Movie reviews: 'Fantastic Beasts,' all about magic, doesn't feel that magical

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Callum Turner, left, and Eddie Redmayne in a scene from "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore." (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE: 3 STARS

Four years after the last entry in the Wizarding World franchise, the Great Cheekbone Swap unfolds in theatres this weekend as the zygomatically blessed Mads Mikkelsen takes over for former malar bone favorite Johnny Depp in "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore."

Set in the 1930s the real, or Muggle, world is preparing for World War II. In the Wizarding World a battle of a different sort is brewing. Gellert Grindelwald (Mikkelsen), dark wizard and former love interest of Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), has returned after creating worldwide chaos with a renewed belief in wizarding superiority and a plan to create a new Wizarding World Order.

Cleared of his crimes by the International Confederation of Wizards (ICW), Grindelwald's first step toward world domination comes with a plan to steal the (ICW) election and take control. He wants to burn down the Muggle world. "There's nothing you can do to stop me," he tells his former lover Dumbledore.

As Grindelwald's storm brews, Dumbledore recruits British Ministry of Magic employee Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and company — including returning characters like older brother Theseus Scamander (Callum Turner), brave baker Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) and assistant Bunty Broadacre (Victoria Yeates) — to pick up their wands and do battle.

The stakes are high. Dumbledore thinks it is the biggest threat to both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds in a century. "Things that seem unimaginable today," he says, "will seem inevitable tomorrow."

Politics in the Wizarding World, it seems, are just as fraught as they are in ours.

If you go see "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" for a Harry Potter-esque magic fix, you’re in luck. The movie has spectacular visuals that bring the wizarding world to life, some mystical creatures, like cute dragons who can identify the pure at heart, killer books and a suitcase that sprouts legs and walks.

It's filled with CGI wonder, but so heavily laden with effects that the characters play second fiddle to the bits and bytes. It's top of the line work but after a while it becomes smothering. You crave something organic, but this is the Wizarding World and it's all an illusion.

The story has an old-fashioned action adventure feel, but like the CGI, it feels overdone. The big moments are huge, accompanied by a swelling orchestral score. But even the small moments are big. A simple story of world domination is padding and cajoled into a sprawling two hour and twenty-minute running time, populated by many, many characters, most of whom don't have much to do.

Under the watchful eye and sweeping cameras of "Harry Potter" veteran director David Yates, "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" is a big, handsome movie all about magic but, unfortunately, doesn't feel all that magical.

FATHER STU: 2 ½ STARS

"Father Stu," a new, inspirational Mark Wahlberg movie, now playing in theatres, is the unlikely, but true, story of a potty-mouthed, rough 'n tumble boxer whose road to redemption begins with a detour into the Catholic Church.

When we first meet Stuart Long (Wahlberg), he's an amateur boxer with visions of the big time. He's good, but not good enough to go pro, as his mother (Jacki Weaver) likes to point out. "Don't be careless with your life," she says. "You're the age when most people pack it in."

He's an angry guy. Angry at his deadbeat father (Mel Gibson). Angry at his little brother who died young. Angry at himself and the world.

He's a nasty drunk with a hair-trigger temper, but when a medical condition forces him to retire from the ring, he sets his eyes on Hollywood. "I'll cash in on my face," he says. "Not my fists."

A smooth talker, he manages to get a job at a grocery store where he hopes to meet actors and directors who will give him a gig. Instead, he meets Carmen (Teresa Ruiz) a devote Catholic who reluctantly begins dating the unpolished Stu, but only if he gets baptized. She is, as a friend says, "as Catholic as the cross itself."

His road to redemption begins as he helps Carmen teach Sunday School. His plain-spoken way is a hit with the kids, Carmen and even her strict father but it takes a drunken motorcycle accident for Stu to literally see the light and devote himself to the church. "God saved me to show there is a reason why I'm here," he says as he tells Carmen of his intention to become a priest.

In a life filled with dramatic turns, there is one more in store for Stu. One that may prevent him from realizing his dream of becoming a priest. "God is all about fighting the odds," he says, "of having the strength to endure a difficult life."

"Father Stu" has inspiration to spare. It is a movie about religion's power to heal and motivate, which will have many saying "Amen," but the story's execution resembles a movie of the week, with predictable plot points and an accelerated timeline that packs too much into too little time.

Even at two hours, the pacing is jagged as director and writer Rosalind Ross attempts to cover as many facets of Stu's personality as possible. She takes the adage "everything happens for a reason" to an extreme and, as such, the movie feels rushed on some scenes, too leisurely in others, but rarely gives us the deep insight that would make Stu's motivations resonate.

Wahlberg, who also produced the film after hearing Stu's story during dinner with a group of priests, undergoes an extreme transformation to play the character — and I don't mean his ridiculous moustache. His charisma shines through the weight and makeup and it is in these scenes that he elevates Stu from the cartoonish bad boy of the movie's first half, into a compelling character. It's too bad, that Ross attempts to tie up some of the loose story threads just as the personal story really finds its humanity.

"Father Stu" is being released around Easter, so given its subject matter and messages, it would appear to be a movie for the whole family, but be warned, Stu's language is authentic, i.e. pretty raunchy throughout the film's running time.

"Father Stu" is a movie about change, about overcoming obstacles and living with purpose. Good messages all, it's just too bad they are tied up in a clumsy movie.

ALL MY PUNY SORROWS: 3 ½ STARS

As you might imagine from a movie that begins with the voiceover, "In the history of mankind has there ever been a more obvious truth than the statement, 'We're all going to die?' and yet in our bones, how many of us can conceptualize that," "All My Puny Sorrows" does not shy away from the delicate matter of death.

Struggling writer Yoli (Alison Pill) and concert pianist Elf (Sarah Gadon) — short for Elfrieda — are sisters who fled a strict, rural Mennonite upbringing to forge lives in the arts. A deep bond exists between them, even though their lives took very different paths.

Yoli is in the midst of a divorce after 16 years of marriage. As daughter Nora (Amybeth McNulty) lashes out, Yoli wonders aloud if she's handling things correctly. "Ending 16 years of monogamy with Dan has triggered some kind of weird animal reaction," she says. "To be honest, the last few months have not been my proudest."

Elf, though internationally successful and happily married, has lost her lust for life. When she attempts suicide for the second time, Yoli comes to her side, hoping to help her sister avoid the same fate as their father Jake (Donal Logue) who killed himself when they were children, but her pleas fall on deaf ears.

"Will you take me to Switzerland?" asks Elf.

"Yeah, we'll get Swatches," says Yoli.

But Elf wants to go to an assisted suicide clinic, "where dying is legal and you don't have to die alone."

Writer-director Michael McGowan, adapting the novel-of-the-same-name by Miriam Toews, tells a story all about grief and death that examines the purpose of life. McGowan sensitively shows how life's decisions have echoes felt by everyone in the inner circle and beyond.

These themes are enhanced by the performances of Pill, Gadon and Mare Winningham as their beleaguered mother. The literary script often feels as though the characters are speaking in carefully constructed prose, but in the mouths of these performers love, frustration and acceptance of the situation is palpable. Pill and Gadon click as sisters, bringing to the screen a lifetime of love and petty squabbles.

"All My Puny Sorrows" is an emotional movie that embraces the totality of the sad end-of-life situation, the exasperation, sorrow and even occasional humour.