6 films to see in UAE cinemas this week

The Danish Girl (15)
Eddie Redmayne is back in Oscar territory with his depiction of Lili Elbe, the girl alluded to in the film’s title. In society, he is Einar Wegener, a painter, magazine illustrator and husband to Gerda (Alicia Vikander), also an artist. In secret, though, Einar prefers to live as a woman, and frequently travels to Italy in order to escape the suffocating restrictions of home. He is also his wife’s muse and she achieves a level of local celebrity with her paintings of the vivacious and mysterious Lili. Of course, this is Europe in the 1910s and scandal – and eventually tragedy – soon catches up with them.
In cinemas from January 7

Get Squirrely (PG)
One of the more unusual premises for a family-friendly cartoon, Get Squirrely – look up the Urban Dictionary for that meaning – seems to focus on the attempts of a veritable jungle of animals to stop humans harvesting their, well, digestive by-product for their own dastardly commercial ends. This Canadian production is voiced by the likes of John Cleese, John Leguizamo and The Daily Show’s Samantha Bee, but it all feels a touch adolescent as the toilet humour piles up frame by frame. Any ten year-old boys in your family? Take them. They’ll love it.
In cinemas from January 7

Wazir (Hindi) (15)
Bejoy Namibar, director of 2001’s acclaimed Shaitan, is one of the rising stars of Bollywood. His latest outing is the noirish drama Wazir, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akthar, which centres on the friendship between a paralysed chess champion and an anti-terrorist squad officer whose lives are drawn together by an increasingly shadowy conspiracy. The rave reviews are already starting to pour in.
In cinemas from January 8

Lost in the Sun (15)
Josh Duhamel reinvents himself as small-town crook John, who embarks on an unlikely crime spree with teenage orphan, Louis – played with aplomb by Josh Wiggins. As their road trip continues, and the heists mout, the pair gets in deeper and deeper trouble, although the story is less about the suspense as the bond the pair form along the way. Duhamel doesn’t always convince as the grizzled, cynical criminal – you can’t help picturing Josh Brolin nailing the same role – but it’s good to see him move away from matinee idol territory. Wiggins, though, is the star turn in this hard-boiled buddy movie.
In cinemas from January 7