Held during a long weekend on board the Disney Wonder, the Ebert & Roeper Film Fest promised cinematic magic as well. The luxury cruise ship left Port Canaveral, Florida Thursday afternoon at 5 p.m. Ports of call…Nassau and Castaway Cay. No, the film festival is not focused on kids but as Ebert has shown in his two Overlooked Film Festivals, his love of movies for adults is not allowed to push aside the importance of film for children. Here we have a setting for the young at heart. For sure, this will not be a stuffy affair.

Not wanting to waste time, Ebert & Roeper weighed anchor with a film starting at 5:15 p.m. This was fine with us, as we were all movie enthusiasts, eager to see that screen come to life.

The films were shown in theaters on par with your local megaplex. On this three-night cruise, there will be three films shown. Note however, this does not mean that the films are shown at night.

Approximately 100 dedicated moviegoers were in the audience to give Roger Ebert & Richard Roeper an enthusiastic welcome as they kicked off this floating film fest. They explained the format of the event and told us a little about each of the films. Roger and Richard will introduce each movie and after the end credits roll, they will return to the stage for a brief discussion of their views on the film, at times whose views are more valid, with a bit of insider info thrown in. This will be followed by a question and answer period, which lasts about 45 minutes. The first night's discussion ended about 8 o'clock and we had a short break before dinner, with a definite French flair, at the ship's Lumiere restaurant.

Ebert & Roeper hosted their guests for dinner each night. Everyone was seated at adjacent tables, and during the course of the evening Roger and Richard came around to personally meet each festival fan. On the tables were post cards of the two of them with their top 10 movies listed for 2000. Here's a switch, the celebrity offers to give you an autograph if you like. Later in the cruise they will do a book signing.

Now that we know the general direction of our heading for this film festival at sea (films, fun, fans and food) let's talk about the movies that were screened.

The Dish, an Australian film, is about four scientists, three from Australia and one from NASA. They face challenging technical difficulties as they prepare a satellite dish, a small town's claim to fame, to receive and broadcast the live picture transmission of Neil Armstrong as he becomes the first man to walk on the moon, and we hear his voice as he takes those historic steps.

Although the story in The Dish is very different from The Full Monty, Billy Elliot or Saving Grace, the style of the humor is similar. This film is expected to be a box office hit in the US because it was an audience favorite at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival and is the highest grossing film in the history of Australian cinema.

Set in July 1969, NASA is about to launch Apollo 11, whose primary mission is to have man take his first steps on the surface of the moon. It's heady stuff, getting to the moon, landing on the surface, and ensuring a safe flight for the entire round trip mission.

Of course we know what happened, but telling the tale in an appealing way is more than half the fun. As with the film Thirteen Days, considerable suspense can be generated even when you know the outcome of the event.

The story is told on two levels. The first is right there for you to see with its funny interpersonal situations along side historical film footage. We see President Kennedy talking about putting a man on the moon; the actual and very dramatic count down of the Apollo 11 space launch; and the very first step taken by man on the moon as people around the world were mesmerized in front of their TV sets.

On a secondary level, perhaps closer to the heart, and better appreciated by those born by the mid 1940's, is just how wonderful the event of landing on the moon was, particularly for people in the United States. It was a moment of remarkable achievement for man because it was a joy shared not just by the USA, but also by all mankind.

Since man's first steps on the moon, the scales of peace appear to have tilted in our favor. While there has been tragedy on a massive scale in places such as Rwanda and Bosnia, we've seen the Berlin Wall come down, the end of the cold war, and no more wars or police actions on the scale of WW I, II, Korea or Viet Nam.

Deserving some much needed rest and relief from a harsh Chicago winter, I played hooky from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, my one transgression during the film festival, when my wife Pam and I went to Paradise Island to tour the spectacular Atlantis complex. The lure of the waterslide that shoots you through a shark infested pool and the elegant aquarium surrounding one of the restaurants was a sight not to be missed. For gamblers and shoppers there is a casino right next to world class shopping. Unlike other cruise ships, there is no gambling aboard the Disney Wonder, and liquor purchased in the duty free shop is picked up on the last night of the cruise.

Stopping to look at the menu for one of the Atlantis restaurants, and mulling on it's $13 hamburgers and remembering all the wonderful free food on the ship, we took a few pictures and headed back for our second film. When you are out of town at a film festival, you normally like to see more than one film a day, but after wearing a down parka and shoveling snow for two months, walking around on a beach in shorts and sandals as a way of getting ready to see a movie is indeed paradise.

The second film started at 3 p.m. and it's one that will soon go into wide release. The Claim was Roeper's third best film of 2000, bested only by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with Traffic holding down the number two spot.

In 1867 a woman, separated from her husband of twenty years prior, reunites their daughter with him so that after she dies of a terminal illness, the daughter will not be forced into prostitution to support herself. This description is just the tip of the iceberg of an epic story told over the course of a few months that portrays the building of western towns in America; the importance of the railroad to our culture and economy; and the limited choices that women had to take care of themselves.

