Richard Mowe

It has its moments, although the charmless main character Julio (played by Diego Noguera) begins to get on your nerves, as he seems incapable of extricating himself from difficult situations.

Piccoli in a role that relies on looks, gestures and very few words, does not hit an off note, making him into a silent, everyman figure.

It is the boy's tough exterior and lack of self-pity that binds the narrative together, making this one of the Dardennes' most appealing undertakings.

The second half, though, simply descends into chaotic banality as the sisters await their fate.

As tales of troubled families go, it may have aspirations to be like "Ordinary People," but it falls way short.

Leigh certainly has a sense of cinematic style and Emily Browning possesses a fragile beauty that hides a remarkably resilient interior. It's a pity, however, that Jane Campion did not exert a more powerful sway on the result.

Just when many may have thought that Cold War thrillers had gone out of fashion, along comes one to reinvigorate the genre.

A feast for the eyes, Mysteries of Lisbon deals with 19th century passions, love affairs and escapades on a broad canvas. It might have made a lovely TV series, parsed out over several weeks, but at one sitting it's a challenge.

Thrilling and suspenseful without an American star like Russell Crowe or an excess of explosions.

Stunningly shot by cinematographer Nigel Bluck (Handsome Harry) the film captures beautifully the magic of the foliage and the surrounding landscapes.

Don't count on special effects: it has been lovingly and traditionally animated to pay homage to E.H. Shepard's original drawings.

A tough psychological drama, it may stretch some audience sensibilities.

Devotees and the curious may find it mildly diverting, otherwise this effort is not for the faint-headed.

Rather than take a broad-brush approach director Muntean boggs us down in the detail of an adulterous affair. There are some similarities with his previous outing "Boogie" in that the main character is a man having a premature mid-life crisis.

The script does not provide that much illumination, yet the power of the acting and the quality of the visual imagery carry us along.

Both emotionally charged and at times extremely funny, with humor emerging naturally from the characters' predicaments, Meet Monica Velour has the feel-good factor without comprising its ideals.

Strictly for patient, gay-friendly audiences, this drawn-out melodrama about an ageing drag star in overstays its welcome.

Koolhoven manages the difficult balance of entertaining as well as offering a high emotional impact, with considerable agility. Pino Donaggio's soaring and powerful score intensifies all of the drama.

The film proves a gripping, if uneven, cinematic journey.

The reinvention of this neighborhood may be in the cause of progress for New York's urban landscape, but sometimes you can't help feeling that the planners and the bureaucrats should leave well-enough alone.

The romantic fable of love, marriage, art and second chances may not add up to all that much but the journey is exquisite.

A whimsical essay about the final days of a villager suffering from kidney failure it is undoubtedly one of the filmmaker's most accessible works.

Araki's got a certain garish flare to his delivery that those more patient with the content will find appealing and Thomas Dekker offers an engaging performance.

Films have punctured The American Dream before, but rarely so devastatingly as The Company Men does.

Wacky and good-humored, Go Go has a seductive visual appeal that Ferrara exploits to the fullest.

Mike Leigh has a knack of making the ordinary extraordinary. Here he deals with themes of class, family and depression over a period of a year, breaking it up into seasonal chapters.

For all lovers of old style animation it should build up the same cultish following as "Triplets."

This is one of Denis's most provocative films and also one of her most compelling.