Case in point: This pleasant little train wreck about a not-quite-out-of-the-closet hockey player-turned-broadcaster (Tom Cavanagh) and the unusual relationship he forges with a flamboyant young boy named Scot (Noah Bernett) who is dropped in his lap after a convoluted series of off-camera events.  Clearly, Scot grew up watching a little too much Bravo, if you catch my drift.  Doesn’t even know who Wayne Gretzky is, but somehow, it all works out in elaborately heartwarming fashion.  Bernett looks like he’s having a blast (albeit an incredibly stereotypical one), but everything else here is agonizingly pedestrian.

The Tracey Fragments - Another pile of Canada, but at least this one has a little bit of an edge to it.  Which is good, because there isn’t much to the coming-of-age story of a late-blooming teenager – the titular Tracey (Ellen Page) – and the slightly hallucinogenic fallout that she experiences when her little brother goes missing.  The rub is that director Bruce McDonald puts the entire thing together by throwing multiple panes on the screen.  Big ones and small ones.  Some repeat what you’ve already seen, and others show re-takes.  It’s a nice twist, but grows more and more grating as you sit there and wonder if you’re watching the work of a sub-Mendoza Line film student.  At least the running times is lean.

In Bloom - It’s difficult to say if Vadim Perelmen’s follow-up to House of Sand and Fog is good, or just seemed good after mucking my way through the Great White North.  In retrospect, we’re probably dealing more with the latter.  The story, based on Laura Kasischke’s novel, is about a suburban Connecticut character named Diana, and it shows her life in three distinctly different times.  One shows her befriending a girl named Maureen (Eva Amurri) in high school, and another depicts a Columbine-type school shooting that finds Diana (Rachel Evans Wood) and her BFF trapped in a bathroom with the unbalanced gunman.  The third is set 20 years after the shooting, with Diana (Uma Thurman) dealing with both a rebellious daughter, a wandering husband, and the anniversary of the most traumatic event of her life.  Bloom is a gorgeous film, but the trouble lies in the story, and to poke at it will definitely involve treading in spoiler territory, so I’ll keep my yap shut.  Believe me, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about when you see it.  Retitled: The Life Before Her Eyes

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - It’s great to see 83-year-old Sidney Lumet cranking out pictures, period (12 Angry Men was in theatres over half a century ago), let alone ones that are as enjoyable as Devil.  Half the fun is watching a first-rate cast try to outdo each other without chewing up any scenery.  The other half is in the disjointed, non-linear style screenwriter Kelly Masterson chooses to tell the story.  Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman play siblings who, for various reasons, have fallen on hard times and decide to knock over a jewelry store that is, quite literally, a mom and pop operation – it’s owned by their parents (Albert Finney and Olympia Dukakis).  Also, there’s a very naked Marisa Tomei.  Devil droops a bit in the middle, but it’s a top-notch Hitchcockian thriller.