Identity Crisis Well-Intentioned ‘Beautiful Country’ Hurt by Awkward Acting, Dialogue by Ky Nguyen “The Beautiful Country” comes with an impressive pedigree, produced by the legendary—if elusive—filmmaker Terrence Malick (“The Thin Red Line,” “Days of Heaven”). Director Hans Petter Moland (who made the outstanding “Aberdeen”) follows Malick’s trademark of slow-moving visual lyricism to tell the epic story, written by Sabina Murray, of a young man in search of his identity. In 1990, American-Asian Binh (newcomer Damien Nguyen) is called “bui doi” (less than dust) in his Vietnamese village, where he’s treated as less than human by his surrogate family. Holding a picture of his mother and his American G.I. father, Binh travels to Saigon in search of her. After a brief reunion, unfortunate circumstances lead him to flee with his half-brother on a boat. Ending up in a Malaysian refugee camp, he befriends a hooker with a heart of gold (Bai Ling). They join another ship, where traffickers smuggle them to New York City, where they’re forced to slave away. Binh’s harrowing journey for his father finally takes him to Texas, where his reunification with his father (Nick Nolte) is more or less than what he expected. Well-intentioned, the film works to some degree, propelled by images of “the beautiful country” (referring to both Vietnam and the United States). The characters are earnest, but the acting is stilted. It’s also stalled by awkward dialogue and a frequent lack of immediacy. Perhaps because of the glossiness on screen, the viewer doesn’t quite feel like the awful events on screen are real. And frankly, despite all the drama, not much seems to be happening. “The Beautiful Country” (English, Vietnamese, Cantonese and Mandarin with subtitles; 125 min.; scope) opens Friday, Aug. 5 at Cinema Arts and other area theaters. Rating: 3 (out of 5) stars. Herzog’s ‘Grizzly Man’ With the morbidly fascinating documentary “Grizzly Man,” German iconoclastic filmmaker Werner Herzog continues his recurrent exploration of the man-versus-nature theme (“Aguirre: The Wrath of God,” “Fitzcarraldo”). The twist here is that grizzly aficionado Timothy Treadwell never believes he’s battling nature, until the very end—when he’s eaten by one of the bears he loves. Treadwell gained notoriety—including late-night TV appearances—for living with and filming grizzly bears in the Alaskan wilderness. Not scientifically trained, he was controversial with establishment figures who believed it was bad for the bears to be acculturated to humans. Treadwell’s own footage of himself is the film’s most remarkable aspect, revealing self-portraits of a passionate man who is probably a bit mad. Treadwell portrays himself as being alone with the bears, but he was accompanied in his final summer by girlfriend Amie Huguenard. An interesting subtext to the film is the blurring between fact and fiction. Herzog alludes to Treadwell’s depression as a failed actor who lost out to Woody Harrelson for his breakthrough part on “Cheers.” His hunger for attention may have been a large motive behind his avocation, including frequent free lecturing to schoolchildren. “Grizzly Man” falters when showing subjects close to Treadwell. Awkward moments include far too obviously staged re-enactments with Treadwell’s parents and his former girlfriend, Jewel Palovak (the film’s co-executive producer). The doc could have benefited from more editing to be tighter and flow more smoothly. “Grizzly Man” (English; 103 min.) opens Friday, Aug. 12 at Landmark’s E Street Cinema. Produced by Discovery, it premiered at AFI’s SilverDocs. Rating: 3 (out of 5) stars. ‘The Edukators’: Growing Up “The Edukators” adroitly combines socio-political commentary, an unlikely kidnapping story, and a “Jules & Jim”-style romantic triangle involving a young woman (Julia Jentsch) and two young men (Stipe Erceg and Daniel Brühl, from “Good