Brenda Blethyn

Thirteen-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit. When Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), thirteen-years-old and an aspiring writer, sees her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) at the fountain in front of the family estate, she misinterprets what is happening, thus setting into motion a series of misunderstandings and a childish pique that will have lasting repercussions for all of them. Robbie is the son of a family servant toward whom the family has always been kind. They paid for his time at Cambridge and now he plans on going to medical school. After the fountain incident, Briony reads a letter intended for Cecilia and concludes that Robbie is a deviant. When her cousin Lola (Juno Temple) is raped, she tells the Police that it was Robbie she saw committing the deed. —garykmcd In 1939, Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) is a Private in the British Army, he and his battalion who are heading to France to fight in the war. A stint in the army is not where his life was headed, which took a radical turn four years earlier at the Tallis estate where he grew up as his mother worked as the Tallis' live-in housekeeper. As such, he grew up with the three Tallis children: son Leon (Patrick Kennedy), and daughters Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Briony (Saoirse Ronan). Robbie and Cecilia were just getting to the stage of their lives of being able to confess their true love for each other. But then thirteen-year-old aspiring writer Briony also had a crush on the older Robbie. Based on two incidents she saw between Cecilia and Robbie (one only from afar), on reading a private letter Robbie wrote to Cecilia, and on her own feelings for Robbie, Briony told some truths and half-truths about Robbie which resulted in this turn in his life. Robbie is able to reconnect with Cecilia before he is shipped off to France, and lives only to be able to head back to London to be with Cecilia and make up for the missing four years they could not spend together due to Briony's actions. A year later, Briony (Romola Garai), now eighteen, also arrives in London to start working as a nurse to support the war effort. By this time, she is aware of the damage her thirteen-year-old self caused, and wants to atone for that error to Cecilia, from whom she has been estranged, and Robbie, who she has not seen since. She will make this atonement even if neither Robbie or Cecilia will ever speak to her, or if it takes the rest of her life. —Huggo The day that thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) came across her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and her lover Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) making love in the library was a day that would have repercussions for all three of them. Briony misunderstands what has taken place between them and her reaction later tears the two lovers apart perhaps forever as war breaks out in Britain. —mel47 In 1935 England, young Briony Tallis falsely accuses Robbie Turner of a crime, irreparably altering his life and that of her sister Cecilia. The narrative spans pre-war, wartime, and post-war periods, chronicling love, loss, and the burden of guilt. Briony dedicates her life to seeking atonement through writing, confronting the consequences of her youthful mistake. The film explores class, innocence, and the destructive potential of imagination, examining how a single act can change lives irrevocably. —chera_khalid

The critically-acclaimed adaptation of the classic Jane Austen novel about five sisters in a British family ruled by a mother determined to marry her daughters into money.

Dark comedy where a married couple comes to the aid of a jailed uncle. When an uncle is charged with murder, the event reverberates throughout a poor Arkansas family, including a struggling musician and his wife, her mother, her sister, and his father.

