The Zoës Kitchen at the corner of Metropolitan and Charlottetowne avenues has been open for less than a month, so it's of little surprise that there are a few kinks to work out. Regardless, I'd readily give Zoës another chance.

The dining room is hip and fresh and the steak roll-ups and limeade had admirable qualities. And wait until I tell you about the chocolate chip cookie that was the size of my fist. And lest I forget, Zoës was kind to my $25-for-two budget. We escaped with a $23.98 tab.

The Zoës franchise originates out of Birmingham, Ala. and was founded by Zoe and Marcus Cassimus in 1995. Stores are located in the Southeast and Southwest. The menu is Greek inspired - meaning there is plenty of pita bread, Greek salad and kabobs to be had.

A vibrant orange is the dining room's signature color. Try and get a table in the middle, where you can get a nice view of some of the uptown skyline.

Zoës is quick-casual, where orders are placed at a counter and the food is brought to the table. It's an ideal lunch spot, but could hold its own as a laid-back dinner destination.

The tomato bisque soup came to the table first. It didn't have the creaminess I expected from a bisque, but its chief problem was it was salty.

But the steak roll-ups get high marks. Thin-sliced tri-tips were joined by mushrooms and Swiss cheese and rolled in a tortilla which was grilled on the outside. A tangy, yogurt-based dressing accented by a bit of mustard served as a dipping sauce. For my side item, I selected the mayo-free chunky potato salad. The potatoes had a bit of a tang, thanks to an oil and vinegar dressing.

I needed something savory like the steak roll-ups to balance the pleasing sweetness of the limeade, which was made with cane sugar.

Some undercooked zucchini chunks helped bring the veggie pita pizza down. The pizza was also cold in spots.

Individually wrapped chocolate chip cookies sat in a basket at the front counter, and I felt no shame about plucking out the biggest. It was full of chocolate chunks and chips and the further I bit into it, the softer it got.

I wanted another one, but that would have pushed me over budget. But I have no doubt I will be visiting Zoës again to have a cookie and maybe a little limeade while I look at the uptown skyline.

England in the early 1960s was a time of new freedoms and exciting possibilities. It’s an intoxicating environment for young Jenny to enter womanhood.

A bright, vivacious 16-year-old aiming for Oxford, she is her family’s only child and shining star. She’s also mature for her years and eager to begin the journey into adult life.

When stylish, knowing David drives up in a maroon sports car and charms her off her feet, the 30-ish sophisticate seems like the ideal man to offer extracurricular tutoring. His life is a whirl of art auctions, orchestra concerts, thrilling bars and exciting, mysterious adult friends. He’s a seductive combination of courtliness, shrewd intelligence and danger.

Novelist Nick Hornby delivers sharp material; his script, adapted from a memoir by British journalist Lynn Barber, sweeps aside the expected parental opposition to focus the story’s central conflict.

Jenny’s parents are hypnotized by David’s elegant manners and surprisingly willing to let him date Jenny. If this well-heeled real estate broker snaps her up, they reason, that’s the Oxford tuition saved. Exceptionally bright but inexperienced, Jenny will have to decide for herself whether this suave older man is right for her, and choose what to do about it.

“An Education” is a vibrant portrait of England on the cusp of its postwar rebirth. The air seems luminous with possibility.

David (Peter Sarsgaard) is an upstart breaking through the old class restrictions, an urbane and exotic creature, promising yet not entirely trustworthy. In his natty suits, Sarsgaard is cool and tempting, a confident gent with an alluring whiff of pagan decadence and sleaze. He makes asking for a tea biscuit seem to become sexualized.

Carey Mulligan, as Jenny, has the sunflower freshness of a child, yet she offers a mature, layered performance; she becomes a star before our eyes. She has self-assurance but she’s corruptible; she lets us see how attractive a threatening lover can be. She blossoms into womanhood while her classmates are still bending over their textbooks.

Alfred Molina impresses as Jenny’s father, a figure of middle-class probity who can bend his principles if it means landing a good deal for his family. Emma Thompson plays the toughest Brit since Winston Churchill as the head of Jenny’s school, who sees only disaster ahead. But has she ever been whisked off to Paris for a weekend of jazz and romance?

The story doesn’t reveal its hand too early. Director Lone Scherfig keeps us guessing about David. He could be Jenny’s beloved or her downfall. How can a film so light and playful, off-the-cuff and silly, be so achingly sad?

“An Education” brings disharmonious elements together gracefully, creating a satisfactory unity and style.

How might a kid - OK, a teenager - protect himself from that dreaded fate described in legions of sci-fi movies (including "The Fourth Kind"), the anal probe? If you weren't thinking "champagne cork," you were way off, according to the sci-fi kids cartoon "Planet 51."

A genial but generic riff on sci-fi movie history, "Planet" has barely enough slapstick to keep the kids interested. Children won't get the many sci-fi movie references - or the cork gag - and adults probably won't find them that funny.

But there's an adorable Mars Rover-like robot named "Rover" who wags his antenna and chases rocks like a Jack Russell, and an alien Chihuahua shaped like the beast from "Alien." He scooches his butt across lawns and carpets just like a real Chihuahua. But don't ask what happens when he pees.

The big joke here - given away in the movie's trailers - is that an alien has "invaded" a provincial and paranoid suburban town. And the alien is us, a NASA astronaut who touches down, bounces out with his American flag (humming "Thus Spake Zarathustra" from "2001"), only to realize he's interrupting an alien barbecue. Astronaut Chuck Taylor (voiced by Dwayne Johnson) has discovered an alternate alien 1950s - with drive-ins, doo-wop music, "duck and cover" drills and VW hover-Beetles.

His first thought - "Kennedy's gonna freak" when Mission Control hears about "sea monkeys dancin' to the oldies." But the "sea monkeys," conditioned by years of "It Came from Outer Space" horror movies, are the ones who freak.

Lem (Justin Long) is the odd, antennae'd E.T. Chuck talks into helping him get back home, evade the trigger-happy Army general (Gary Oldman) and the jumpy natives who are sure that the guy in the puffy suit wants to eat their brains.

This first offering from Spanish animation start-up Ilion is a good-looking movie, with a lush retro-futuristic design. It's just low on laughs. (An "American Shrek" alumnus scripted it).

Some of those work. But spoofs, a couple of cute neo-dogs and lots of bouncy '50s pop on the soundtrack don't hide the fact that, whatever the magical code is to concocting a state-of-the-art kids' computer-generated cartoon these days, Ilion (working for Sony-Tristar) hasn't cracked it.