Film choice

Anna Karenina (2012)

FILM4, 6.20PM ★★★

 Director Joe Wright and writer Tom Stoppard filleted and condensed Leo Tolstoy’s doorstop of a novel into two hours of screen time, fashioning it into a swirling, swoony, achingly romantic tragedy (sound familiar, War & Peace fans?). Stoppard’s witty conceit is to present the story of doomed heroine Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley) literally as a piece of theatre. Knightley is a fine Anna – alternately charming, haughty, and dispirited.

Mrs Brown (1997)

BBC FOUR, 9.00PM ★★★★

 Judi Dench’s unfailingly skilled approach to her roles is very much in evidence here as Queen Victoria in her twilight years. Following the death of her beloved husband, she disappears from public view. Mr Brown (Billy Connolly), a member of the household staff, bonds with her and raises both her spirits and his own status. Dench’s reserved demeanour contrasts beautifully with Connolly’s rebellious exuberance.

American Ultra (2015)

FILM4, 9.00PM ★★

 Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart reunite, after their sweet pairing in Adventureland, for this laboured small-town stoner comedy about a pothead who discovers he’s part of a secret CIA training program, and that his girlfriend has been his handler for five years. Unfortunately, despite the odd laugh, the joke never gets off the ground and the film’s grungy look is a headache.