This week's top film releases

FILM OF THE WEEK

LION (PG, 118 mins) Drama/Romance. Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, David Wenham, Rooney Mara, Sunny Pawar, Abhishek Bharate, Priyanka Bose, Deepti Naval. Director: Garth Davis.

Released: January 20 (UK & Ireland)

Home is where the heart is, but when memories of that place of sanctuary are cruelly stolen at an early age, can you truly be at peace?

One man's extraordinary true-life odyssey - to locate the birth mother and older brother he lost at the age of five - provides the inspiration for Garth Davis' life-affirming drama, which looks set for recognition in multiple categories at next month's Academy Awards.

Screenwriter Luke Davies has skilfully adapted the non-fiction book A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley, elegantly cutting back and forth between traumatic events more than 20 years apart to accompany the lead character on his seemingly hopeless quest for emotional closure.

Dev Patel and Sunny Pawar are both terrific as the 26-year-old and five-year-old incarnations of Saroo, who is unexpectedly transplanted from Khandwa, where family and friends speak Hindi, to the giddy whirl of Calcutta, where residents speak Bengali, and then onto Australia.

Cinematographer Greig Fraser captures these three locations on two continents in rich and meticulous detail, providing a compelling backdrop to the heart-wrenching trials and tribulations that will reduce audiences to puddles of saltwater emotion.

Saroo (Sunny Pawar) lives in 1987 Khandwa with his mother Kamla (Priyanka Bose) and siblings.

The five-year-old idolises his 12-year-old brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate) and the two boys embark on a night-time excursion to the local railway station.

A horrible twist of fate separates the children and Saroo is trapped aboard a train, which heads 1,600km east to the bustling shanty towns of Calcutta.

Unable to speak the language, the boy eventually meets Saroj Sood (Deepti Naval), who runs the Indian Society for Sponsorship and Adoption and places him with adoptive parents John and Sue Brierley (David Wenham, Nicole Kidman) in Hobart, Tasmania.

Many years later, Saroo (now played by Patel) is enrolled on a course at the Royal Melbourne College of Hotel Management and casually confesses details of his past to other Indian students.

They encourage him to use online satellite mapping software to trace the railway line from Calcutta back west.

Fellow student Lucy (Rooney Mara) pledges her support to Saroo, whose studies suffer as he stares at pixels on his laptop screen, looking in vain for a station with a water tower that might be Khandwa.

Lion is a majestic, heartfelt drama that delivers an almighty emotional wallop as Saroo gradually pieces together his past.

Director Davis deftly moves between timeframes as he elicits riveting performances from Patel, Pawar and Kidman as a proud mother who will never stand in the way of her beautiful boy tracing his bloodline.

If a few stony-hearted souls remain steadfastly dry-eyed to the end, real-life footage over the credits and an explanation of the film's enigmatic title set to the soaring vocals of Australian chart-topper Sia, will prize open the floodgates.

RATING: 8.5/10

T2 TRAINSPOTTING (18, 117 mins) Drama/Comedy/Romance. Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller, Anjela Nedyalkova, Scot Greenan. Director: Danny Boyle.

Released: January 27 (UK & Ireland)

Choose life with nae regrets.

Choose to belatedly revisit one of the defining films of the mid-1990s, which shoved a dirty needle into the arm of Cool Britannia and stuck up two fingers to the notion that successful homegrown films could only be pristine period dramas or feel-good romantic comedies.

Choose the holy filmmaking trinity of director Danny Boyle, screenwriter John Hodge and producer Andrew Macdonald, who induced that intoxicating rush of blood to the head 21 years ago.

Choose a narrative joint rolled from Irvine Welsh's novel Trainspotting and the sequel Porno, cut with whirling camerawork that propels embittered characters down a new rabbit hole of nihilistic desire.

Choose the reunion of a predominantly Scottish cast on location in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Choose vivid visual flourishes, projections, shadows and hallucinogenic flashbacks to realise each surrender to the siren song of addiction.

Choose another achingly hip and unabashedly retro soundtrack under the influence of award-winning Edinburgh band Young Fathers, Wolf Alice, Underworld and Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

Choose a multi-faceted portrait of modern masculinity - fathers estranged from children, impotent husbands, friends torn apart by betrayal - to sow the seeds of anguish and reminiscence.

Choose a flabby-bellied two hours rather than a lean 93 minutes of the original to follow Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) as he returns home to beg forgiveness from Spud (Ewen Bremner).

Choose revenge, the poison coursing through the veins of reluctant publican Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller) when he discovers Renton is back in town.

Choose seething rage, which drips from the tongue of psychotic jailbird Begbie (Robert Carlyle) as he finally glimpses life without bars.

Choose a detour to the familiar breathtaking vista of Corrour rail station, framed by the rounded hill of Beinn na Lap, to pay tribute to those left behind.

