In theaters

IN AMERICA, directed by Jim Sheridan, written by Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan, Kirsten Sheridan, 103 minutes, rated R. Now playing, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

Jim Sheridan’s “In America” is a semiautobiographical account of the Irish director’s grueling early years in America, when he left Canada with his wife and two young daughters in tow, and moved to Manhattan with barely a month’s rent in hand.

It was a life-altering risk, with the Sheridans taking up residence at a Hell’s Kitchen tenement. There, where junkies roamed the corridors and transients begged on street corners, they hoped to start life anew, leaving behind memories of a relative’s tragic death, which has changed each of them in ways none fully realize or comprehend. But they will.

As written by Sheridan (“My Left Foot”) and his two adult daughters, Naomi and Kirsten Sheridan, this modestly fictionalized account, loosely set in 1982, is filled with the sort of sharp details that smack of life lived – and lived hard. It’s about the bonds of a family and what it means to be a family, the tough scrabble of making ends meet even when those ends seem neighborhoods apart. It’s also about what can happen to a family when uncomfortable truths, wrapped in fists of despair, are delivered with painstaking accuracy.

As such, there’s plenty of love and misery to be found in “In America,” but also a surprising measure of romantic, mystic overtones, the likes of which might have been cloying in another director’s hands, but which, under Sheridan’s sure control, give the film a sense of innocence and hope it otherwise might have lacked.

The film stars Paddy Considine and Samantha Morton as Johnny and Sarah Sullivan, with the gifted, real-life sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger as their daughters, 11-year-old Christy and 6-year-old Ariel. Initially, they seem like an average family, with Christy capturing their experiences on her camcorder. What she films is episodic, chronicling how the Sullivans came to fall apart and put themselves back together again with the help of a dying African shaman named Mateo (Djimon Hounsou).

Nothing in the early scenes prepares you for the grief and overwhelming sadness these characters must face if they’re to press on with their lives. By extension, we must face it along with them, and it can be wrenching, particularly toward the end, when the film’s quiet power takes hold in devastating ways that won’t be revealed here.

With Movie City 8 erring in no longer playing the art and foreign films the River City Cinema Society were successful in bringing to Bangor, one of 2003’s best movies now can only be seen in Waterville at the Railroad Square.

Here’s hoping Spotlight Cinemas or Hoyts steps up to fill the void.

Grade: A-

On video and DVD

S.W.A.T., directed by Clark Johnson, written by David Ayer and David McKenna, 111 minutes, rated PG-13.

Carl Johnson’s “S.W.A.T.” has shortcomings that generally tend to sideline a film – heavy-handed product placements, lapses in logic, clumsy dialogue, a cliched opening that’s been beaten to death by Hollywood, an uneven tone.

Ever a fighter, “S.W.A.T.” swats back with a solid cast, a blistering chemistry among the actors, and a handful of well-done, over-the-top action scenes that involve planes, trains and automobiles – and the inevitable destruction of each. Add it up and you’re left with an above-average movie that wins you over even though some moments let you down.

Loosely based on the 1970s television show, the film stars Colin Farrell as Jim Street, a Los Angeles S.W.A.T. officer whose ruined career gets a healthy lift from Hondo Harrelson (Samuel L. Jackson), the hilariously named, good-natured recruiting officer who asks Street to join his elite team of S.W.A.T. officers, a talented, ragtag roundup that includes LL Cool J’s Deke, Brian Van Holt’s Boxer, Josh Charles’ TJ and Michelle Rodriguez’s Sanchez.

They complete their training just in time to battle Alex Montel (Olivier Martinez), a billionaire drug trafficker who uses the media to offer $100 million to anyone who can break him out of prison. Naturally, every hungry hooligan with a television quickly dusts off their rocket launchers, and soon Harrelson’s S.W.A.T. team is dodging a bullets and bombs from the most inhospitable of people.

With the exception of a few common character names, almost nothing here resembles the old TV show, which isn’t exactly a crime since that show was nothing to lock and load about.

The movie is at its best during those scenes in which the action doesn’t rub against the ridiculous – which happens especially toward the end – and when its characters are allowed to bond, which they do. With a sneer that could cripple most crime in L.A., Rodriguez (“Girlfight,” “The Fast and the Furious”) is once again a highpoint, as are Jackson and Farrell. Each take their stock characters seriously, breathing a measure of life into them that only occasionally sounds like a sigh.

Grade: B-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 and WCSH 6, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

The Video/DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Alex & Emma ? D+

A Mighty Wind ? B+

Anger Management ? C-

Anything Else ? B+

Bad Boys II ? C-

Bend it Like Beckham ? A-

Bringing Down the House ? B

Bruce Almighty ? B+

Down with Love ? C+

Dreamcatcher ? C-

Dumb and Dumberer ? D-

Finding Nemo ? B+

Freaky Friday ? A-

Gigli ? D+

Holes ? B+

Hollywood Homicide ? D-

How to Deal ? C-

The In-Laws ? C

The Italian Job ? A-

Lara Croft Tombraider: The Cradle of Life ? B

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ? C-

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde ? C+

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ? A-

Man on the Train ? A-

The Matrix Reloaded ? A-

Nowhere in Africa ? A

THE ORDER ? D

Pirates of the Caribbean ? A-

Real Women Have Curves ? A-

Santa Clause 2 ? C-

Seabiscuit ? C

Shanghai Knights ? B

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas ? B-

S.W.A.T. ? B-

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ? B

2 Fast 2 Furious ? C-

28 Days Later ? B+

View from the Top ? C+

Winged Migration ? A

X2-X-Men United ? A-