Pedro Almodovar's enthralling melodrama is very loosely based on the Ruth Rendell novel of the same title. Its precisely plotted picture of interlocked destinies involves five protagonists whose lives are changed irrevocably when a bullet is fired one evening: Sancho (Jose Sancho), a bitter, alcoholic policeman; Clara (Angela Molina), his despairing wife whom he beats; David (Javier Bardem), Sancho's young partner who is having a secret affair with Clara; Elena (Franchesca Negri), an Italian diplomat's daughter in whose apartment the crucial shot is fired; and Victor (Liberto Rabal), the young man who loses his virginity during a brief liaison with Elena.
"U-Turn" (18)
Oliver Stone's wild and crazy - and overblown - black comedy is a lurid, noirish modern western played out in blinding sunlight with Sean Penn as a gambler stuck in a dead-end Arizona desert town for one disorientating day which turns into a waking nightmare. The more outsized the performances the more fun the film, and while Penn is refreshingly less mannered than usual, it's the scenery-chewers who carry the picture - Nick Nolte, Joaquin Phoenix and Billy Bob Thornton.
"Lolita" (18)
Adrian Lyne's surprisingly felicitous and restrained - and even chaste - new film version of the Nabokov novel features Jeremy Irons in a vivid study of anguish and guilt as Humbert Humbert, the middle-aged professor who becomes obsessed with the 12-year-old daughter (Dominique Swaim) of his landlady (Melanie Griffith).
"How to Cheat in the Leaving Certificate" (15)
There is a good deal of witty throwaway humour in this confident and deeply cynical picture from the young Irish writer-director Graham Jones. A black-and-white feature, it follows the determined attempt of a student (Garret Baker), abetted by five accomplices, to steal the exam papers from their Athlone storehouse. Among the many well-known Irish faces making cameo appearances are Mick Lally, Maureen Potter, Chris De Burgh, Mr Pussy and Mary McEvoy.
"Great Expectations" (15)
Very loosely - and ultimately pointlessly - based on the Charles Dickens classic, Alfonso Cuaron's misconceived, over-lit and over-designed film is set in the present as it follows a young fisherman-turned-artist (Ethan Hawke) from Florida to New York for his first gallery opening. The underused cast also features Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Bancroft and Robert De Niro.
