As is his custom, Reygadas uses a mostly nonprofessional cast; and, as expected, he draws remarkably realistic performances.

This is perhaps the most effective 3-D movie I have ever seen, with a sophisticated, involving story that will appeal to many adults. The only reservation I have is with the PG rating, which seems too lenient for a story that may give very young children - particularly if they are sensitive - nightmares.

The film's disclosure that Camorra money is involved with the reconstruction of New York City's Ground Zero will give viewers something to think about.

The time passes quickly. This is the rare remake that does honor to the spirit of the original.

Forget those weepie liberal clichés. This starless and vividly authentic romantic thriller set in Central America really rocks, and is one of the most exciting directorial debuts in years.

The role of William is a perfect fit for Red West, a well-weathered member of Elvis Presley's Memphis Mafia who has served as a bodyguard as well as a stuntman and bit-part actor.

The details are true and funny, played brilliantly.

Gut-bustingly funny.

The slacker comedy-drama-romance-whatever Gigantic will fulfill all your alterna-movie weirdness requirements.

Lymelife, set amid marital decay and teen frustration, isn't quite the "American Beauty" of the 516 area code, but it'll do.

You know a performance has to be special when a Palestinian wins Israel's version of the Best Actress Oscar. But why should politics detract from a stunning performance?

The highly stylized, often outrageously funny biopic is anchored by a devastating performance by Toni Servillo as Andreotti, brilliantly capturing the gnomic politician's trademark slouch and inexpressive face.

Turns out to be one of the most absorbing films of the year. Plus it has lots of wiener jokes.

After winning raves at last year's New York Film Festival, Pablo Larrain's Tony Manero, from Chile, is receiving a run here.

This environmentally themed, very loose version of Hans Christian Andersen's "Little Mermaid" is never going to be mistaken for Disney's musical of the same name.

May be the most fun you'll have at the movies this summer.

To its credit, this remarkable film does not contrive a happy ending. Under the circumstances, even a mildly hopeful one seems like a triumph of the highest order.

In the Loop is certainly the smartest and funniest movie inspired by the Iraq war.

Two fins up for The Cove, a documentary that whales on evil Japanese fishermen who kill dolphins for lunch meat.

You might not want to watch all of "The ABC of Love and Sex Australian Style," "Turkey Shoot" or "The True Story of Eskimo Nell," but the clips on view in "Not Quite Hollywood" are a hoot.

Rarely less than absorbing and never boring over its nearly three-hour length.

Sweet without being sticky and funny without getting silly, Whip It introduces Barrymore as a director with a keen eye, a good ear for tone and an inspired touch with actors.

A gorgeous and witty piece of stop-motion animation.

Denis -- who has called the film a tribute to the great Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu -- keeps dialogue to a minimum as she delicately examines how immigration is changing the face of France.

May not be a masterpiece, but it still had me in tears at the end.

Despite the lingering aroma of Victorian rot shrouding 1961, An Education is excitingly young.

Very few actors would have the courage to allow von Trier to put them through what Dafoe and Gainsbourg experienced in the name of art.

That still makes Broken Embraces superior to at least 99 percent of the movies released in 2009. Run, don't walk.

This movie depicts an unlikely intersection of sports and leadership in ways that manage to be inspiring and insightful without ever becoming schmaltzy or preachy.

After seeing Everybody's Fine, Paul McCartney offered to write a song that plays over the closing credits. That may be because the whole movie is like a celluloid McCartney tune: warm and playful and sweetly earnest, but lightly funny, too, and crafted with consummate skill.

Helen Mirren outdoes even her Oscar-winning performance in "The Queen" with her tour de force as Countess Sofya Tolstoy in Michael Hoffman's delightful The Last Station.

Can’t possibly deserve your close attention. Yet it does, with distilled honky-tonk poetry and generous good humor. It’s one of the year’s best, most deeply felt films.

The White Ribbon is one of the finest films that ever repelled me, a holiday in the abyss.

An improbable but hilarious combine of losin’-it comedies and the rarefied, Europhile air of the Cinema du Twee.

The Yellow Handkerchief tells a timeless fable, and tells it extremely well.

Quite unlike anything I've ever seen before.

For me, the movie's high point comes when Tony auditions for a role in a Martin Scorsese movie. Tony learns not to try so hard -- a lesson that Garcia also seems to have absorbed from City Island.

