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On Demand picks
September 15, 2010

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THE GHOST WRITER
(Comcast Movies: All Movies) A minor treat from a major filmmaker. Roman Polanski directs this political thriller about a ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) uncovering ugly secrets about his subject, a recently ousted British prime minister (Pierce Brosnan), and it’s a dark entertainment put together with sly, elegant gamesmanship. Costarring Kim Cattrall and Olivia Williams, the latter unnervingly good. (PG-13; runs through Jan. 31) TY BURR

EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES
(Comcast Movies: All Movies) A run-of-the-mill if perfectly watchable weepie with Brendan Fraser as a father who teams up with a crusty scientist, played by Harrison Ford, to find a drug to prolong his children’s lives. The focus on Fraser’s puddling eyes or his face wrenching before a crying jag feels like something new for the sick-kid movie: Dads hurt, too. (PG; runs through Oct. 31) WESLEY MORRIS

LEGENDS OF THE FALL
(Starz on Comcast) A throwback to those big, strapping, manly epics of yesteryear, with Brad Pitt almost emerging as a romantic hero. He’s one of three brothers in turn-of-the-century Montana whose lives get complicated when one of them (Henry Thomas) brings home a fiancee (Julia Ormond) who falls in love with Pitt. World War I ensues, along with melodramatic gestures of sacrifice, honor, and emotional wholeness. Aidan Quinn and Anthony Hopkins costar. (R; runs through Sept. 23)

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