THEIR FINEST (12A, 117 mins) Comedy/Drama/Romance. Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy, Jack Huston, Jake Lacy, Richard E Grant, Paul Ritter, Jeremy Irons. Director: Lone Scherfig.

Released: April 21 (UK & Ireland)

It's tally ho and chocks away to a tumultuous period when upper lips were jolly stiff and women on the home front actively served the bomb-ravaged nation.

Based on Lissa Evans' novel Their Finest Hour And A Half, Lone Scherfig's wartime comedy drafts frothy drama and heart-tugging romance into active service, assisted by a starry and largely British cast.

Inveterate scene-stealer Bill Nighy delivers another masterclass in deadpan delivery and arched eyebrows as a one-time screen idol, whose glory days are far behind him.

Gemma Arterton is a delightful foil, banging a drum for gender equality in the face of chauvinist condescension, with sterling support from the likes of Richard E Grant, Helen McCrory, Eddie Marsan and Jeremy Irons.

The script, penned by Gaby Chiappe, maintains a brisk pace and a light tone despite the grim historical backdrop, celebrating the power of cinema to dispel the gloom during the Second World War.

"Films: real life with the boring bits cut out," pithily professes one crew member.

Their Finest largely observes these sage words and only permits reality to bite in closing frames when the devastation of the Blitz takes its toll on the key figures.

When her painter husband Ellis (Jack Huston) fails to sell his canvasses, Catrin Cole (Arterton) takes a paid position as a secretary at the British Ministry of Information, which produces propaganda to buoy the nation's spirits.

Roger Swain (Grant) heads up the film division and he entreats scriptwriters Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin) and Raymond Parfitt (Paul Ritter) to unearth a true story of wartime heroism that embodies "authenticity with optimism" and can be immortalised on celluloid.

The real-life rescue of wounded British soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk by twin sisters using their father's boat is just the ticket.

Catrin is asked to pen the female characters' dialogue - dismissively referred to as "the slop" - and she toils alongside Tom and Raymond to give voice to the sisters.

Before production commences, a pompous cabinet minister (Irons) insists the script should include an American character in order to persuade the United States to join the Allied assault.

Thus, handsome airman Carl Lundbeck (Jake Lacy), who is more wooden than the studio sets, is cast alongside ageing theatrical ham Ambrose Hilliard (Nighy) on a shoot that sparks forbidden romance and mutual respect between Catrin and Tom.

Their Finest is a sweet and charming confection with a full conscription of reliable cliches to keep the cinematic fires burning.

Arterton and Claflin kindle a spiky on-screen romance, conflicted about their feelings for each other until a supporting character observes, "When life is so precious, it seems an awful shame to waste it."

Period detail is solid throughout and director Scherfig makes light work of the two-hour running time.

An exceedingly fine affair.

:: SWEARING :: SEX :: VIOLENCE :: RATING: 7/10

UNFORGETTABLE (15, 100 mins) Thriller/Romance. Rosario Dawson, Katherine Heigl, Geoff Stults, Isabella Rice, Cheryl Ladd, Whitney Cummings, Simon Kassianides. Director: Denise Di Novi.

Released: April 21 (UK & Ireland)

Hell hath no fury like a mentally unstable, hair-obsessed ex-wife scorned in Denise Di Novi's psychological thriller.

Made to a tried and tested recipe from a bygone era, when perfectly coiffed anti-heroines were hell-bent on destroying picture-perfect families, Unforgettable - aka Sleeping With The Enemy Whose Fatally Attractive Hand Rocks The Cradle - sits awkwardly between a crock and a hard place.

Christina Hodson's lacklustre script is too serious to be lip-smacking, trashy entertainment, and too (unintentionally) camp and preposterous to be unsettling or scary.

Thankfully, no cute household pets are boiled on the stove, but Di Novi's picture does tick off hoary tropes with weary abandon including a snarling cat fight, a cherubic child in peril, piercing glares that could freeze blood at fifty paces, and a gnarly villainess who refuses to die quietly.

A superfluous sex scene in a restroom, intercut with another character breathlessly enjoying verbal intercourse in an online chatroom, fails to deliver an erotic charge and composer Toby Chu employs discordant rumbles to herald the Machiavellian meddlings of the film's impeccably tailored antagonist.

The intended victim is San Francisco-based online editor, Julia Banks (Rosario Dawson), who has escaped her troubled past with the support of sassy best friend, Ali (Whitney Cummings).

