The year's biggest movie so far, Iron Man, stars Robert Downey Jr., who, at 43, is...I believe the clinical term is "middle-aged." And who (he would probably be the first to admit) looks every hard-living year of it, notwithstanding the movie's impressive strand-by-strand deletion of the gray hair that now speckles his head and goatee. (CGI or Just for Men? Only Paramount's accountants know for sure.) One reason that Iron Manworks so well is that the always wonderful Downey gets to play reasonably close to his age. Unlike many comic-book movies, this one isn't about a young person coming into his powers and realizing he is destined for greatness; it's about a rusted-out partyer who undergoes some very unusual heart surgery. I've never seen anything in a superhero movie quite like the expression on Downey's face when he's trying out the jet packs in his new boots and looking like he's really hoping his new ability to fly won't throw out his lower back when he lands.

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