Suite Francaise (15)

three stars

Dir: Saul Dibb

With: Michelle Williams, Margot Robbie

Runtime: 107 minutes

IRENE Nemirovsky's landmark novel set in Occupied France comes to the screen with a cast led by Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn), Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead) and Kristin Scott Thomas. But even that stellar line up, handsome photography and the atmospheric setting, cannot quite bring to life the tale of a French woman (Williams) falling for a German officer (Schoenaerts). What should be tension-fuelled instead comes across as flat and TV drama-like. The story behind Nemirovsky's novel, its loss and subsequent discovery, is the superior one, and it is laid out in a postscript.

Elle L'Adore (15)

four stars

Dir: Jeanne Herry

With: Sandrine Kiberlain, Laurent Lafitte

Runtime: 102 minutes

JEANNE Herry's comedy drama is packed with va va voom. For starters, the immensely watchable Sandrine Kiberlain (The Bird, 9 Month Stretch) is in the lead playing Muriel, the number one fan of slightly cheesy French crooner Vincent Lacroix (Laurent Lafitte). As Muriel tells Vincent in her many letters, she would do anything for him. Will he take her up on that, or keep her at the end of a very long bargepole? Herry's light touch makes for a smart, delightful and surprising piece that was a sell-out hit at the recent Glasgow Film Festival.

Glasgow Film Theatre, March 13-19

My Name is Salt (U)

three stars

Dir: Farida Pacha

Runtime: 92 minutes

WINNER of the best documentary feature at last year's Edinburgh International Film Festival, Farida Pacha's carefully crafted look at desert salt farming in Gujarat is a labour of love in every sense. The families who move to the desert to extract salt face months of backbreaking work with the most rudimentary of tools. If the work is hard, though, the community and family ties remain strong.

Filmhouse Edinburgh, March 13; Filmhouse Belmont, March 20; Cameo, Edinburgh, April 7