Bye, Lenin!”). It works with authentic performances, easy-going charm and intimate moments. The youths are idealistic German activists looking to change the world. They break into rich people’s homes and radically rearrange the furniture to make political, anti-globalization statements. Somewhat inadvertently, they end up kidnapping an executive (Burghart Klaussner). While on the lam, the radicals bond with the capitalist, who turns out to have once been in a revolutionary cell. “The Edukators,” written and directed by Austrian Hans Weingartner, marks the first time in 11 years that a German film played at competition in Cannes. It was the opening night film at New Films from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. “The Edukators (Die Fetten Jahre Sind Vorbei)” (German with subtitles; 127 min.) opens Friday, Aug. 5 at Landmark’s E Street Cinema. Rating: 4 (out of 5) stars. War of the Worlds Jang Jun-hwan’s “Save the Green Planet” is the latest crazy Korean flick to receive distribution in the Washington area, following up the engagement of “Memories of Murder” at AFI Silver Theatre. Rookie director Jang takes us on an exhilarating, gruesome ride through moments of suspense, horror and comedy. He pulls out all the stops, riffing through a plethora of cinematic references: “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “City of Lost Children,” “2001,” “X-Files,” “Misery,” and more. To save the world from a perceived alien invasion, paranoid Lee Byeong-gu (Shin Ha-kyun) kidnaps his ex-boss Kang Man-shik (Baek Yoon -shik), the rich president of a chemical company. Lee tortures Kang, believing him to be a leader of the menacing Andromedans. Along the way, it becomes tough to tell who’s good and who’s bad. “Save the Green Planet (Jigureul Jikyeora)” (Korean with subtitles; 118 min.) opens Friday, Aug. 26 at AFI Silver Theatre. Rating: 4 (out of 5) stars. Repertory Notes AFI Silver: The Sad and Beautiful World of Jim Jarmusch Complementing the theatrical release of “Broken Flowers,” indie stalwart Jim Jarmusch’s earlier films are reviewed, including “Stranger than Paradise,” “Mystery Train,” “Coffee and Cigarettes,” “Down by Law” and “Night on Earth.” In the last three, Italian comic Roberto Benigni is featured. ((301) 495-6700, www.afi.com/Silver) Freer: Hong Kong and Indonesia The 10th annual Made in Hong Kong Film Festival concludes with true classics, including King Hu’s “Come Drink with Me” (Aug. 5 and 7), Jackie Chan’s “Police Story,” and John Woo’s “The Killer” (Aug. 26 and 28). The Freer also offers two selections from rarely screened Indonesia cinema: “”Whispering Sands” (Aug. 18) and “A Courtesan” (Aug. 20). ((202) 357-2700, www.asia.si.edu/events/films.asp) National Gallery of Art Highlights of “From Vault to Screen—New Preservation from American Collections” include Satyajit Ray’s “Pather Panchali” (Aug. 6), “Edgar G. Ulmer—The Man Off-screen” (Aug. 7), David Lean’s “Summertime” (Aug. 14), and Frank Capra’s public debut “The Italian Cruiser Libia Visits San Francisco, November 6-29, 1921” (Aug. 27). The doc “Souls of Naples” receives its U.S. premiere on Aug. 21. ((202) 842-6799, www.nga.gov/programs/film.htm) Library of Congress: Alain Delon in Hollywood “Alain Delon in Hollywood” features the French actor in “Once a Thief” (Aug. 4), “Lost Command” (Aug. 11) and “Scorpio” (Aug. 19). Also, check out a rare viewing of “Chimes at Midnight/Falstaff” by Orson Welles on Aug. 30. ((202) 707-5677, www.loc.gov/rr/mopic/pickford) Goethe-Institut: Mann Family “Great Novels, Great Films: Five Adaptations of Works by Thomas, Heinrich and Klaus Mann” concludes with “The Buddenbrooks” (without subtitles on Aug. 15), “The Kaiser’s Lackey” (Aug. 22) and “Mephisto” (Aug. 29). ((202) 289-1200, http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/was/ver/flm/enindex.htm) Ky N. Nguyen is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.