What's in theaters this week

'BIG MIRACLE': In small town Alaska, a news reporter recruits his ex-girlfriend — a Greenpeace volunteer — on a campaign to save a family of gray whales trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle. Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski star.

RATED: PG

SHOWING: AMC Showplace Schererville 12 and 16, Showplace Hobart 12, Cinemark at Valparaiso, Portage 16

'THE WOMAN IN BLACK': A young lawyer (Daniel Radcliffe) travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals.

RATED: PG-13

SHOWING: AMC Showplace Schererville 12 and 16, Showplace Hobart 12, Cinemark at Valparaiso, Portage 16, Lansing 8

'THE CHRONICLE': Three high school friends gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery. Soon, though, they find their lives spinning out of control and their bond tested as they embrace their darker sides.

RATED: PG-13

SHOWING: AMC Showplace Schererville 12 and 16, Showplace Hobart 12, Cinemark at Valparaiso, Portage 16, Lansing 8

'THE GREY': After the thrillers "Taken" and "Unknown," Liam Neeson is back in his new genre of choice, looking quite at home punching a wolf. As the grizzled, morose sniper John Ottway, he's among a roughneck band of Alaskan oil refinery workers who, while being shuttled by plane to Anchorage for vacation, crash violently in a storm, stranding them in the snowy tundra.

RATED: R

SHOWING: AMC Showplace Schererville 12 and 16, Showplace Hobart 12, Cinemark at Valparaiso, Portage 16, Lansing 8

'MAN ON A LEDGE': This so-called thriller about a disgraced cop who threatens to jump off a building to divert attention from a heist going on across the street isn't even implausible in a fun way. Director Asger Leth's film plods along with its trash-talking New York cops and its forensic evidence and its elaborate surveillance systems. Every few minutes, a new star you recognize shows up: Edward Burns, Elizabeth Banks, Kyra Sedgwick, Ed Harris. At the center is a bland Sam Worthington doing a horrible job of disguising his Australian accent.

RATED: PG-13

SHOWING: AMC Showplace Schererville 12 and 16, Showplace Hobart 12, Cinemark at Valparaiso, Portage 16, Lansing 8

'THE DESCENDANTS': George Clooney stars as an indifferent husband and father who is forced to re-examine his life in the latest film from Alexander Payne ("Sideways").

RATED: R

SHOWING: AMC Showplace Schererville 16, Showplace Hobart 12, Cinemark at Valparaiso, Portage 16

'THE ARTIST': Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.

RATED: PG-13

SHOWING: AMC Showplace Schererville 12

'RED TAILS': The famed Tuskegee Airmen get the John Wayne-style heroic rendering they very much deserve, but also a hackneyed and weirdly context-less story that does them a disservice. George Lucas' pet project has the laudable goal of proving all-black movies can be a success, but "Red Tails" reduces a historical story of deep cultural significance to merely a flyboy flick. The film, directed by TV veteran Anthony Hemingway, superimposes the tale of the black World War II pilots on a dated, white genre of 1940s patriotic propaganda.

RATED: R

SHOWING: AMC Showplace Schererville 12 and 16, Showplace Hobart 12, Cinemark at Valparaiso, Portage 16, Lansing 8

'EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE': Oskar (Thomas Horn), who lost his father (Tom Hanks) in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, is convinced that his dad left a final message for him somewhere in New York City. Upon finding a mysterious key in his father's closet, Oskar sets out in search of the lock that it fits. Feeling disconnected from his grieving mother (Sandra Bullock) and driven by a tirelessly active mind, Oskar's journey takes him beyond his own loss and leads to a greater understanding of his world.

RATED: PG-13

SHOWING: AMC Showplace Schererville 12, Showplace Hobart 12, Cinemark at Valparaiso, Portage 16

'THE IRON LADY': The same problems that plagued "La Vie en Rose," starring Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf, exist in this biopic of Margaret Thatcher, with Meryl Streep playing the former British prime minister. While both films feature strong performances from strong actresses playing strong, real-life women, the scripts are weakened by going strictly by the numbers. Sure, Streep reliably nails her impression of Thatcher - the hair, the voice, the steely demeanor. But the film from Phyllida Lloyd (who directed Streep in the ABBA musical "Mamma Mia!"), reduces this high-profile life to a greatest-hits collection of historic moments.

RATED: PG-13

SHOWING: AMC Showplace Schererville 16, Portage 16

'TAKE SHELTER': Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself. Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain star.

RATED: R

SHOWING: 6 p.m. Feb. 5 and 4 p.m. Feb. 14 at Memorial Opera House, Valparaiso

'THE TRIP': Steve Coogan has been asked by The Observer to tour the country's finest restaurants, but after his girlfriend backs out on him he must take his best friend and source of eternal aggravation, Rob Brydon.

RATED: NR

SHOWING: 6 p.m. Feb. 12 and 7 p.m. Feb. 14 at Memorial Opera House, Valparaiso