There are more tough tears too as the father helps John rediscover his self-worth see what I mean?

There are more tough tears, too, as the father helps John rediscover his self-worth (see what I mean?), but this time, they work, because the plot is not a hackneyed one.Which is more than can be said for Small-Time Obsession, the debut film from the British director Piotr Szkopiak. It is set in the Polish community in London, but only cosmetically; the plot and characters are from the same Modern British Gangster Film Kit that everyone else uses (includes: childhood friends in spot of bother; light van for heroes, black cars for villains; Docklands warehouse, dog track, terraced houses; speeches beginning "What do you want from me?" and "I'm pregnant!", and "I remember when you were a little boy ..."; and Quentin Tarantino's Guide to Martin Scorsese's Camerawork). Szopiak might have interesting things to show us, but he needs to stop trying to make them more "exciting" than they are.By contrast, John Mackenzie's When the Sky Falls - based on the story of the murdered Dublin crime journalist Veronica Guerin - is a lesson in how to make a sensational story into a credible film. Good pacing, well-observed performances and great photography of Dublin's rain-rinsed streets and bluish light help; but it's the honest portrayal of the people involved in journalism and drug culture - two areas in which film-makers tend to get a bit carried away - that makes this a film greater than the sum of its substantial parts.It isn't clear what the parts of sci-fi medic drama Supernova were, given that two directors abandoned it before it made it to release, but be assured; it is neither super, nor particularly nova. And Une Liaison Pornographique has a similarly misleading title - it just means "An Intimate Affair" - but is worth watching nevertheless for the way it combines humour and despair in its story of a modern love affair.

Predictably enough, it features a man weeping, and in its press information, the lead actress Natalie Baye is quoted as saying "a man crying is beautiful," which I hope for her sake is taken out of context.. Is Sandra Bullock the most frustrated actress in Hollywood? When I left the screening for 28 Days someone turned to me and crowed: "Well, we all knew she was going to fall down pretty spectacularly." But actually, I didn't Bullock's début was so solid. In Wrestling Ernest Hemingway in 1993, which starred Robert Duvall and Richard Harris as two old eccentrics living in Miami, Bullock played a waitress in a diner, the kind of (celluloid) waitress who remembers how everyone likes their eggs She was very brown, and very long Her legs were high-kicking and bare, in sandals. Her breastbone was perfectly flat, like her face, which was also acutely kind - a kindness, it seemed, that suppressed elastic extremes. It was good casting, she very alive and close, Duvall and Harris so past the plumage of any happiness. Is Sandra Bullock the most frustrated actress in Hollywood? When I left the screening for 28 Days someone turned to me and crowed: "Well, we all knew she was going to fall down pretty spectacularly." But actually, I didn't Bullock's début was so solid.

In Wrestling Ernest Hemingway in 1993, which starred Robert Duvall and Richard Harris as two old eccentrics living in Miami, Bullock played a waitress in a diner, the kind of (celluloid) waitress who remembers how everyone likes their eggs She was very brown, and very long Her legs were high-kicking and bare, in sandals. Her breastbone was perfectly flat, like her face, which was also acutely kind - a kindness, it seemed, that suppressed elastic extremes. It was good casting, she very alive and close, Duvall and Harris so past the plumage of any happiness. But Bullock's problems started right there and then, and were worsened by her turn in the thriller-melodrama Speed, in which she drove both the bus and the film. With Bullock, more than with any other new star, we wondered how much she was playing herself, and decided she was, entirely. I can't remember, post-Seven, Gwyneth Paltrow being so utterly typecast in the public mind.