The notion behind the title of the film is that twenty years earlier Elena and Dillon were married and Hope was their infant child. Dillon and his family were barely surviving the frigid, blizzard-like conditions of the Sierra Nevada Mountains when a man who had a claim on gold-rich property saved them. Dillon was desperate for gold and the unnamed man who saved them was desperate for a woman. They struck a deal in which Dillon sold his wife and child in exchange for the claim of gold. Although Elena told them both that she and her daughter were not property to be bought or sold, she went along with it because her choices were limited to the deal, going back into the storm, or into prostitution.

People literally would stake out a claim and start a town from scratch. That's what Dillon did, naming his town Kingdom Come. This was symbolically shown by a wedding conducted in a new town, in a church with no roof or sidewalls. The entire town was in that state of semi construction, with people living in tents.

Dillon tries to do the right thing to redeem himself to his daughter, which makes it difficult for him to focus on what is good for the town of Kingdom Come. Can you ever make up for the sin of literally selling and abandoning your wife and child for money? The Claim is a gripping story about redemption.

All things considered, times are tough today but not nearly as bad as in the 1860's. Some things change and others stay the same. The line in the movie that really hits home is when Elena tells Hope, from the wisdom of a dying mother, "Sometimes you turn away from someone, look back and your life has gone by." We think we understand that because the context is generally something you observe over a period of decades, not days or weeks. But you never know, as Diana Washington says in her most famous song, "Lord, what a difference a day makes...twenty-four little hours…."

After the film there was a book signing by Roger and Richard, which many also used as a photo op for pictures with their favorite movie critics. Dinner that second night was in Animator's Palate, which serves Italian Continental cuisine. The varied menu offered fish, steak and vegetarian selections. During the meal the drawings on screens throughout the dining room changed from black and white to color, as an animator's palate would create them.

When we woke up on Saturday, we were at Castaway Cay, Disney's private island. There are a number of activities such as sunning on the beach, biking, games and a huge outdoor BBQ. One area is for families while another is for adults only (18 years and up) appropriately called Serenity. You walk a very short distance from the ship to a tram, which takes you to your destination of choice on the island. It's worth noting that this cruise is literally for all ages and physical abilities. The nursery accepts children as young as three months of age, and for anyone in a wheelchair, easy access is all around. I recall one Disney staffer helping a woman in a wheelchair through a buffet line. He was filling up her plate as she requested specific items and then took her to her table.

The screening of the final film, In The Bedroom, which I thought was also the best, began at 3 p.m. This film, which has only been screened at Sundance last month, will likely not be released until the October timeframe. It's a gripping family story with stunning performances by Sissy Spacek, Marissa Tomei and Tom Wilkinson, which is likely to garner Oscar nominations.

A middle-aged, married couple, the wife a teacher and the husband a doctor, struggle with the relationship of their son and his love affair with a 30-ish single mother. She has two young children and her career desires end with being a cashier at a convenience store. The son is thinking about not going to graduate school and becoming a lobsterman at their Camden, Maine seaport. The father sees that as something a person would do if there were no other option, or as it seems he does, as a way to stay in touch with one's roots.

In the Bedroom refers not to sex per se, but to the fact that like lobsters, people do best when there are only two in the bedroom, a term used in referring to the lobster traps. When tragedy strikes, bitterness, anger and revenge become motives to seek vigilante justice.

Bad things happen to good people…nobody escapes. When this does occur, it's up to you to decide if it's a cross you can carry and eventually lift from your shoulders: Or will it forever change your life for the worse? In the Bedroom encourages you to think about how to handle your cross to bear.

The last Q&A was the most intense as it touched on the topics of passion, revenge, morality, and wondering about what happened to the people after the movie ended. We were gently forced to consider how we would react if faced with a similar dilemma. This lively Q&A session was a fitting conclusion to the film festival. The discussions continued as approximately 100 of us gathered on stage, after the curtain closed, for our class picture (group photo). That night our closing dinner was Caribbean fare at the Parrot Cay restaurant.

Everything was perfect; the only way to make it any better would be a longer cruise. But how many people have the time and money to do this for a full week? I'm pleased to report that Ebert & Roeper got it right the first time.

People with a variety of backgrounds attended the festival from all parts of the country. There was a young couple from L.A., taking a break during their last year of law school, who first met in the school library as they talked about films; a retired couple from Kalamazoo, Michigan who often must travel to see many art house films (those that don't open at the megaplex on the day of release); and others came from places such as Charlotte, Little Rock, and Nantucket. It's an ideal event for couples as well as those traveling alone, man or woman.

Not only was it fun to meet the critics and see great movies, but the camaraderie of other film lovers doing all of this on a cruise ship has got to be the best way to experience upcoming films. Many film festivals are for people in the industry… this is for film lovers. Other film festivals often require a struggle to figure out how they work so you can see the best films and then you may have to wait in long lines. Here, your schedule of activities is waiting on a printed sheet when you first arrive in your room. It could not be easier.

Everything about this festival was fun and hassle free. Ebert & Roeper have given us film lovers a great way to say Happy New Year to a few of the bests in film for 2001. As in the group picture we took, everyone gave the event two thumbs up!