Leading Ladies: August 2005

The Skeleton Key

Stars: Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands, Peter Sarsgaard, John Hurt, Joy Bryant
Director: Iain Softley
Rating: PG-13

This week's female critics can't agree on whether or not chick-flick staple Kate Hudson successfully makes the transition to horror-movie heroine, but even the ones who don't like the movie don't lay the blame on her.

The Los Angeles Times's Carina Chocano says the movie is "tightly plotted and suspenseful enough to keep you guessing until the satisfying, unexpected end, which is worth suspending disbelief for," while iVillage's Beth Pinsker says "the jaw-dropping twist in the final showdown ... will make anyone who watches it hide under the bed during the next thunderstorm."

And the New York Times's Manohla Dargis pays the movie a compliment, sort of, by saying it's "one of the most enjoyably inane movies of the season ... [and] this faux Southern Gothic offers an embarrassment of geek pleasures."

On the other hand, the Chicago Tribune's Jessica Reaves says "there are a few moments of real suspense, but they're neither consistent nor visceral enough to take the film to the next level," while the Village Voice's Jessica Winter says the movie is "creaky in its mechanics and numbingly protracted ... [a] basement B horror that fancies itself a prestige chiller."

Female consensus: It scares up a few, um, scares

next : The 40-Year-Old Virgin