Live Wire

X-Factor

started out with expectations that it might be a phenomenon but is ending with a decided sense of ho-hum,even from early fans of the show. The show averaged only 11.1 million viewers,which is not in the ballpark of what its star,Simon Cowell,once promised he famously said if it didnt attract 20 million viewers it would be considered a disappointment. If it limped to the finish this season what will happen next fall? Already the show is making changes that indicate a shakeup is in progress,with the host,Simon Jones,departing and one judge,Nicole Scherzinger,hinting at her own departure.

A Separation,

directed by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi,won four of the main prizes at the Berlin Film Festival and initial responses to the film have been extremely positive,making it an early front-runner in speculation about the Academy Award for best foreign-language film. The film begins with a middle-class couple in Tehran unable to resolve their disagreement over where and how they should live. She wants to leave Iran so that their daughter can have a better life,but he feels obliged to remain in order to care for his father,who has Alzheimers. When she leaves him and the daughter to return to her parents,complications of all kinds legal,moral and religious ensue in her husbands household.