Kidnapped (12A)
Directed by Marco Bellocchio
★★★★

ITALIAN maestro, the Marxist Marco Bellocchio, brings to the big screen the outrageous tale of the kidnapping of a young Jewish boy by the Catholic church, who was sent to the Vatican to be converted to Christianity.

It is based on the true story of six-year-old Edgardo Mortara (played by Enea Sala and Leonardo Maltese) who in 1858 was torn away from his loving Jewish family in Bologna on the orders of Pope Pius IX (Paolo Pierobon), having learnt he had been secretly baptised at birth by the maid.

Under church doctrine he could no longer live with a non-Catholic family, so he was taken to be raised by priests.

He was the sixth of nine children but his mother, played sublimely by Barbara Ronchi, was beyond distraught at losing him and both she and his father (Fausto Russo Alesi) embarked on a campaign to get him back. The scandal was far-reaching.

As a (lapsed) Catholic myself I was enraged by the injustice and disgusted by the hubris and dogma of the Pope who thought he could play God with this youngster’s life.

In order to beat a mother’s love the pontiff orders Edgardo to be baptised again, which isn’t permitted.

Beautifully acted and looking like an exquisite old master, this is an enthralling yet heartbreaking family tragedy which ends on an uncompromising and heart-stopping note.

Out in cinemas today.
 
 

I.S.S. (15)
Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite
★★

 
THIS slow-burning space thriller is set in the near future on an International Space Station where US and Russian astronauts have been working happily together for a long while.

That is until a war breaks out on Earth between the two countries and both teams are sent the same orders from below to take control of the ISS by any means necessary.

It isn’t clear who started the nuclear conflict, but of course the Russians on the ISS fire the first salvo that conveniently villainises them.

Paranoia, suspicions and tension then rise in this claustrophobic setting.

Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite and starring Ariana DeBose and Chris Messina, this is a predictable sci-fi thriller which mercifully ends on a hopeful note for US and Russian relations.

Out in cinemas today.

Ordinary Angels (12A)
Directed by Jon Gunn
★★★

 
BASED on the remarkable true story of a struggling hairdresser who rallied a whole community in helping a widowed father save his critically ill young daughter, Ordinary Angels is an uplifting and moving drama.

Set in 1994 Kentucky Hilary Swank plays Sharon who, inspired by a newspaper article about five-year-old Michelle Schmitt (Emily Mitchell) who having lost her mother is in desperate need of a liver transplant, decides to help her and her dad (Alan Ritchson).

She embarks on a major fundraising drive for the family who are drowning in unpaid medical bills.

Swank gives a stunning performance as a fun-loving alcoholic with a heart of gold who decides to help these strangers while Ritchson is a revelation as this taciturn father grippled by grief and debt who has to carry on for the sake of his two young daughters.

Directed by Jon Gunn, this is an inspiring tale about ordinary people who are broken with messy lives and in pain trying to helping each other. It is about co-operation, perseverance and community which we have lost.

Out in cinemas today.

Challengers (15)
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
★★★

 
SET in the world of tennis, Italian director Luca Guadagnino serves up a deadly menage-a-trois which isn’t half as sexy or as erotic as the film trailer suggests.

Zendaya stars as Tashi, a former tennis-prodigy-turned-coach following a career-ending injury, who lives vicariously through her Grand Slam champion husband Art (Mike Faist). Art is currently on a losing streak.

To get his mojo back the ruthless Tashi enters him in the lowest of the low tournaments where he is confronted with his former best friend and her ex-boyfriend, the washed-up Patrick (Josh O’Connor).

Through fast-moving flashbacks, which leave you with whiplash, you learn how all three met. While Tashi, the proverbial “bitch” who lives and breathes the game, is the main catalyst of the narrative it is the relationship between former childhood friends and tennis partners Art and Patrick that is the more interesting.

There is sexual frisson between them, which is hinted at but not fully explored as was in Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name.

Zendaya, Faist and O’Connor deliver ace performances, although at times it was difficult to hear what they said due to an unnecessarily loud soundtrack.

Out in cinemas today.