Astonishingly sharp and stunningly beautiful images of galaxies as far as 100 billion light-years away.

A brutally funny deconstruction, a hybrid of “Watchmen” and “Superbad” filtered through John Woo. It’s a boisterously original piece of entertainment . . . that isn’t for everyone. Note the rating, which should be triple-R, as in Really, Remarkably R.

Few documentaries have covered such an important matter so convincingly and with such clarity. When it comes to public education, we are all New Jerseyans.

The movie could -- should -- be a symphony, and it frequently makes excellent use of spare classical music. When Brosnan pipes up, he is as welcome as a car alarm.

The Good, the Bad, the Weird may owe a lot to other films, but it is always fresh and never boring.

Head and shoulders above the sort of lightheaded epics Hollywood typically offers during the summer season.

Working from a well-thought-out script co-written by director Stéphane Brizé, the two stars deliver impressive, understated performances.

Like the Master of Suspense's best films, Double Take (which makes great use of Bernard Herrmann's haunting "Psycho" score) is an intellectual puzzle that also works as a thoroughly accessible entertainment.

A documentary that exerts a car-wreck fascination as it follows the icon through her 75th year (she's now 77) while looking back over her tumult-filled life and career.

A gut-wrenching, politically neutral documentary that spends more than a year with a platoon of American GIs in a valley that's been called the most dangerous spot on Earth.

Wild Grass is a French movie for people afraid of French movies.

Vigorously played as a young man by Chris Pine, Kirk is a brilliant, sports-car driving, bar-brawling rebel who is finally shamed into joining Starfleet Academy.

Duvall and Spacek are so in tune with each other's rhythms -- despite their 20-year age difference -- that it's hard to believe they've never acted together before.

Extremely unsettling and thought- provoking.

A twisty, spectacular farce.

An exciting and extremely well acted film. Even a nearly unrecognizable Blake Lively impresses in the key role of Jem's sister and Doug's sometime girlfriend.

Writer-director Will Gluck has written a stiletto-sharp, zinger-filled script that recalls "Mean Girls" as well as the films of John Hughes, which are sampled to amusing effect in a clever clip montage.

As a former president of the United States remarked, "Childrens do learn," and what they learn in the heartbreaking yet thrillingly hopeful documentary Waiting for 'Superman' is that adults are finally starting to notice how badly kids have been betrayed by teachers unions.

The scariest, creepiest and most elegantly filmed horror movie I've seen in years - it positively drives a stake through the competition.

It's strange enough to be raised by your aunt. For young John Lennon, things get stranger still when he finds himself dating his mother.

Balibar's dreamy voice (I'm reminded of Billie Holiday) is complemented by Costa's hypnotic camera work. The result is a visual and aural delight.

Sally Hawkins is the heart and soul of Made in Dagenham, but another actress to watch for is the equally wonderful Rosamund Pike. She steals every scene she's in as the sympathetic wife of Rita's sexist boss (Rupert Graves).

Cool It -- complete with its own slide show and witty graphics -- amounts to a devastating rebuttal to Gore-ism.

A small but shattering film that marks its writer-director, Derek Cianfrance, as an artist of real depth, observes relationship dynamics at a molecular level, welling with as much understanding as Ingmar Bergman's "Scenes from a Marriage."

For boldness of execution as well as vision, The Red Chapel stands out as a singular, important comedy.

A deeply felt evocation of a place and a people by writer-director Matt Porterfield, who set this largely improvised film in his own lower-class Baltimore neighborhood.

Literate and engrossing, with excellent performances.

A Western, but any similarities between it and, say, a Gene Autry or Hopalong Cassidy shoot-em-up are nonexistent.

With Japan facing a new nuclear crisis, this beautifully composed and acted heart-wrencher -- couldn't be more timely.

As much a study of prehistoric art as archaeology, this documentary brings in experts to speculate about the mysterious artists who made these paintings, some quite elaborate and others intriguingly abstract.

A must-see for Miike's passionate legion of fans. But even action buffs who've never seen any of his films before will be drawn in by this masterful exercise in cinematic butchery.

Unlike many films that hope to be called black comedy, it does not skimp on either the black or the comedy.

