New Films

THE APPLE (SIB) (PG)

Director: Samirah Makhmalbaf

Starring: Massoumeh Naderi, Zahra Naderi

Seventeen-year-old Makhmalbaf's precocious debut stages a recreation of the true-life fortunes of Iran's Naderi sisters, raised in seclusion by their parents before being set loose by a visiting social worker. From first to last, The Apple is tinged with a sense of wonder, steering a quiet course from one startling visual motif to the next. Part docu- drama, part rites-of-passage fable, this is a luminous missive from a burgeoning Iranian film scene.

Limited Release

ENEMY OF THE STATE (15)

Director: Tony Scott

Starring: Will Smith, Gene Hackman

Will Smith's fall-guy DA teams up with Gene Hackman's pensioned-off Pentagon warhorse, probes a political cover-up and gets embroiled in all manner of Big Brother-type trouble. Directed with his trademark gloss by Top Gun's Tony Scott, Enemy of the State comes on as The Conversation on steroids. A top-drawer cast (including Jon Voight, Ian Hart and Gabriel Byrne) weaves in and out of the hi-tech imagery and adrenalised chase scenes.

Countrywide

THE MIGHTY (PG)

Director: Peter Chelsom

Starring: Sharon Stone, Gillian Anderson

Peter Chelsom's The Mighty treads through familiar coming-of-age country with its tale of two outcast kids (one fat, one sickly) in a storybook Cincinnati. Stolid and a tad predictable, though there's a glimmer of soul showing through. Sharon Stone and The X-Files' Gillian Anderson cope well in what basically amount to supporting roles.

Countrywide

WHAT DREAMS MAY COME (15)

Director: Vincent Ward

Starring: Robin Williams, Annabella Sciorra

Along comes Christmas, and out comes What Dreams May Come, the corn-fed love-child of It's a Wonderful Life and Ghost; this is an over-glazed turkey with all the trimmings. Williams perfects a lopsided simper as the dead chappie who leaves a cod-Impressionist heaven, to jet southward to rescue his suicide-bride (Sciorra) from a Gothic hell. Elephantine art- design runs rampant over the wispy plotline. The metaphysical conceits arrive with a heavy dusting of sugar.

Countrywide