A quick guide to this week's films

Jun 5 2009 By Pierce Hunt

Last Chance Harvey (12A)

Love blossoms when two lonely people least expect it in writer-director Joel Hopkins's gently paced and incredibly charming romance, set in bustling, modern-day London. Oscar winners Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson add polish to very familiar material – you may need a very sweet tooth to swallow some of the saccharine sentiment, but their screen chemistry simmers.

Drag Me to Hell (15)

After record-breaking box-office success with Spider-Man and its sequels, director Sam Raimi returns to horror – the genre which made his name – with this tongue-in-cheek battle for a young woman's soul. Starring Alison Lohman, it recalls his seminal Evil Dead series with its queasy conflation of gore and dark humour. In an age when horror films have become an exercise in sadism, Drag Me to Hell is a welcome throwback to more playful times.

Obsessed (12A)

British television director Steven Shill makes a laughable feature-film debut which plunders merrily from Fatal Attraction and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. Were it not for the casting of pop superstar Beyonce Knowles as the wife who decides to fight for her man, literally, rather than lose him, this schlock probably would have headed straight to DVD. Heroes star Ali Larter plays the temptress seeking to seduce her boss (British actor Idris Elba).

Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience (U)

Teen heart-throbs Joe, Nick and Kevin delight their screaming hordes of fans in Bryan Hendricks’s film from last year’s concert at Madison Square Garden. The 3D technology is used sparingly, while the movie is balanced with the off-stage antics and footage of their hectic daily lives. Parents should be thankful their suffering clocks in at only 76 minutes.

Don’t miss...

Synecdoche New York (15)

Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut sees Philip Seymour Hoffman play theatre director Caden Cotard. Caden mounts an epic play encompassing every aspect of his life, with moments of despair, heartache and agonising loss. The unique approach to Caden’s work sees him create a life-size replica of his neighbourhood in a huge warehouse, but his life is passing by so quickly, without anyone having watched the production.

Synecdoche New York balances out the serious emotional moments with plenty of peculiar humour. You need to brace yourself for this one because any lapse in concentration and you’ll soon be lost.