Everything Must Go is cinematic pointilism. The big picture is familiar -- busted middle-age man, suburban alcoholic despair -- yet the details are so finely rendered that the overall impression is potently strange.

For all its flaws, The Tree of Life is a stunning exception to the rule that you can safely check your brain at the popcorn counter until after Labor Day. That's enough to place it among the year's best movies, or at least most-talked-about ones.

The excruciating and the hilarious mingle nearly to perfection in this marvelously visualized and deeply felt British film.

This is all as pure and sunny as lemonade.

Adding goofy uncertainty to shoulders as wide as the East River makes for a disarming hero in one of the spiffiest WWII action yarns ever to march out of Hollywood.

File this one in the same category of edgy Long Island comedies as the equally smart 2009 Alec Baldwin film "Lymelife."

You might be reminded of Jean-Jacques Beineix's 1981 thriller "Diva," which also involves crooked cops and Metro chases. But you need never have seen "Diva" to be captivated by the exhilarating Point Blank.

There are superb performances by Iranian-Canadian Nikohl Boosheri as Atafeh, the more rebellious of the two women, and French-born Sarah Kazemy as the less-privileged Shireen.

A bit more context about some of the topics the witnesses discuss would have been welcome, but Whitaker's stark, unshowy style is probably the most effective way to approach 9/11.

A crowd-pleasing baseball movie for people - like me - who don't like baseball movies...Probably the finest baseball movie since "Bull Durham".

Spanish master filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar offers up a grisly Halloween trick-and-treat in his first full-out horror movie, an eye-popping and genuinely shocking gender-bending twist on Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo.''

This small movie carries great allegorical weight as it echoes the Manson Family, the long list of failed utopian communes that culminated in Bolshevism and the one-child policy that in China has prevented the births of untold numbers of girls.

This movie doesn't get huffy, it gets laughs.

DiCaprio may well receive a Best Actor Oscar for his tour de force as the conflicted FBI director -- greatly abetted by Hammer (who played the Winklevoss twins in "The Social Network'') in his first major role as the flamboyant but frustrated Tolson.

Nutty Danish provocateur Lars von Trier -- long one of the most annoying filmmakers on the planet -- turns out one of the year's most emotionally resonant art movies.

Werner Herzog looks at the death penalty in Into the Abyss, and as is almost always the case, to look through his eyes is to marvel.

Literally the kind of movie they just don't make anymore, Michel Hazanavicius' French-sponsored charmer The Artist is a gorgeous black-and-white love letter to silent Hollywood with old-fashioned English intertitles and just a single line of audible (English) dialogue.

Thanks to his (Oldman) mastery, and Alfredson's, no film this year left me hungrier for a sequel.

I still can't believe I Melt With You went there. Over the top, off the hook and just plain bonkers, it makes its mark.

Thankfully, Tintin is Spielberg at his most playful and unpretentious.

Sincerely directed by one woman (Phyllida Lloyd, who did "Mamma Mia!") and smartly written by another (Abi Morgan), the film stars an unsurpassable Meryl Streep, whose ability to empathize with her characters has never been more gloriously impassioned than it is in this titanic performance.

Chico and Rita beguiles first and foremost as a bebop romance that evokes a bygone era as well as, or maybe even better than, "The Artist."

The funniest movie I've seen in more than a year.

Damsels contains much that's familiar to fans of previous Stillman films such as 1990's "Metropolitan": looping jokes that build on one another, allusions to art and literature, characters who are proudly out of step with the times.

Like a dedicated teacher, this is a film that stays with you.

The movie has enormous force - because it's about a genius, yes, but even more so because of the intelligence, passion and wit of the people who knew Marley.

Jack Black gives the performance of his career in the title role of Bernie, under the pitch-perfect direction of his "School of Rock'' director, Richard Linklater, who expertly crafts a black comedy with a deceptively sunny surface. It's the best movie I've seen all spring.

This remarkable new documentary from Raymond De Felitta ("City Island") fruitfully revisits the aftermath of a TV doc that his father, Frank, produced for NBC in 1965.

Nadezhda Markina is splendid as Elena, who speaks little but still manages to make her thoughts and emotions crystal clear.

Despite its themes, Oslo, August 31st is an exhilarating film, with impeccable direction and pitch-perfect performances that make the bleakness worthwhile.