Choose flashes of brilliance - a darkly humorous explosion of bodily fluids, a funding pitch that describes a sauna as "an artisanal bed and breakfast experience" - punctuated by cute visual nods to the first film.

Choose Spud as the trembling, emotional core, willing him to succeed as he struggles to sever ties to heroin and discover self-worth.

Choose a head-on collision of solemn memorial and wistful nostalgia, stoked by the words of Sick Boy's Bulgarian girlfriend, Veronika (Anjela Nedyalkova): "Where I come from, the past is something you forget. Here, it's all you talk about."

Choose the sinking realisation that the giddy high of the first time you watched Trainspotting - that breathless sprint down Princes Street to Iggy Pop's Lust For Life, the headfirst plunge into the worst toilet in Scotland, the needle drop of Underworld's Born Slippy - isn't going to be replicated.

Choose to stop being a tourist in the rose-tinted glow of that glorious past that became a cultural phenomenon.

Choose T2 Trainspotting, with reservation.

RATING: 7/10

xXx: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE (12A, 107 mins) Action/Thriller. Vin Diesel, Donnie Yen, Toni Collette, Deepika Padukone, Ruby Rose, Kris Wu, Rory McCann, Nina Dobrev, Tony Jaa, Michael Bisping, Samuel L Jackson. Director: D.J. Caruso.

Released: January 19 (UK & Ireland)

If you can't beat James Bond, join him with special effects-laden gusto, innuendo-laden dialogue and outdated gender stereotypes.

So says xXx: Return Of Xander Cage, the action-packed third chapter of a testosterone-fuelled franchise, which welcomes back the rippling abs of Vin Diesel as the titular extreme sports enthusiast more than 10 years after a second film in the series foundered without him.

Screenwriter F Scott Frazier spells out a simple methodology through one of his thinly sketched characters: "Kick some ass, get the girl and try to look dope doing it."

There are plenty of "girls" in the midst of the action, almost all of whom are reduced to whimpering sex objects at the sight of Diesel's muscular frame.

Indeed, one intelligence officer - fetishized here as a ditzy bespectacled assistant - cannot resist sharing her S&M safe word to Cage during their first meeting in the hope she'll get to whisper it again to him in private.

One early bedroom scene cuts abruptly to a rail cart tipping a full load of white granulated sugar.

Subtle.

An acrobatic assassin called Xiang (Donnie Yen) and his associates Serena (Deepika Padukone), Talon (Tony Jaa) and Hawk (Michael Bisping) steal technology codenamed Pandora's Box from a high-powered meeting of the National Security Agency led by Jane Marke (Toni Collette).

"They just took out the best of the best like it was a Sunday brunch!" growls Marke to her superiors.

They demand swift action to retrieve the top-secret device, which controls every military satellite in the world.

The future of mankind hangs in the balance and the NSA needs a thrill-seeking daredevil to infiltrate Xiang's inner circle and avert global disaster.

So Marke travels to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to recruit Xander Cage (Diesel) back into the fold.

Eventually, he answers the NSA's call to arms and recruits a posse of authority-flouting renegades, which includes sharp shooter Wolff (Ruby Rose), car crash addict The Torch (Rory McCann) and hedonist Nicks (Kris Wu).

Aided by NSA gadget expert Becky (Nina Dobrev), Cage and his crack squad prepare for battle.

xXx: Return Of Xander Cage punctuates a flimsy plot with death - and logic-defying acrobatics on land and sea, and director D.J. Caruso can't resist the chance to defy gravity too for a preposterous final showdown in the air.

Diesel struts through the melee with a satisfied swagger.

In one superfluous scene of softcore fantasy, his hunk discharges his lethal weapon several times to satisfy a harem of lust-crazed lovelies.

"The things I do for my country," he grins lasciviously to camera.

One of them is evidently suggesting that a woman's duty is to submit to a man, and preferably do it in thigh-length boots and figure-hugging shorts.

RATING: 5/10

SPLIT (15, 117 mins) Thriller. James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula, Sebastian Arcelus, Brad William Henke, Neal Huff. Director: M Night Shyamalan.

Released: January 20 (UK & Ireland)

Three's company, 23's an intimidating crowd in writer-director M Night Shyamalan's intriguing thriller about a trio of teenagers who are abducted in broad daylight and held hostage by a thirty-something oddball exhibiting multiple-personality disorder.

The abductor's distinct personas supplant one another without warning, establishing a tense psychological battle for internal supremacy, which runs parallel to the hostages' life-or-death fight for survival.

As dramatic set-ups go, Split is ripe with suspense, and Shyamalan's script veers in unexpected directions, including one tantalizing sequence that will draw gasps from fans of his earlier work.

A flashback framing device to a childhood hunting trip is far more predictable and the twisted morality of closing scenes, which attempt to justify who deserves to die, leaves a slightly bitter taste in the mouth.

Far sweeter is Glasgow-born lead actor James McAvoy's tour-de-force portrayal of an emotionally damaged man at war with himself.

