Atonement posterThe best grown-up film of the year opens today. Atone­ment is direct­ed by up-and-com­er Joe Wright (Pride & Prej­u­dice) and is adapt­ed from the acclaimed nov­el by Ian McE­wan. 12 year old Briony Tallis (played by Saoirse Ronan from Peter Jackson’s forth­com­ing The Love­ly Bones) tells a ter­ri­ble lie, con­demn­ing fam­i­ly friend Rob­bie Turn­er (James McAvoy) to prison and dis­grace and her sis­ter Cecil­ia (Keira Knight­ley) to heart­break and loss. It takes a life­time for Briony to atone. Atone­ment is play­ing at the Embassy, Read­ings, Pent­house, Light­house Petone and the Empire Island Bay.

New Zealand vam­pire thriller Per­fect Crea­ture gets a long-await­ed cin­e­ma release, more than two years after com­ple­tion. Direct­ed by Glenn Stan­dring (The Irrefutable Truth About Demons) and star­ring imports Dougray Scott and Saf­fron Bur­rowns along with locals Scott Wills and Rob­bie Mag­a­si­va, Per­fect Crea­ture offers us an alter­na­tive New Zealand known as Nuo­vo Zelandia where vam­pires and humans peace­ful­ly co-exist – until the bal­ance is chal­lenged by a rene­gade vam­pire known as Edgar (Leo Gre­go­ry). Read­ings, Embassy and Sky City Queens­gate.

A kinder, gen­tler option is pro­vid­ed by Con­ver­sa­tions With My Gar­den­er from direc­tor Jean Beck­er (Chil­dren of the Marsh­lands). Daniel Auteuil plays an artist who returns to the fam­i­ly home to escape a messy divorce and renews a friend­ship with the old school mate (Jean-Pierre Dar­roussin) who tends his veg­gie gar­den. Pent­house and Light­house Petone.

Final­ly, the Ital­ian Film Fes­ti­val kicked off with a gala shindig at the Para­mount last night. It runs for a fort­night and there’s plen­ty to keep you enter­tained.

Atone­ment and Con­ver­sa­tions With My Gar­den­er are reviewed at Funer­als & Snakes, to be joined next week by Per­fect Crea­ture.