Gorgeous set pieces thrill the senses, but there is philosophical inquiry as well. "Alien" was, after all, just "Jaws" in space, but Prometheus ponders where evil comes from and how it conquers its makers.

Williams, who was elected president of ASCAP in 2009, speaks frankly and eloquently about his problems dealing with fame, and his recovery. And more important, he earns our thanks by resolutely refusing to let Kessler turn this into a clichéd documentary.

The second half offers shot after shot of the people who sat opposite Abramovi - an unexpectedly enthralling record of reactions that range from stark agony to rather phony amusement.

The surprise of Ted is that it goes for honest Spielbergian wonder, too, and even earns some tears.

The best evidence of this troubled man's genius is provided by ample samples of his music, much of which will be familiar to fans of Warner Bros. cartoons from the '30s and '40s.

Despite a bunch of fourth-wall-breaking re-enactments, the look is consistent with most TV true-crime stories. But the way Layton parcels out information makes this story as strange and fascinating as anyone could desire.

The movie focuses tightly and obviously on role playing, but the most unsettling observations concern how fragile it all is - our health, our minds, our denial of death.

Gentle, simply told love stories are as rare in documentaries these days as they are in narrative film. That alone makes Yi Seung-jun's Planet of Snail a standout.

ParaNorman is probably the year's most visually dazzling movie so far, and the stunning climax centering on an 11-year-old witch (Jodelle Ferland) is too good to spoil.

Picture Graham Greene crossed with James Bond, with a splash of Sacha Baron Cohen, and you'll start to imagine the nervy talents of Mads Brügger, the fearless Danish filmmaker who has for a second time come up with a stunning, funny, and vital piece of guerilla cinema.

[REC] 3 Genesis is a prequel to the first two "[REC]" movies, but that doesn't much matter. You don't need to have seen them to enjoy this film, which provides fresh blood for a tired genre.

There are some catches, including a breathy-voiced indie-rock soundtrack so bad you wonder if it's contributing to Amy's malaise. But overall, the comedy is a lovely showcase for Lynskey and the rest of the cast.

It's a sharply written, unforgettably directed character study with brilliant performances by Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams - far more intimate but no less intense than director Paul Thomas Anderson's Oscar-winning last film, "There Will Be Blood.''

How to Survive a Plague, while a shaggier-structured documentary than many, is a heart-wrenching portrait of one of the saddest, most heroic chapters in American history.

An indie-inflected popcorn movie with major brains, brilliant acting and a highly satisfying payoff, Looper is the first must-see movie of the season.

More likely to play well with older children, due to its split-up story line, Ocelot's creation is like nothing else they are likely to see animating the multiplex.

Bouncy vocal rearrangements of pop songs, sparkling choreography and a hilarious script make for a movie that's made to be obsessed over, seen 50 times, quoted as devoutly as such sacred texts as "Heathers" and "Bring It On."

Tim Burton's best film in years.

Much of the plot stretches credulity, but the way it's constructed keeps tension high.

Utterly delightful.

Showing the personal toll that produces a star in any field could be a soggy, predictable drag, but the documentary A Man's Story never slides into easy sentiment or bromides.

Walken was largely typecast in quirky roles as a result of playing the title character's brother in "Annie Hall," so it's something of a delightful irony that 35 years later, Walken finds his most rewarding role leading a terrific ensemble in what amounts to one of the best Woody Allen movies that Allen wasn't involved in making.

The Law in These Parts more than accomplishes its goal of provoking a discussion about imposing laws on people who have no say in making them.

The filmmaker doesn't speculate about why these men are talking, but he leaves you with an excellent guess.

A fantastically entertaining biography.

This is a compelling and comprehensive guide to one of the most Kafkaesque crime stories in American history.

The story is ornate but easy to follow. It's the dreamy look and sound of Tabu - half old, half modern - that give the film its haunting strangeness.

When Uprising shows masses of Arabs marching for freedom, and using Muslim prayer as a form of peaceful protest, that in itself is a bit revolutionary.

McAleer is an expert practitioner of cinematic jujitsu.

Koch ends with the former mayor showing off a typically flamboyant gesture that embodies his contradictions - choosing to be buried in a Christian cemetery in his beloved Manhattan, complete with an already erected tombstone proclaiming his Jewish identity.