In one powerhouse scene, he ricochets between several personalities, capturing with aplomb the fierce battle raging inside his antagonist's head.

For her birthday celebration at a local restaurant, popular high school student Claire Benoit (Haley Lu Richardson) invites her classmates, including best friend Marcia (Jessica Sula) and creepy outcast, Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy).

On the way home, a socially awkward misfit called Kevin Crumb (McAvoy) overpowers Claire's father (Neal Huff) and kidnaps the three girls, spiriting them away to a bunker.

The teenagers woozily regain consciousness from chloroform fumes in a cell without windows or obvious means of escape, completely at the mercy of their captor.

"You know the only chance we have is if all three of us go crazy on this guy," whimpers Claire, panic rising.

Casey urges caution and the hostages discover that Kevin exhibits 23 distinct personalities including a germ-phobic brute called Barry, a clucky British mother hen called Patricia and a nine-year-old boy called Hedwig.

"[Barry] knows he's not allowed to touch you. He knows that," Patricia soothingly informs the trio after one heated encounter.

Away from the bunker, Kevin makes regular visits to psychiatrist Dr Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley), who is well aware of her patient's condition.

Meanwhile in the cell, Casey recalls hunting expeditions in the woods with her father (Sebastian Arcelus) and uncle (Brad William Henke), which taught her how to incapacitate large animals.

Split is a return to confident form for Shymalan, who has never quite lived up to the dizzying promise of his Oscar-nominated third feature The Sixth Sense.

Admittedly his picture falls short of the suffocating tension of yesteryear's abduction thriller 10 Cloverfield Lane, but it's an entertaining thrill ride, which gradually builds to the emergence of Kevin's 24th personality.

Aside from McAvoy's virtuoso turn, Taylor-Joy is haunting as a victim who might be stronger than she looks.

As in many of Shymalan's other features, appearances are intentionally deceptive.

RATING: 6/10

JACKIE (15, 100 mins) Drama/Romance. Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, Max Casella, Richard E Grant, John Carroll Lynch, Beth Grant, Caspar Phillipson. Director: Pablo Larrain.

Released: January 20 (UK & Ireland)

Towards the conclusion of Chilean director Pablo Larrain's unconventional biopic of Jacqueline Kennedy, the former first First Lady muses on the celebrity that consumed her.

"I never wanted fame," she responds coolly. "I just became a Kennedy."

That feeling of impotence in the eye of a media storm informs many pivotal scenes in Jackie, a bravura portrait of a wife and mother struggling to come to terms with sudden loss whilst publicly remaining strong for her children and the American people.

Screenwriter Noah Oppenheim sensitively imagines grief behind closed doors to piece together events before and after the fateful motorcade in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.

Scenes of Jackie trembling with shock as she wipes make-up and her husband's blood from her face in the aftermath of the shooting are horribly compelling, as is the moment she must break the devastating news to her two children, skirting nimbly around the horrible, brutal facts.

"A very bad man hurt Daddy," she tells five-year-old daughter Caroline. "Daddy would come home if he could. But he can't. He has to go to heaven."

In order to bring these fragmented memories into focus, Larrain employs a jarring framing device.

Journalist Theodore H White (Billy Crudup) visits the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, a few days after the assassination to interview Jackie (Natalie Portman).

From the outset, Jackie attempts to gain a semblance of control she never had in the White House.

"You understand that I will be editing this conversation?" she tells Theodore. "Just in case I don't say exactly what I mean."

Gradually, she relates her version of events, including the blood-spattered rush to hospital where she is joined by Jack's brother Bobby (Peter Sarsgaard) and her social secretary, Nancy Tuckerman (Greta Gerwig).

While Jackie and the rest of the world mourn her beloved Jack (Caspar Phillipson), Lyndon B Johnson (John Carroll Lynch) is hurriedly sworn in as President aboard Air Force One in front of his wife Lady Bird (Beth Grant) and aide Jack Valenti (Max Casella).

"A First Lady must always be ready to pack her suitcases. It's inevitable," Jackie laments.

Larrain's film is a mesmerising kaleidoscope of real and imagined details, galvanized by Portman's haunting embodiment of a widow in emotional isolation.

She effortlessly captures the breathless vocal mannerisms, clawing at our hearts in centrepiece sequences that remind us of the merciless ebb and flow of power on Capitol Hill.

"It's been just one week and already they're treating him like some dusty old artefact, to be shelved away," despairs Jackie, fearing the memory of her husband will be lost in time like so many of his predecessors.

The colourful and complex mosaic of Larrain's vision ensures that the woman, who stood proudly beside JFK, won't be forgotten.

RATING: 7.5/10

FILM CHART

1. La La Land

2. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

3. Moana

4. Assassin's Creed

5. Passengers

6. Live By Night

7. Manchester By The Sea

8. Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them

9. The Bye Bye Man

10. Why Him?

(Charts courtesy of Cineworld)

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