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.