Fridae

For serious moviegoers, the must-watch of the week is Elegy, a brutally intelligent and achingly honest drama playing exclusively at the Picturehouse.

It stars Ben Kingsley as an aged professor who falls in love with his beautiful young student (Penelope Cruz pretending, successfully, to be 24). But the professor is so paranoid, unhappy and neurotic that he rationalizes his way out of being in love - even though the student is in love with him too.

Ben Kingsley is absolutely brilliant as the professor whose supreme ego, intelligence and self-doubt get the better of him. From his imperious presence to the fine nuances of his speech, he is an actor worth his weight in gold. Thankfully, Penelope Cruz is not cowed by his presence; she is warm and captivating as the nubile young thing. Based on Philip Roth's complex novel The Dying Animal, screenwriter Nicholas Meyer and director Isabel Coixet have managed to craft a fine drama that is at once dark, intense, incisive and bracing.

A must-see for lovers of serious adult dramas.