The spy’s a goof in the ‘OSS’

Based on a long-running French spy character who actually predates James Bond, “OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies” is a loving spoof of Cold War espionage thrillers, done with a spot-on re-creation of the look, sound and feel of a genuine 1950s Technicolor production. Men wear sharp suits, the women wear slinky dresses and everyone can dance the mambo reasonably well.

The film, directed by Michel Hazanavicius, counts as its No. 1 asset an impeccable sense of where to draw the line, always letting its eyebrow arch only just enough. Thankfully, Jean Dujardin plays the lead character more as a rakish Inspector Clouseau bumbler than a sexed-up Austin Powers libertine, so instead of the fart jokes and gay panic (well, there’s still a little gay panic), “OSS 117” pushes its subtextual irony to skewer the cultural imperialism that was always lurking beneath the surface of thrillers from the Cold War era. Light and fun, if also a little slight, “OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies” is like a pleasant sorbet to wash away the aftertaste of the pre-summer clunkers.

-- Mark Olsen

“OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies.” Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes. In French with English subtitles. At Landmark’s Nuart, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West L.A., (310) 281-8223.

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It ‘Rains’ but doesn’t pour

The monsoon season in southern India is right around the corner as the ‘30s-set period drama “Before the Rains” begins. That’s why ambitious British spice planter Henry Moores (Linus Roache) needs a mountain road financed and built soon. Also looming: the growing Indian independence movement, which hasn’t yet stirred in Moores’ Indian right-hand man T.K. (Rahul Bose), because T.K. likes the idea of his village thriving as his boss’ business grows.

But perhaps the only portentous threat that really counts in director-cinematographer Santosh Sivan’s lackluster potboiler is when the gun Moores gives T.K. early on will be used. (It’s a movie rule!) Because with the married Moores carrying on hush-hush waterfall trysts with his Indian housemaid Sajani (Nandita Das) -- who won’t go quietly when she needs to -- a tragic trigger-pull is only a matter of time. Then it’s a moral cross-cultural mud bath that schemes to protect colonial power at the cost of a well-meaning servant who dared to be dependable. But aside from Sivan’s talented eye for the lush topography of the region, the performances and story elements here make for a clockwork affair of gratingly tasteful temperament, which is probably one reason Merchant Ivory -- hardly a purveyor of spice in cinema -- “presents” it in the opening credits.

-- Robert Abele

“Before the Rains.” MPAA rating: PG-13 for violent content and a scene of sexuality. Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes. At the Landmark, 10850 W. Pico Blvd., West L.A., (310) 281-8233; Laemmle’s Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 848-3500; Laemmle’s Playhouse 7, 673 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 844-6500; Laemmle’s Fallbrook 10, 6731 Fallbrook Ave., West Hills, (818) 340-8710; Edwards Westpark 8, 3755 Alton Parkway, Irvine, (949) 622-8609.

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Beg off, citing an ‘Engagement’

This story of a restless married woman (Juliet Stevenson) traveling to meet her French first love (Tcheky Karyo) after 25 years -- under the nose of her dullard husband (Daniel Stern), who assumes the family is just on a vacation -- has no business being the dreary experience that “A Previous Engagement” is.

Writer-director Joan Carr-Wiggin intends to strike a blow for frustrated wives and mothers everywhere, but her unimaginative mixture of obvious farce and feeble midlife crisis harangues, despite being filmed on location in Malta, gives everything the whiff of interminable theater. Carr-Wiggin’s stacking of her adultery deck is so ham-fisted -- Stern is the cliched inattentive lump (he sells insurance, of course), their grown daughters are shallow jerks -- that whenever Julia worries for the well-being of her family as she contemplates leaving them, you think she’s out of her mind. And yet, as played by the usually accomplished Stevenson -- or, more accurately, as steered into twitchy overdrive by Carr-Wiggin, who thinks any behavioral hesitancy is comedy gold -- the character of Julia doesn’t inspire holiday romance well-wishing so much as a desire to plop her in front of a therapist.

-- R.A.

“A Previous Engagement.” Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 58 minutes. At Laemmle’s Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6869; and Laemmle’s Town Center, 17200 Ventura Blvd., Encino, (818) 981-9811.

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‘Brothers’ at the mind’s jail door

A sort of cross between “The Shawshank Redemption” and an episode of MSNBC’s “Lockup,” the intriguing documentary “The Dhamma Brothers” makes a cogent case for prisoner rehabilitation over, as one inmate here bluntly puts it, being “warehoused till you die.” Directors Jenny Phillips, Andrew Kukura and Anne Marie Stein follow a group of convicts at Alabama’s end-of-the-line Donaldson Correctional Facility, who, in 2002, participated in a 10-day course of Vipasanna, a strict, silent form of Buddhist meditation.

The contradiction between the peaceful tenets of this Eastern protocol versus the violent world of the prisoners, many of whom are convicted killers, fuels the film with both fierce irony and dark hope.

The documentary features interviews with a quartet of prisoners so emotionally transformed by meditation they can now recall their heinous crimes with a powerful honesty and clarity. But it’s lifer Grady Bankhead who trumps all when he asserts the rigorous Vipasanna retreat was harder than his eight years spent on death row.

-- Gary Goldstein

“The Dhamma Brothers.” Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 16 minutes. At Laemmle’s Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 848-3500.