK STUEVER (c) 2011, The Washington Post "Nova: Engineering Ground Zero" (one hour) airs Sept. 7 at 9 p.m. on PBS. Hank Stuever recommends: "George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview" (one hour) airs Sunday at 10 p.m. on National Geographic Channel. "9/11: The Days After" (two hours) airs Sept. 9 at 9 p.m. on "9/11: Day That Changed the World" (two hours) airs Sept. 5 at 8 p.m. on Smithsonian Channel. History. -- - shoes is open to show how the explosives were inserted into the soles. A flight attendant smelled the match and grabbed the boot while the passengers restrained Reid with their belts. The belts are also on display. The journalism story isn't forgotten in the exhibit. John Miller, the former ABC News reporter who was the last Western reporter to interview Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, donated several items to "War on Terror." The beige tunic, salwar kameez and pants he wore to the interview at the hideout in Afghanistan are displayed, along with a small camera. Two films detail Miller's experience. " The new material includes two Wall Street lampposts, a sign that says "push" from a door at the World Trade Center, and rakes, shovels and buckets used to sort through the debris collected at the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island. Also displayed are several cellphones and pagers that were found. "They kept going off for days after," Christoffersen said. Since it opened in April 2008, the Newseum has had a permanent exhibition on Sept. 11. It focuses on the news industry, journalists and the challenges of that day. The "9/11 Gallery" includes 127 newspaper fronts from the next day and a 31-foot section of the broadcast antenna from the World Trade Center's North Tower. Other exhibits include a limestone cornice piece from the Pentagon and part of the fuselage from United Flight 93, which went down near Shanksville, Pa. The Celebrate America Show Not-For-Profit Corporation Presents Dance IN THE MILLER MOOD captures the sound and style of the Big Band era as the Chattanooga Choo Choo takes the audience back-in-time to the glamourous Hotel Pennsylvania For the delightful "Brylcreem Big Band Show"! STARDUST SINGERS S DANCERS LARRY SMITH ORCHESTRA FACEBOOK NIGHT WED SEPT 7, 7:30 Show & Dance Student Rate w/ ID - Public Welco Like us on facebook for discount Show available with or without dinner Sept 6-10 USU Ballroom GET Tix at the door; Macey's Foods or www.celebrateamericashow.com Where Utah Gets Engaged! Surprise her with a solitaire... let her choose the ring. Starting at $500. S. E. Needham jewelers since 1 896 "Voices From Inside the Towers" (two hours) airs Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. on 141 North Main • www.seneedham.com • 435-752-7149 History. Check local listings for time' channel A |