Love, Honour & Obey
Directed by Dominic Anciano and Ray Burdis. Starring Sadie Frost, Ray Winstone, Jonny Lee Miller, Jude Law, Sean Pertwee, Kathy Burke, Rhys Ifans.
In this utterly witless and tedious British comedy-thriller - which proves neither funny nor thrilling - Miller plays a courier whose best friend (Law) persuades his gangster uncle (Winston) to take Miller on as a member of his North London gang.
Mumford
Directed by Lawrence Kasdan Starring Loren Dean, Mary McDonnell, Ted Danson, Hope Davis, Jason Lee, Martin Short, David Paymer, Jane Adams.
Going directly to video here even though it well merits a cinema release, this is a well-judged, multi-charactered, serious comedy played by an exemplary cast in the tradition of Kasdan's The Big Chill, Grand Canyon and The Accidental Tourist. It's set in an archetypal, small American town with Loren Dean as the area's urbane and increasingly popular new psychiatrist. A good listener for all his patients, he helps a middle-aged suburban woman (Mary McDonnell) who's addicted to mail-order shopping. He befriends a lonely, skateboarding young billionaire (Jason Lee) who produces a quarter of the world's modems yet finds it difficult to connect in his personal life. And he is drawn to a pallid, divorced woman (Hope Davis) who suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome.
At the centre of this film about people re-inventing themselves there is a neat narrative twist which proves refreshingly at odds with Hollywood's traditionally respectful treatment of psychotherapy.
Erin Brockovich Directed by Steven Soderbergh Starring Julia Roberts, Aaron Eckhart, Albert Finney, Marg Helgenberger.
Roberts is charming and spirited as a plain-speaking, working-class single mother who talks her way into a job as office assistant with a legal firm - and goes on to expose a massive corporate cover-up involving contaminated water. Wisely eschewing legal detail, Soderbergh effectively grounds this factually based story in human terms to emphasise the impotence of ordinary people essentially deemed expendable by powerful corporations.