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Amazon.com editorial review: Perfect Strangers, Stephen Poliakoff's TV drama, depicts an upper-class English family where distrust, dysfunction and despair are guests at the party. "As you know, in all families, things happen", says the cool Lindsay Duncan. That's the premise: things happen, some of them nasty. The family, once "mini-Rothchilds" and still "drowning in money", are gathered together in an opulent hotel for a grand reunion; the only thing wrong with the idea is that many of them are perfect strangers and the event begins to look more like a conference than an event with heart. Into the blend of well-heeled guests comes the Hillingdon contingent led by Raymond (Michael Gambon), the black ram of the family. His son, Daniel, is a surveyor and true to his profession sets about assessing the fault lines running through the family. Underlying it all is a sense of unease so that even pleasantries come across as deeply unpleasant. Raymond warns us that: "Everybody always lies".

Drama arises from the emergence of truth and buried bits of the past, as old photographs are screened to family members provoking curiosity about what lies behind the images. Scratch a surface and everywhere there's pain and mystery. Filmed in lavish London settings where everything is clean and sleek, Perfect Strangers makes for slick visual entertainment. Although the dialogue is stilted and at times surreal, the music by Adrian Johnston cannot be faulted. --Joan Byrne

asin: B000ZN63SK binding: DVD list price: £19.99 GBP amazon price: £17.84 GBP

The latest comedy from director Frank Oz, Death at a Funeral unusually sets a funeral at the heart of a film that's trying to generate laughs. It does prove to be quite a hurdle, but it's to the credit of those involved that the film proves to be a worthwhile and diverting way to spend an hour and a half.

Starring Rupert Graves, Matthew MacFadyen and Peter Egan among a talented ensemble cast, Death at a Funeral ticks most of the boxes you'd expect of its concept, but does throw in a few twists of its own, too. There are family secrets, mix-ups, battling characters and the funeral itself to deal with, and Oz proves skilful at marrying the threads together.

Death at a Funeral manages to generate a good few laughs on the way to its fine ending, but it does have its problems. There are perhaps one too many contrivances to put up with, and the script doesn't really do the director and his cast too many favours. In spite of its slight running time, it also manages to feel a little too long.

But Death at a Funeral is still, despite these problems, a perfectly competent British comedy, and a useful way to fill a night in. Don't expect a masterpiece, and chances are you'll have some fun with it. --Jon Foster

Collective authorship Binding: DVD List price: £15.99 GBP Amazon price: £16.07 GBP Get it from: | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.jp | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr |

Amazon.com editorial review: Codebreaking is an inherently fascinating but not especially cinematic endeavour, which is why Enigma spices up the true story of Bletchley Park and its eclectic group of Nazi code-cracking geniuses with some fictional romance and intrigue. Dougray Scott plays gaunt mathematician Tom Jericho, haunted by the spectre of his missing girlfriend Claire (self-consciously gorgeous Saffron Burrows). Tom turns to Claire's frumpy housemate Hester Wallace (dressed-down Kate Winslet) to help him find her, but their search unexpectedly reveals the presence of a spy at Bletchley Park. Matters are further complicated by an investigating secret service agent (imperturbable Jeremy Northam) and the hostility of Jericho's superiors.

Based on the novel by Robert Harris and adapted for the screen by Tom Stoppard, Enigma is unsurprisingly a literate and accomplished piece, unfussily directed by Michael Apted who keeps the various current and flashback story threads moving neatly in parallel, helped along by a languid score from veteran John Barry and a vividly realised wartime setting ("Have you heard the latest? Utility knickers--one yank and they're off!"). The contrived plot, however, distracts from the real drama, which is to be found in the desperate struggle to decipher the Enigma machine codes and the sometimes terrible ethical dilemmas involved. A little like that other Kate Winslet film, Titanic, this is another example of the factual background being far more compelling than the fiction grafted on top.

On the DVD: Engima arrives on disc in an extras-free package, with only scene selection and subtitles. More than one excellent documentary has been made about Alan Turing and his team of Bletchley Park codebreakers, so it's doubly disappointing to have nothing here on the real-life events depicted in the movie. Picture is widescreen 1.78:1 and sound Dolby 5.1 surround.--Mark Walker

author: Charles Dickens asin: 1846076005 binding: Paperback list price: £6.99 GBP amazon price: £5.24 GBP

A new star-studded adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic "Little Dorrit" for BBC1 starts this November. The 15-part serial was adapted by highly acclaimed writer Andrew Davies, also responsible for the very successful "Bleak House" (2005) and "Sense and Sensibility" (2008). This is the official TV tie-in edition to the serial, including an exclusive introduction by Andrew Davies about his experience of adapting "Little Dorrit" for TV.William Dorrit is a long-term inmate in the debtors' prison, Marshalsea. He must stay there until his fortune improves and his debt is paid. For her entire life so far, his daughter Amy has faithfully nursed him in jail. Trying to keep herself out of debt she works as a seamstress for the stern Mrs Clennam. When Mrs Clennam's son, Arthur, returns home from years abroad working for the family business, Amy's life begins to change. As some shocking truths emerge, and as the fortunes of the Dorrits and the Clennams rise and fall by equally dramatic means, it is clear that no one is safe from Marshalsea.