BRIGHT STAR (PG)

Oscar-winning writer-director Jane Campion ventures back to the early 19th century to compose this emotionally-wrought ode to John Keats and his lover Fanny Brawne.

Based on Andrew Motion's biography, Bright Star is a haunting portrait of two fragile souls denied happiness by virtue of their precarious social standing.

Money can't buy you love, but in the rarefied social circles of Georgian England, it can certainly deny you a soulmate.

So for an impoverished artist like Keats, his inability to provide financially for a wife and children denied him lasting happiness with a woman who was every bit his equal.

Campion plays out the heartbreak against the backdrop of Regency-period London, conjuring some arresting imagery such as a young woman walking through a meadow awash with dazzling bluebells or the two lovers pressing their ears to adjoining bedroom walls, listening intently for the sound of the other breathing.

Bright Star is the New Zealand filmmaker's most beautifully composed and deeply moving picture since 1993's triple Academy Award winner The Piano, which dealt with a turbulent love affair of a different sort.

In 1818 London, Keats (Ben Whishaw) shares spacious lodgings with friend Charles Brown (Paul Schneider). Brown rents half the space to widow Mrs Brawne (Kerry Fox) and her brood: 18-year-old Fanny (Abbie Cornish), 14-year-old Sam (Thomas Sangster) and nine-year-old Margaret (Edie Martin).

Keats and Brawne are slaves to their emotions, swept up in heady emotions that inspire the poet to compose some of the greatest works of the Romantic movement, including Ode To A Nightingale.

Bright Star is a triumph on every level, arousing the senses with stunning cinematography and Janet Patterson's set and costume designs.

It stirs the soul with the emotionally raw performances of the two leads.

Cornish is mesmerising in a complex role, headstrong yet vulnerable, opening her heart for the first time.

The pivotal scene in which Fanny learns of dire news from Rome will leave you choking back tears. Whishaw is equally impressive as the wordsmith who was painfully naive despite his ability to convey passion and desire so vividly in his poetry.

Schneider provides a nice counterpoint in a lively supporting role.

Campion weaves Keats's poetry seamlessly into the script as she follows the romance to its tragic conclusion and leaves us almost as heartbroken as Fanny, who never once removed the ring he gave her.

Rating: 4/5

JENNIFER'S BODY (15)

Screenwriter Diablo Cody follows the deserved Oscar triumph of Juno with a horror comedy about a high-school hottie who develops a bloodthirsty taste for teenage boys.

In other words, it's a vampire flick. Another vampire flick. Blimey, they're turning up like buses. Bitey buses.

Director Karyn Kusama (Girlfight, Aeon Flux) doesn't quite gel the horror and comedy and a few smart one-liners fail to elicit the uproarious laughter of Cody's debut. There are flashes of brilliance, like when the anti-heroine looks down at blood pouring profusely from a stab wound in her stomach and asks: "Got a tampon?" But the tart turns of phrase are at odds with the blood and gore.

The film opens in a psychiatric ward where Needy Lesnicky (Amanda Seyfried) informs us coolly: "I used to be normal... well, as normal as any girl under the influence of teenage hormones."

We rewind several weeks to the familiar high school environment, where Needy is a geek with a devoted boyfriend, Chip (Johnny Simmons), and best friend Jennifer Check (Megan Fox) – the hottest girl at school.

After a gig ends in flames, Jennifer seeks refuge in the band's van. Hours later, she turns up at Needy's house covered in entrails, transformed into a flesh-hungry menace to male society.

As her appetite grows, Jennifer sinks her teeth into buff classmates, her good looks replenished with each feed. When the vamp sets her eyes upon Chip, Needy steps in to protect her beau and a battle ensues.

Jennifer's Body is an off-kilter teen horror that doesn't quite find its rhythm. After roles as scantily-clad eye candy in the Transformers films, Fox graduates to leading lady with confidence but needs to fine-tune her comic timing to match Seyfried's wild-eyed performance.

A gratuitous lesbian kiss is a cheap shot to perk up the middle third before the final showdown. We know the journey ends in a padded cell but we are only fitfully entertained as we follow.

Rating: 2/5

ONE DAY (15)

The first hip-hop musical shot in the UK was filmed on the inner-city streets of Birmingham with a cast of young rappers, singers and musicians from Brum and around, writes Mike Polanyk.

Rival gangs The Old Street Crew and the Zampa Boys control different areas of the city and rarely stray into each other's territory.

