Emily Watson

Gugu Mbatha-Raw delivers "a breakthrough performance" (Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times) in this "gorgeous must-see film" (Cori Murray, Essence) that's based on an extraordinary true story. Although Dido Elizabeth Belle (Mbatha-Raw), an 18th century English woman of mixed race, is raised in privilege by her aristocratic great-uncle (Tom Wilkinson) and his wife (Emily Watson), she is denied a proper social standing because of her skin color. But when Dido falls in love with a young idealist lawyer (Sam Reid) who aspires to create positive change, she finds herself caught between two worlds.

In this surreal comedy, Paul Giamatti plays an actor named...Paul Giamatti. Paul very well might have found the key to happiness for which hes been searching, soul storage. But complications arise when he is the unfortunate victim of "soul trafficking." Balancing a tightrope between deadpan humor and pathos, and reality and fantasy, Cold Souls is a true soul searching comedy.

Miss Potter walks that fine line between charming and cloying with pleasing sure-footedness. Apple-cheeked Renee Zellweger (Bridget Jones' Diary) once again slips into a British accent to play writer/illustrator Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit. Potter, born into wealth, fought the disapproval of her high society mother to do something as crass as publish a book...and to fall in love with her publisher, Norman Warne (Ewan McGregor, previously teamed with Zellweger in Down With Love). Unfortunately, their love runs into something worse than upper-class stuffiness.

Gosford Park finds director Robert Altman in sumptuously fine form indeed. From the opening shots, as the camera peers through the trees at an opulent English country estate, Altman exploits the 1930s period setting and whodunit formula of the film expertly.