Capsule reviews for June 28

Euphoria

Moviegoers can feel the pain of the characters, and not in a good way, in this mournful drama that squanders a first-rate cast. Emilie (Eva Green) wants to reconcile with her estranged sister (Alicia Vikander) during a week at a remote European resort, unaware that Emilie is terminally ill, and the luxury resort is designed to comfort the afflicted in their dying days. The siblings sort through their dirty laundry with the support of a nurturing caretaker (Charlotte Rampling). The heavy-handed screenplay by Swedish director Lisa Langseth maintains a character-driven focus rather than passing judgment about assisted suicide. However, the result is more tedious than profound. (Rated R, 97 minutes).

Killers Anonymous

Anonymity might benefit the actors who endure the labored writing in this thoroughly misguided thriller, in which the titular characters lack depth and sympathy primarily because they’re, you know, killers. It centers on a London-based support group in which assassins hash out their transgressions in a church basement, led by a deceptively tough-minded cohort (MyAnna Buring) who harbors secrets, like everyone else. While director Martin Owen employs some visual gimmicks to liven things up, the dialogue isn’t especially funny — whether it’s meant to be is unclear — and the plot twists aren’t intriguing. Gary Oldman and Jessica Alba pop in briefly, but this snoozer shoots blanks. (Rated R, 96 minutes).

The Last Whistle

Worthwhile intentions alone can’t carry this earnest low-budget football drama into the end zone. It takes place in a small Texas town, where a star running back (Fred Tolliver Jr.) collapses and dies at practice due to an undiagnosed heart condition. As teammates and fans mourn, his stubborn coach (Brad Leland) brushes off the incident and prioritizes his team’s winning streak instead. Leland (Friday Night Lights) captures the inner conflict of the hard-headed coach seeking redemption. However, in tackling hot-button player safety issues, the screenplay by rookie director Rob Smat feels both exaggerated and oversimplified. Despite some underlying truths, it ultimately fumbles in the fourth quarter. (Not rated, 88 minutes).

Maiden

Both a rousing high-seas adventure and a salute to resilience and resourcefulness, this crowd-pleasing documentary spotlights the all-female crew that broke gender barriers by competing in the Whitbread Round the World yacht race in 1989. Told primarily from the perspective of the boat’s skipper, then-27-year-old Tracy Edwards, the film combines new interviews with archival footage both leading up to and during the nine-month sailing race around the world. While his approach lacks depth in spots, director Alex Holmes offers a worthwhile tribute to Edwards and these British yachting pioneers that conveys their successes and failures on the water, and more importantly, their legacy on the shore. (Rated PG, 97 minutes).

Ophelia

As the latest feminist twist on classic literature, Shakespeare purists might bristle at the reimagining of Hamlet from a new perspective that retains the setting while examining its characters through a contemporary lens of female empowerment. It follows Ophelia (Daisy Ridley) as she prepares to assume the throne from Queen Gertrude (Naomi Watts) while entering a doomed romance with young Prince Hamlet (George MacKay). Weaving together old and new material, the film is handsomely mounted, and Ridley gives Ophelia a feisty vibrancy. However, this revisionist glimpse into Elizabethan gender politics indulges in watered-down melodrama while rarely achieving the same emotional impact as its source material. (Rated PG-13, 107 minutes).

Three Peaks

The beauty of the majestic visual backdrop provides an appropriate contrast with the uneasy intimacy of fragile family dynamics in this deliberately paced drama set in Italy’s Dolemite Mountains. That’s where Lea (Berenice Bejo) takes her new boyfriend (Alexander Fehling) in hopes he can forge a relationship with her 8-year-old son (Arian Montgomery). However, the tension with the skeptical youngster instead prompts a dangerous series of events that threatens their survival in the remote wilderness. Despite some awkward twists, the uneven narrative momentum that plagues the character-driven screenplay by German director Jan Zabeil is redeemed by emotional complexity and a trio of convincing performances. (Not rated, 94 minutes).