1. HIGH FIDELITY
(Stephen Frears; 2000) ***
John Cusack and his fellow Evanston co-writers D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink somehow managed to transplant Nick Hornby’s London-set novel to Chicago without missing a beat. Cusack plays Rob, a list-making Wicker Park record-store clerk who, upon being dumped by his girlfriend, Laura (Iben Hjejle), revisits his sad romantic history. (available on DVD and video)
2. TRAINSPOTTING
(Danny Boyle; 1996) ***1/2
Irvine Welsh’s gritty novel about young Edinburgh junkies became Boyle’s energetic, mesmerizing, darkly funny film that vividly portrays the horrors of heroin addiction without ignoring the drug’s appeal to a disaffected subculture. The movie provided the first great showcase for Ewan McGregor, as the skinny protagonist and Robert Carlyle as a terrifying bully whose drug of choice is alcohol. (DVD/video)
3. THE SNAPPER
(Stephen Frears; 1993) ***1/2
This adaptation of the middle installment of Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown trilogy (between “The Commitments” and “The Van”) captures the low-key humor and humanity in the story of a pregnant working-class Irish teen (Tina Kellegher) who refuses to disclose the father’s identity. Colm Meany is terrific as the teen’s dad. (DVD/video)
4. BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY
(Sharon Maguire; 2001) ***
All those fears about an American playing the beloved British Bridget of Helen Fielding’s bestseller went by the wayside when people saw Renee Zellweger’s performance as the spunky, only slightly chunky single-gal heroine. Colin Firth essentially reprises his “Pride and Prejudice” role as Mark Darcy while Hugh Grant steals the show as a delightful jerk. (DVD/video)
5. LAST ORDERS ***1/2
(Fred Schepisi; 2002)
The cream of the British acting crop — Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins, Tom Courteney, David Hemmings, Ray Winstone, Helen Mirren — show their stuff in this moving adaptation of Graham Swift’s elegiac novel about three south London drinking buddies on a road trip to deposit the ashes of their larger-than-life friend (Caine). (playing at the Wilmette Theater)
