Julia

It takes place during the Russian-Chechen war, but House of Fools has the aura of the 1960s about it, specifically the anti-war picture of the King of Hearts variety. Set in a mental hospital near the front lines, the movie poses the age-old question: what happens when the inmates take over the asylum? The doctors have fled from the fighting, so the patients create their own society. Julia Vysotsky, a livewire actress, plays the central role, a blissfully unbalanced woman convinced she is the girlfriend of the singer Bryan Adams (and, game for the challenge, Adams plays himself, endlessly crooning his hit "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman"). Director Andrei Konchalovsky (Runaway Train) finds suspense here, and also absurdity, but it's hard to see what the film adds to the roster of "war is hell" movies. The conflict in Chechnya deserves attention, but Konchalovsky overstates his case. --Robert Horton