Drug dealer Flash (Dylan Duffus) is preparing his latest batch when a supplier calls to say he is being released from prison early and wants the £500,000 he entrusted to Flash. Uh-oh: Flash doesn't have it to hand – in fact he is £100,000 short. He joins forces with Old Street Crew pals Apache, Kite and JB to raise the money, forging a dangerous alliance with Evil (Tobias Duncan), who has money to spare. But the loot is in Zampa Boys territory, so Flash must journey to the wrong side of town to save his skin.

It's an imaginative and inventive piece from Penny Woolcock, a British director as creative as Shane Meadows in his prime.

I'd been reading about increasing gun crime in the Midlands, which leant an extra edge to this dark and grimy drama. The only downside is that I grew tired of the musical and craved something a little weightier. But I'm not the target market.

Rating: 3/5

HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT'S INFERNO (15)

Cinema is littered with creative disasters, writes Mike Polanyk. Some make it to the big screen, others are consigned to the cutting-room floor. In 1946, auteur Henri-Georges Clouzot was granted an unlimited budget to make his dream project, L'Enfer (Inferno), about a hotel manager held in the grip of jealousy. Three weeks in, the film was abandoned. Directors Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea recover the lost footage and create a new film, part realisation, part documentary, charting the course of the ill-fated picture. The results are less than perfect but if you are a fan of cinematic history, you'll find this interesting.

Rating: 3/5.

SOUTHERN SOFTIES

Like any right-thinking person, I'm a big fan of John Shuttleworth, the great comic creation of Graham Fellows, writes Mike Polanyk. But even I found this a little lacklustre, despite some lovely locations.

It's the sequel to his charming It's Nice Up North, but lacks the wit and confidence of that piece.

The scenario is simple enough: Shuttleworth leaves his comfort zone and heads off to the Channel Islands in search of southern softies, throwing in interviews with members of the public. It seems most of the interesting islanders must have gone away on holiday.

It's an old format – shambling-amateur-makes-film-on-the-cheap – and after the initial burst of invention and laugh-out-loud moments the rest is pretty hit and miss.

Fellows is an amiable chap – I've met him more than once and found him terrific company – but I must admit that after a great start, even this long-standing fan was looking at his watch.

Southern Softies plays on Sunday at Warwick Arts Centre and Saturday, November 14, at Nottingham Lakeside Arts Centre. Both screenings will be followed by a Q&A with Graham Fellows. Also released:

THE FOURTH KIND

Another entry in the they-wouldn't-show-it-to-critics file, so it's hard to say much about what one hopes will remind us of Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.

The film took its title from a scale for alien-spotters. Encounters of the first kind are mere sightings of alien craft, the second kind is any encounter supported by evidence and the third kind refers to actual contact with extra-terrestrials.

Olatunde Osunsanmi's thriller deals with encounters of the fourth kind – alien abduction. It centres on psychologist Dr Abigail Tyler (Milla Jovovich), who runs a practice in Alaska, where there are an abnormally high number of people claiming to have been subjected to experiments at the hands of visitors from another planet.

During her videotaped sessions, Abigail grows increasingly disturbed by similarities in her patients' accounts, which challenge her beliefs about whether we are alone in the universe.

PAPER HEART

Finding true love is never easy, as stand-up comedian and actress Charlyne Yi discovers in this comical documentary, which begins life as a quest to discover the meaning of true romance to different generations and faiths.

Accompanied by a camera crew, Charlyne interviews experts and people on the street, deciding whether she has really missed out by never being in love before.

On the way, Charlyne meets actor Michael Cera (playing himself) and the two fall in love, blurring the lines between fact and fiction as their romance plays out in front of the camera.

WELCOME

The thorny issue of illegal immigrants comes to the fore in French director Philippe Lioret's modern-day love story.

Bilal (Firat Ayverdi) has spent the past three months travelling from Iraq to Calais, where he is now just a few miles away from being reunited with the love of his life, Mina (Derya Ayverdi).

However, he cannot gain entry to the UK, nor is he able to smuggle himself aboard one of the trucks that enter the Channel Tunnel. Learning that Mina's father has arranged a marriage for her, Bilal concocts a hare-brained scheme to swim across the English Channel. He enlists the services of lifeguard Simon (Vincent Lindon) to train him for the gruelling endeavour before Mina is forced to walk down the aisle.