Malick’s ‘Hidden Life’ splits the critics again

Looks as if there's at least one addition to the week's openings. In addition to the horror reboot "The Grudge," which opened on Wednesday, Friday's schedule includes:

"A Hidden Life": Terence Malick ("The Tree of Life") returns to the theaters with this study of an Austrian man who resisted the call of Adolf Hitler's fascism during World War II. History does tend to repeat itself.

Here are some critical comments:

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: " 'A Hidden Life' is indisputably the finest work Malick has produced in eight years, as an examination of faith, conviction and sacrifice, but also as proof of concept for his own idiosyncratic style."

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine: "We shouldn't be so smug as to assume that we would always know the right thing to do, or even be brave enough to do it, Malick seems to say. A true act of resistance should crack our universe open."

And then there's the iconoclast Richard Brody, of The New Yorker: "When a giant stumbles, the thud is colossal."

Whatever. That's the week's offerings. So go, see a movie. And enjoy.