The first scene shows Matthew Stewart digging a grave for Grace Trevethyn's husband, John (Bill Weston), who has committed suicide. His now widow, Grace (Brenda Blethyn), an English woman living on a beautiful large estate, learns, upon his death, that John's debts had mounted to the point that her assets (home, car, garden) will soon be repossessed. The postman (Bill Hallet) keeps on bringing her more threatening letters from banks, credit cards... and he also tells all the townspeople about her problems. One of John and Grace's friends, Dr. Martin Bamford (Martin Clunes) tells her that everybody knew more or less that John was doing something fishy financially, but nobody wanted to interfere in his business. With desperation, Grace realises that all commercial schemes by her late husband were failures, and that they even had a secret account in Sweden, but with nothing in it. With no assets of note and no source of income, she watches helplessly as the process begins, and when her high-tech state-of-the-art lawnmower is taken away by some movers (led by Johnny Bamford), she must fire her gardener, Matthew Stewart (Craig Ferguson), to whom she is close. When she stumbles upon the fact that Matthew is not having much success growing some weed plants in the fields of the local vicarage because of the lack of sunlight and heat, feeling awful about having fired him, she suggests that he move his plants to her greenhouse. The plants begin to grow impressively, and Grace, quite innocently, asks Matthew what the plants are worth. The news that they are illegal marijuana plants that are quite valuable on the open market gives Grace an idea, one that might just save her from having her estate repossessed by the bank. Mass production of marijuana plants begins in Grace's greenhouse. Matthew's girlfriend, hard-working fishing boat captain Nicky Tristan (Valerie Edmond) wants no part of the plan. She wants Matthew to grow up, settle down and start taking responsibility for his own life. Some of the locals suspect what is going on, but, compassionately, stay out of Grace's way. In fact, some of them have the notion of watching the neon lights coming from the conservatory every night, as though it was some kind of show. Of course, somebody will have to go to London to line up a buyer for the marijuana. Matthew, a marijuana user and a man in his thirties is the logical candidate, but unbeknownst to him, his girlfriend is pregnant. Knowing of the pregnancy, and not wanting Matthew to leave the side of his girl, Grace insists that she be the one to go to London. Her escapade into the lowest depths of the London drug subculture is hilarious, and at first it looks like she is going to fail. However, suave and savvy Jacques Chevalier (Tchéky Karyo, more handsome than ever) eventually contacts her. He smooth-talks her into doing business. Authorities become aware of the drugs on her estate because of the flying saucer-like lights which the greenhouse now emits. Local police officer Sgt. Alfred Mabely (Ken Campbell) has let things be, as he thought she was cultivating just a small quanitity of weed for her own personal use and that she needed it to cope with all the debts and stress. But when he realises that it's a huge quantity, he has to get involved and investigate the matter. Grace has little choice but to destroy her own inventory. However, as the marijuana plants are not completely dry, they produce such a huge quantity of smoke that Grace, Matthew, the posh visiting ladies (Phillida Law, Linda Kerr Scott, Denise Coffey) who didn't wait for Grace to appear to make themselves some tea, and even the police officers -including Mabely - get high. The scene leaves with everybody jumping, dancing and caressing happily in the garden while naked. In a strange twist of fate, however, Grace writes a book describing her remarkable experience called The Joint Venture. The novel becomes a best seller, and, suddenly, her financial worries are over. She has to travel again to London to receive an award won by her novel, while all the townsfolk look at her on TV. Now we come to realise that Grace and Jacques are a couple, that he has left London for her small town and he strongly denies to some journalists that he ever got involved with any kind of drug.

A shy reclusive lady is convinced by an invisible entity to sing. Subsequently, she finds herself noticed by a sleazy talent agent and her talent being showcased on-stage. She also meets a kind but nervous man who becomes her best friend. The pathetically shy LV lives the life of a recluse listening to her late father's old records in her room and in the process driving her abusive, loud-mouthed mother, Mari Hoff, to distraction. At night, however, when her father's ghost visits, LV sings the songs of the great divas such as Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, and Dame Shirley Bassey. One evening, LV is overheard by one of her mother's loathsome boyfriends, the disastrous dead-end talent scout Ray Say, who recognizes her innate talent and realizes this is his last big chance for the glittering prizes. Gambling everything, Ray Say forces LV to appear at a local run-down, seedy nightclub run by Mr. Boo. As preparations for the big event proceed apace LV meets the equally shy Billy, a pigeon-racing telephone engineer and they form a tentative, gentle friendship. The big night finally arrives and everything is in readiness, the band, the club, and even a big agent from London, but what about LV? —Mark Smith <msmith@osi.co.uk> After the death of her father, Little Voice, or "LV", becomes a virtual recluse, never going out, and hardly ever saying a word. She just sits in her bedroom listening to her father's collection of old records of Dame Shirley Bassey, Marilyn Monroe, and various other famous female singers. But at nighttime, LV sings, imitating these great singers with surprising accuracy. One night she is overheard by one of her mother's boyfriends, who happens to be a talent agent. He manages to convince her that her talent is special and arranges for her to perform at the local nightclub, but several problems arise. —Lexicon - Perth, Western Australia

Vacationing at a hotel with his grandmother, a young boy finds that a coven of witches is also staying there and are planning to rid Britain of children by turning them into mice.