If Like Someone in Love frustrates, it also has ineffable grace in the framing of Kiarostami’s long, languid shots, the changes he captures in the light, and the way the actors’ smallest movements become fascinating. This enigmatic study of identities built on social deceit offers more than easy answers ever could.

Brutality and tenderness are a potent mix in War Witch.

What this means is that at times the pace of Beyond the Hills is nerve-wrackingly slow. But Mungiu has his own way of creating suspense, and he has a gift for making a known outcome as shocking as a twist.

Don't let the quiet, indie stylings of The Place Beyond the Pines fool you. This is a big movie with a lot on its mind. Slowly, it unfolds into a kind of epic.

Like the paintings of the master, Renoir is beautiful to look at, but it would be a mistake to call the film (or its subject) shallow.

This exhilarating brain-twister is a nonstop visual, aural and intellectual delight, steeped in movie conventions and yet fizzing with freshness. It’s what happens when film noir goes out to a rave.

At age 76, Loach also decided to offer his characters, and audience, some hope — at the bottom of a glass.

Bhalla’s advocacy gets its force above all from the oddly similar personalities of the two main subjects — Wallace and Sumell — zealous reformers possessed of astonishing optimism, even as Bhalla closes by noting that there are 80,000 prisoners in solitary in the US.

A dizzying lowlife saga that’s fast, smart, wicked, sort of ambitious and blazingly ironic. It’s as unpredictable as a Lindsay Lohan drive to the grocery store, as overstuffed as the pictures on Anthony Weiner’s Twitter feed and as hilarious as me on the bench press.

One of the best films released so far this year, At Any Price signals the arrival of Iranian-American Ramin Bahrani in the ranks of major US directors.

Mud runs over two hours, climaxing with a shootout that belongs in a different movie. It’s a rare misstep in an art-house movie that will pull mainstream audiences along as inexorably as the Mississippi River. Go see it.

Morales’ spin on the old ransom plot is fresher and more gripping than most big-budget Hollywood products.

Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby is the first must-see film of Hollywood’s summer season, if for no other reason than its jaw-dropping evocation of Roaring ’20s New York — in 3-D, no less.

Director Lenny Abrahamson’s latest film has its roots in the notorious death of a teenager outside a Dublin nightclub, later detailed in Kevin Power’s novel “Bad Day in Blackrock.” The pensive, gray-tinged What Richard Did unfolds this downbeat tale in long scenes, but seldom feels slow.

The various witnesses tell contradictory tales that turn this into a real-life “Rashomon." The fact that two of the principals — Sarah and Michael, who delivers touching and eloquent on-camera narration that he wrote himself — are accomplished actors adds another level of confusion and interest that help make this compelling storytelling.

Philippe Béziat’s documentary focuses on how Sivadier and his Violetta, the French soprano Natalie Dessay, fuse acting with the music. It’s an incredible view of artists at work.

Pieta is one of Kim’s most complex and mature efforts, melding violence and humor into dark entertainment.

The first filmed Shakespeare comedy in decades that’s actually funny.

There is something both mischievous and moving about a world-famous director who, closing on his 10th decade, designs a movie that celebrates his actors: their varying ages, their versatility, their heart.

In other words, this punkish, sleek film about beautiful kids wallowing in purloined Prada could have been written by a grumpy 65-year-old white guy in gabardine, provided he had a sense of irony. The Bling Ring is the bridge between Coppola and Bill O’Reilly.

It's Willis who delivers the goods in scene after scene, triumphing over a thin script, often bland direction.

They take a mundane story and give it emotional resonance.

Makes for fascinating viewing.

Comes closer to what a Bond movie should be and once was.

Some of the visual flourishes are a little too obvious, but restrained and subtle storytelling, and fine performances make this delicate coming-of-age tale a treat.

Unusual and utterly disarming documentary.

The result puts a human face on Derrida, and makes one of the great minds of our times interesting and accessible to people who normally couldn't care less.

Qualifies as perfect family entertainment.

Director Bolton could easily have exploited the film's unsettling issues, but he takes a nonsensationalized approach that leaves viewers to decide the moral questions for themselves.

An expensive demonstration that all the spectacular effects in the world aren't enough to make a great film - but it's worth seeing for that stunning half-hour alone.

It's a story that says a lot about the stupidity of war.

