The Boys are Back (12A)

A widower struggles to raise his young son in Scott Hicks's moving drama, based on the emotionally devastating memoir of Simon Carr.

By turns touching and funny, The Boys Are Back is a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit and a reminder there is no instruction manual for good parenting.

The film unfolds predominantly in the lush sprawl of South Australia and cinematographer Greig Fraser captures this wilderness in all its splendour.

When the plot necessitates a brief stopover in England, colour appears to leach from every previously vibrant frame.

Strewth, we Poms are a bunch of dullards.

Sports reporter Joe Warr (Clive Owen) follows his wife Katy (Laura Fraser) to her home Down Under, where the pair watch proudly as six-year-old son Artie (Nicholas McAnulty) spreads his wings, with help from grandma Barbara (Julia Blake).

Then their world implodes. Katy is struck down with terminal illness. She fights bravely but eventually loses, leaving Joe as primary caregiver.

Unused to this role, he allows Artie the run of the house.

To add to the mayhem, Joe persuades his estranged teenage son, Harry (George MacKay), from his first marriage to join them in Australia for the summer.

In the absence of any house rules and with Joe suddenly called away on business, Harry and Artie are left to fend for themselves, with only neighbour Laura (Emma Booth) to call upon in an emergency.

The Boys Are Back is a compelling portrait of a family in crisis, underscored with earthy humour.

Owen relishes a meaty lead role, internalising much of his character's emotion, the sorrow apparent in Joe's eyes when Laura asks what Katy was like and he replies "Uniquely endowed with intelligence, rowdiness, sex appeal and, as it turned out, cancer.''

McAnulty is a natural in front of the camera, gelling convincingly with Owen and teenager MacKay, who demonstrates an impressive emotional range as arguably the only responsible adult in the house.

Screenwriter Allan Cubitt has made slight alterations to Carr's text, changing the names of characters and shifting the action from New Zealand, where the author moved.

The introduction of Katy's ghost as Joe's confidante threatens to add a sheen of sentimentality the picture does not need.

Rating: 3/5

Toy Story 2 in 3D (U)

Screening in 3D for one week only, in anticipation of the release of Toy Story 3 in July.

The film gallops at full speed for every one of its 92 minutes, combining jaw-dropping animation with a screenplay full to bursting with instantly endearing characters and heart-stopping action.

Directors John Lasseter, Ash Brannon and Lee Unkrich and their animators created a contemporary fable about friendship and courage which effortlessly charms viewers of all ages.

Seen on a big screen in 3D, the detail in the characters and the backgrounds is extraordinary.

From the hairs on the arms of the humans to the increased expressiveness in the faces of the toys, the animators haven't missed a trick.

Rating: 4/5

The Sea Wall (12A)

At last, this fine French film has reached Leicester, writes Mike Polanyk.

Rithy Panh's celebrated adaptation of Marguerite Duras's first novel is a thinly veiled account of the writer's youth in French Indochina during the 1930s, where Duras explores her burgeoning sexuality in the light of advances made towards her by the son of a wealthy Vietnamese businessman.

In 1930s Cambodia, a women (Isabelle Huppert) faces bankruptcy when the sea wall protecting her farmland collapses.

Given a year's reprieve by the governor, she invests everything into the land she hopes to pass on to her children – headstrong Joseph (Gaspard Ulliel) and Suzanne (Astrid Berges-Frisbey).

When the son (Randal Duoc) of a wealthy Vietnamese business magnate takes an interest in the 16-year-old Suzanne, the mother finds herself compromised, discretely encouraging her daughter into a relationship with the older man in order to acquire his money.

Why, oh why is this powerful film getting such a limited release?

It's a movie that most distributors would have been proud of 10 years ago but, sadly, they seem unable to handle anything out of the ordinary these days.

Hurrah for the Phoenix for grabbing it for Leicester.

This is a rich and powerful drama, beautifully produced and eloquently staged.

Perhaps the sheer Frenchness of the piece scared distributors, as Panh explores relationships that were to have a profound impact on Duras's work and the roots of the political upheavals that would lay waste to French control of the region over the next 30 years.

But I was riveted by the story and impressed by the performances.

Subtitled.

Rating: 4/5

A Prophet (18)

Stunning French crime movie directed with style and panache by Jacques Audiard.

Sentenced to six years in prison, naive Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim) is alone in the world and can neither read nor write.

He falls under the sway of a group of Corsicans who enforce their rule in the prison. As the missions go by, he toughens up.

Very quickly, Malik uses all his intelligence to discreetly develop his own prison network.

The denouement is powerful and extraordinary.

It's a film that delivers all you want in a contemporary thriller, with a little more on the side – though some scenes are not for the fainthearted!

Subtitled. Plays at Broadway Nottingham this week.

Rating: 5/5

Tulpan (12A)

A charming Kazakh film that created controversy in its homeland for degrading its own people.

Asa, a recently discharged sailor from the Russian Navy, comes to Hunger Steppe where his sister Samal lives, with her husband, Ondas, and their three children.

Asa daydreams of becoming a herdsman with his own ranch. But to do this he needs to marry his enigmatic neighbour, Tulpan, the only local woman eligible for marriage.

A gorgeous little movie, full of rich black comedy and some wonderful rustic humour.

Subtitled. At Broadway, Nottingham, this week.

Rating: 4/5

Crude ( PG)

The latest from documentary director and producer Joe Berlinger, and as ever it's a gripping work.

It focuses on the now notorious Amazon Chernobyl case – a 13-year battle between Chevron, one of the world's largest oil companies, and the indigenous communities in Ecuador nearly destroyed by their drilling.

It's a stylish take on David and Goliath story.

In this $27bn case, the plaintiffs are 30,000 Ecuadorians living in the Amazonian rainforest.

They claim their home has been polluted by the oil industry.

Berlinger shrewdly shows interviews from both sides and explores the influence of media support and power politics.

Plays at Warwick Arts Centre on January 27 and 28.

Rating: 4/5

OSS 117: Lost in Rio

Tame sequel to the big French hit from 2006, OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, with the same cast, style, innuendo and even jokes.

It's a dated parody of the 60s spy film, with digs at the original French film series from the era as well as the Bond franchise.

The premise looks pretty tired, second time around.

The movie opens with a ski party sequence where Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath – aka OSS 117 – (Jean Duiardin) is entertaining a Chinese countess.

The party is attacked by Chinese gunmen working for Mr Lee and everyone but Hubert and the countess are killed.

It's the start of a silly spoof that irritates rather than entertains, particularly if you saw the first version.

Duiardin tries hard but the material is crass, the other performances one-dimensional and the humour is non existent.

Plays at the Phoenix Square this week. Subtitled.

Rating: 2/5