French actress Sandrine Bonnaire turns director to deliver an impassioned and moving portrait of a little sister lost to autism.

Star rating ***
Dir: Sandrine Bonnaire

French actress Sandrine Bonnaire turns director to deliver an impassioned and moving portrait of a little sister lost to autism. Bonnaire traces the decline of her sibling Sabine from a bright but troubled teenager into the heavily medicated adult she is today.

The family blames Sabine's five-year stay in a large, impersonal psychiatric hospital for setting back her development. While it's not clear to the viewer whether her condition would have deteriorated in any case, the contrast between the young and older Sabine is shocking. Honest, unflinching, but with love for her sister underpinning every shot, Bonnaire charts what is the slow rebuilding of a person with the help of a small team of dedicated carers. Just as poignant is the interview with a mother who speaks of her fears for her severely disabled son when she is gone.

GFT, Glasgow, August 22-25 College Road Trip (U) H Dir: Roger Kumble With: Martin Lawrence, Raven-Symone, Donny Osmond College Road Trip, the latest vehicle for Martin Lawrence's tireless facial mugging, is a dispiriting excursion into the comedy mire from a director whose previous wrecks include Just Friends and The Sweetest Thing.

Control freak dad James Porter (Lawrence) wants nothing more than to see his teen daughter Melanie (Raven-Symone) attend Northwestern University because it's a short drive from the family home. When faraway Georgetown provides a more appealing offer, he accompanies her to the interview in a desperate bid to deter her, with his younger son and a chess-playing pig in tow.

The ensuing journey entails wedding crashes, a sing-along father (Donny Osmond) and his daughter, Japanese tourists and skydiving, but is virtually laughter-free. Disney Channel regular Raven-Symone seems content to scream her way through proceedings, Lawrence is up-staged by the pig and Osmond is beyond irritating. Come the predictably sentimental conclusion, you'll be feeling travel sick.
College Road Trip was reviewed by Rob Carnevale