A 21st-century equivalent of the early James Bond flicks.

Martin's most adventurous film in many years, may be next best thing to a quick shot of nitrous oxide.

A treat for aficionados of oddball movies.

A unique, priceless portrait of the now legendary leader, and of his beautiful country when it was in the grip of a disastrous civil war.

Endearingly offbeat romantic comedy with a great meet-cute gimmick.

Generally delightful, and reminiscent of two vanished ages: when men were men, and when movies were movies.

Shaft is what summer action flicks should be... thanks to superior writing, acting and direction.

A worthwhile choice in a crowded marketplace.

Far more interesting and intelligent than anything coming out of the studios. It fairly brims with superb performances by a terrific cast - you simply can't take your eyes off the female leads, Edie Falco and Angela Bassett.

The kind of movie that is beyond criticism.

The frothy, feel-good Notting Hill is about as enchanting as movies get these days.

Check your brains at the popcorn stand and hang on for a spectacular ride.

The film is almost worth seeing just for the extraordinary scene in which a stark naked Mortimer has her movie star lover (Dermot Mulroney) deliver an exhaustive critique of her body's flaws.

Koteas and Ribisi, as two very different brothers, give realistic performances, and play off the differences brilliantly.

A misleadingly bland title for a gripping documentary.

For those willing to work a bit at it, this is the sort of artistry many American independent movies aspire to - but rarely achieve.

The most enjoyable western comedy since "Blazing Saddles."

Though Iris is extremely well-acted and beautifully photographed, some audience members may find themselves agreeing with Bayley's frustrated complaint: "I've never known who you are."

Warm and charming and often witty, it's as good a romantic comedy as has come out for some time, with an endearing, perfectly pitched central performance that's a four-square triumph for Zellweger.

Story of Tobias Schneebaum, a gay New York artist famous for living with, sleeping with - and, gulp, eating with - cannibals in New Guinea.

Enemy at the Gates, is no "Saving Private Ryan" - but thrilling, bravura stretches make it consistently entertaining, if less than profound, filmmaking.

Covers three years in the Public Defender's office with a fast-paced, tabloid gusto.

Holds less water as a mystery because its plot holes - and choppy pacing - make it seem as disconnected from reality as its hero. But Jackson is so frighteningly effective, and affecting, as Romulus that you're sucked in anyway.

A deeply pleasurable, old-fashioned blood-'n'-guts adventure film.

This isn't a mystery except in the most general sense. It's a dense, Altman-esque psychological drama centering on 10 characters whose lives become as tangled as the lantana.

An intelligent, extremely well-acted thriller about a mother's endless love for her son.

It's highly entertaining, even if it's almost entirely one-sided.

A tad slow by American standards, but so extremely well-acted and emotionally truthful, it's right up there with "In the Mood for Love" as prime romantic fare for the Valentine's Day weekend.

Fascinating, beautifully photographed portrait of a vanished community.

Beautifully shot and often moving.

Well worth seeing for the incandescent Portman.

Doesn't shy from the ugly side, though it's far from the no-holds-barred exposé being touted in the ads.

Sounds bleak, but turns out to be an absorbing and lively film.

A little gem.

Marker's documentary, shot on video, uses interviews, film clips and shots of Tarkovsky on the set to examine the Russian's work.

Had me watching through misty eyes, at least for the first half.

A summer delight that also provides a quick cultural education.

A charming, (mostly) briskly unsentimental love story, written, directed and acted with remarkable assurance.

Bowfinger's terrific set-pieces... more than make up for the odd weak moment or thin performance.

Isn't great. But I had fun watching.

A wonderfully acted, strangely low-key prison movie.

Except when Norton is playing retarded, he and De Niro basically compete to see who can under-act the other. It's positively mesmerizing.

A gentle comedy, brimming with hope and faith in human resilience.

A remarkable 179-minute meditation on the nature of revolution.

Auteuil gives a superior performance. While Rush played him as a buffoon, Auteuil gives the character the charm of an aristocratic savant.

Structurally flawed, occasionally shlocky, but written with unusual intelligence and subtlety.

It accurately reflects the rage and alienation that fuels the self-destructiveness of many young people.

The pace slackens a little after the first hour, but the photography by Remi Adefarasin and music by Magnus Fiennes keep the emotion stoked.