Josh Duhamel, who never met a romantic comedy or seasonally-themed Garry Marshall ensemble film he didn’t love, is an obvious choice to play the male lead in a Nicholas Sparks film. Indeed, the only thing surprising about Duhamel’s appearance in Safe Haven is the fact that he hadn’t appeared in a Sparks film sooner.

He got in just under the wire, too, because despite his boyish good looks, Duhamel is 40. And—awkward alert!—his costar in this film, Julianne Hough, is 24. Slightly gross, but hey, at least they look pretty together.

Safe Haven is your standard Sparks fare, with a few tiny twists. We have the girl with a troubled past. We have the sleepy beach resort town. We have the hot guy who takes his shirt off a lot. We have the two of them falling in love, montage style. We have the unspoken thing that threatens to tear them asunder.

In this case, that unspoken thing is a possible murder. As the film starts Katie (Hough) is fleeing the scene of a crime, with what appears to be blood on her hands. She cuts off her dark hair and even finds time to give it beautiful golden highlights. Then she dons a hoodie and hops onto a bus.

The cops, particularly the...

From John Candy and Steve Martin in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles to Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr. in Due Date to virtually every film starring David Spade and Chris Farley, the comic spectacle of an uptight (usually skinny) man forced to make his way across country or spend time with a free-spirited (usually overweight) sidekick is nothing new. There are different variations of this theme—John Candy’s character was a sentimental doofus; more often, the sidekick is all raging, uninhibited id—but one thing has remained the same: The sidekick has been a man. Until now.

In Identify Thief, the loud, obnoxious cohort is played by Melissa McCarthy, and I’m literally not quite sure if this cause for celebration or dismay.

Where is it written that the embodiment of the human id can’t be a woman? Where is it written that there can’t be jokes about her girth, her insatiable appetites, her physical repulsiveness? I admit I felt a little put-off when Jason Bateman’s Sandy, an account executive who has the been the victim of identity theft at the hands of McCarthy’s Diana, shuddered at the thought of any physical contact with her. But that’s how it always goes...

Dopers, liars, and questionable heroes have been in the news a lot lately, thanks to both Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens being snubbed for the Baseball Hall of Fame and Lance Armstrong getting set to finally admit to doping to Oprah Winfrey.

I’m fascinated by these men as uniquely tragic figures—Shakespearean almost: Lauded as heroes while harboring a secret that could be their complete undoing. It’s too simple to suggest that they are merely living dual lives—faking it in public, while privately racked with guilt and the fear of being caught. Because there is something else all three of these men share—massive chips on their shoulders. They know that they are great, with or without the drugs. They know that they worked extremely hard for their success. They know that other, less famous or talented athletes have done the exact same thing. (For the record, in the case of Clemens, I'm speaking of an alleged use of steroids. It hasn't been proven.)

I’ve always thought that this fascinating mindset—the daily horror of living a lie coupled with the endless mechanism for self-justification and rationalization—would make an excellent subject for a film.

And then I realized I already...

For me, 2012 was the year of the BUT. (That’s one t, people. One t.)

I loved Zero Dark Thirty BUT was uncomfortable with its seemingly pro-torture politics.

I found Django Unchained to be audacious and bold entertainment BUT could’ve lived without the final bloodbath (and the profligate use of the “N-word.”)

Silver Linings Playbook was utterly charming BUT wished it had been a bit more rigorous in its depiction of mental illness.

The Impossible took hold of me and never let go, BUT I wished it hadn’t reduced the devastating tsunami of 2004 to one white family’s struggle for survival.

Argo was quite possibly the smartest film of the year, BUT the director (Ben Affleck) might've used a better lead (Ben Affleck).

Caveats aside, it was a great year at the movies. Here are my faves.

1. MOONRISE KINGDOM: Precocious 12 year olds in love and on the run from clueless, self-absorbed adults. On a simple level, Moonrise Kingdom is a classic love story about two perfectly matched young people waiting for the world to catch up. But it’s also, as all of Wes Anderson’s films are to...