MIT Lecture Series Committee

December 7 & 8, 2012

Rated PG
100 minutes

view trailer

format: 35mm

The Polar Express (2004)

Remember, children ten and under get in free (one child per adult admission)!

Directed by Robert Zemeckis and based on children's author Chris Van Allsburg's modern holiday classic of the same name, The Polar Express revolves around Billy (Hayden McFarland), who longs to believe in Santa Claus but finds it quite difficult to do so, what with his family's dogged insistence that all of it, from the North Pole, to the elves, to the man himself, is all just a myth. This all changes, however, on Christmas Eve, when a mysterious train visits Billy in the middle of the night, promising to take him and a group of other lucky children to the North Pole for a visit with Santa. The train's conductor (Tom Hanks) along with the other passengers help turn Billy's crisis of faith into a journey of self-discovery. A long-time fan of Van Allsburg's book, Hanks also helped produce the film. [www.allrovi.com]

A truly satisfying holiday picture, the kind everyone can enjoy, and which may even restore a little lost childhood in many adult viewers.
      -- Desson Thomson, Washington Post. Read this review.