Luc Jacquet charmed millions with his stunning Oscar-winner March of the Penguins but his latest, far more intimate venture The Fox and the Child will struggle to find as appreciative an audience.

Star rating: **
Dir: Luc Jacquet
With: Bertille Noel-Bruneau, Kate Winslet (narrator)

Luc Jacquet charmed millions with his stunning Oscar-winner March of the Penguins but his latest, far more intimate venture The Fox and the Child will struggle to find as appreciative an audience.

Based on a childhood encounter the director had with the titular animal, the film follows the reluctant relationship that develops between a young girl (played by Bertille Noel-Bruneau and narrated by Kate Winslet) and a fox after they first encounter each other in the French Alps.

Jacquet's film is beautifully shot and demonstrates a suitably reverential admiration for its main subject matter that should keep younger viewers happy, especially when focusing on the harsh terrain the fox inhabits.

But his depiction of the girl is less impressive and the longer she continues to display an ignorant disregard for natural boundaries, the much less enchanting their adventure becomes. Winslet's cloyingly sweet narration doesn't help much either.

Make it Happen (PG) HH Dir: Darren Grant With: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Riley Smith SMALLTOWN girl, works in a male dominated industry, dreams of making it big as a dancer -what a feeling of deja vu descends when watching this hokey but okay Flashdance for the Beyonce generation.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the hoofer cruelly turned down by a fancy pants dance school. Out of options, she gets a job as a book-keeper at a burlesque club. The house style is not her hip hop thing, but whad'ya know, the kid's adaptable.

It's as predictable as a line dance, and thoroughly corrupting for teenage girls who should be at home dreaming of being Nobel Prize winning physicists, but they'll likely enjoy it.

The Fox and the Child was reviewed by Rob Carnevale.