"Actor: Cate Fowler"

• Our Mutual Friend | DVD | (20/08/2001) from £12.97   |  Saving you £12.02 (92.68%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Dickens was the master of Victorian social satire, ruthlessly exposing the cruelty and absurdity that supported the strictly hierarchical class-structure of the day. This superb production of Our Mutual Friend does full justice to his darkest, most complex novel, fleshing out the satirical bones of the plot with performances that eschew caricature in favour of psychological depth. Anna Friel's Bella is wonderfully complex, her innate goodness struggling with her love of money and desire for advancement. Paul McGann, as the lawyer Wrayburn, is also superb, wrestling with the implications of his feelings for Lizzie. And of course, this being Dickens and the BBC, there's a terrific supporting cast, including Timothy Spall as the melancholy articulator of skeletons, Mr Venus. As the fortunes of the characters rise and fall, the river Thames flows eternally on, the symbolic backbone of this remarkable story. At six hours, this version of Our Mutual Friend is a long production, but not a moment too long. A mystery, a love story, a critique of the pursuit of wealth and status, this is perhaps the best adaptation of Dickens ever to be committed to film. --Simon Leake, Amazon.com

• Some Voices | DVD | (11/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Part love story, part comedy, part study of madness, Some Voices is above all a beautifully observed, elegantly written and brilliantly acted low-key British film. The story of Ray (Daniel Craig) and his relationships with his brother Pete (Dave Morrissey) and new girlfriend Laura (Kelly Macdonald) after his release from psychiatric hospital, it is the interaction between the three that forms the cornerstone of the movie. Craig dominates proceedings as his character finds himself needlessly torn between the two, capturing Ray's descent into madness far better than the rather unnecessary over use of visual effects. The interplay between all three is superb, particularly Craig and Macdonald who spend the first two-thirds of the story developing a dependence that is pure sweetness and light before darkness descends. Director Simon Cellan Jones (whose previous credits include Our Friends in the North) allows his first feature film to develop at it's own pace, letting the script and performances dictate the action. The West London setting fizzes with a life that Notting Hill barely hinted at, proving that a movie set in the capital (or indeed made in Britain) doesn't have to rely on mock cockney gangster stereotypes to reflect the city. This is a self-assured, engaging and ultimately moving piece of filmmaking. On the DVD: The accompanying documentary and interviews offer little insight into the process and are edited down to minute-long segments with little attempt to examine the bigger picture. Jones' commentary, however, does provide an interesting insight into the perils of making a film on a small budget. --Phil Udell