Sheltered from her violent old flame, Michael Vargas (Simon Kassianides), by a restraining order, Julia thinks she has found the perfect replacement in divorced father David Connover (Geoff Stults).

Julia transplants her life across the country to be with David and his young daughter, Lily (Isabella Rice).

David's ex-wife Tessa (Katherine Heigl) is still heavily involved in raising their child and Julia nervously settles into a home that used to be run by another woman.

"You'll get used to Tessa, she'll calm down," David assures Julia as they wait for the perfect time to tell friends and family they are engaged.

Julia's discomfort intensifies when it becomes apparent that Tessa still adores her ex-husband and is fiercely jealous of rivals for David's affections.

Ali urges caution and one of David's friends issues a dire note of warning: "Tessa got possessive, turned into Gollum. David was her 'precious'."

Alas, Tessa already has a nefarious plan in motion, to win back David and appease her iron-fisted mother (Cheryl Ladd), and Julia is her witless pawn.

Unforgettable is a misnomer because there is nothing in Di Novi's picture that will be remembered - fondly or otherwise - after the credits roll.

Dawson and Heigl aren't stretched in two-dimensional roles, the latter eliciting pantomime boos as her "psycho Barbie" takes out her frustration on knots in her daughter's flowing locks.

The final showdown is a hoot for the wrong reasons including some ill-advised dialogue in the throes of death and a cliffhanger tease usually reserved for TV soap operas.

:: SWEARING :: SEX :: VIOLENCE :: RATING: 5/10

RULES DON'T APPLY (12A, 127 mins) Comedy/Drama/Romance. Warren Beatty, Lily Collins, Alden Ehrenreich, Annette Bening, Matthew Broderick, Martin Sheen. Director: Warren Beatty.

Released: April 21 (UK & Ireland)

The madness that ensued at the culmination of the 89th Academy Awards, when Warren Beatty was handed the wrong envelope, is nothing compared to the haphazard plotting and direction of his first feature behind the camera since Bulworth in 1998.

Set during the late 1950s and 1960s, when the sun was setting on a Golden Age of Hollywood, Rules Don't Apply is a wildly uneven portrait of philanthropist Howard Hughes, awkwardly positioned within a faltering romantic comedy that tests the deeply pious characters' faiths and our patience.

Hughes gained notoriety for his reclusive lifestyle and Beatty's script bottles some of that madness with scenes of the businessman demanding that his staff ship 350 gallons of his favourite banana nut ice cream to a hotel in Las Vegas, or personally overseeing the grooming of his body doubles.

His script repeatedly sidesteps historical fact for the sake of spinning a good yarn and this laissez faire approach to historical rigour is made clear in an opening quote from the film's misunderstood subject: "Never check an interesting fact."

The tone of the picture lurches violently from conflict to farce via heightened melodrama, with disorienting cuts between locations that stymie dramatic momentum.

Baptist beauty queen Marla Mabrey (Lily Collins) arrives in Hollywood accompanied by her mother Lucy (Annette Bening) as the latest signing of RKO film studios run by the elusive Howard Hughes (Beatty).

The Mabreys' private chauffeur, Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich), is instantly smitten with Marla, but fellow driver Levar Mathis (Matthew Broderick) reiterates strict rules against fraternising with the talent: "Any driver who tries any hanky panky with a contract actress is gone!"

Frank struggles to contain his desire while sweetly innocent Marla makes a firm impression on her employer.

"You make an old guy feel courageous, Marla," Howard gushes.

As the philanthropist's mental state deteriorates and he fires long-time friend Noah Dietrich (Martin Sheen) as CEO of his father's company, Frank is ushered into Hughes' inner circle and entrusted with day-to-day responsibilities.

The pressure of catering to the filmmaker's whims and resisting Marla's bountiful charms eventually tips Frank over the edge.

"Maybe your wealth isn't always the best thing for your health!" he rages at Howard.

The basic rules of filmmaking evidently don't apply to writer-director Beatty's vision because structure, characterisation and tension are largely absent.

Collins and Ehrenreich struggle to convince as star-crossed lovers, clinging to a haphazard script that works against them, while Beatty embraces his character's OCD with fervour.

In the same way that Hughes, as imagined here, is incapable of silence and contemplation for too long, Rules Don't Apply doesn't pause for breath between its bamboozling vignettes.

If exhaustion doesn't grip audiences, boredom will.

:: SWEARING :: SEX :: NO VIOLENCE :: RATING: 4/10