The searing heat and choking humidity of 1920s Shanghai provide a suitably steamy and exotic backdrop to John Curran's handsome period romance, The Painted Veil, adapted by Ron Nyswaner from W.Somerset Maugham's novel. Falling in love is a perilous business in this film: young hearts are crushed by the conventions of the time. There is little room for emotion: women are expected to marry for the sake of appearances and to appease their socially conscious mothers.

Such matters irk society belle Kitty Garstin (Naomi Watts): "The idea that a young woman should marry any Tom, Dick or Harry regardless of whether she loves him is simply prehistoric," she laments, all too aware that her demanding mother (Maggie Steed) expects her to do just that. During one of London's countless high society gatherings, Kitty meets dull bacteriologist Walter Fane (Edward Norton), who makes his amorous intentions clear.

"I've never thought of you in that way," Kitty explains. "I improve greatly upon acquaintance," counters Walter cheerily. "I'm sure you do," replies Kitty, who eventually accepts his proposal, if only to escape her mother. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Kitty embarks on a passionate affair with vice consul Charles Townsend (Liev Schreiber).

When Walter reveals he knows about the affair ("I am afraid you thought me a bigger fool than I really am!"), he retaliates by spiriting Kitty away to the cholera-ravaged village of Mei-tan-fu. While Walter devotes himself to tending to the sick, Kitty finds her calling as a teacher at a convent run by the caring Mother Superior (Diana Rigg). She also witnesses the political tug of war between Deputy Commissioner Waddington (Toby Jones), who has taken a local girl (Yu Lin) for a lover, and powerful Colonel Yu (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang). As political tensions explode and the epidemic with it, Walter and Kitty face a fight for their lives as well as their marriage.

The film unfolds at a leisurely pace, dictated by the inability of the characters to say what they mean until it is almost too late. All too often, they say nothing at all, and a voiceover reveals the maelstrom of emotions beneath the surface. Norton and Watts deliver terrific performances as the desperately lonely couple, who seem a poor fit from the very first moment they meet.

"I'm a bacteriologist," says Walter plainly. "That must be fascinating," replies Kitty, oozing sarcasm.

The ebb and flow of the relationship is underscored by elegant dialogue, revealing the tenderness beneath the rage and betrayal.

"Do you absolutely despise me?" asks Kitty forlornly. "No, I despise myself... for allowing myself to love you once," replies Walter, baring his soul.

Alexandre Desplat's surging orchestral score perfectly complements Stuart Dryburgh's ravishing cinematography, all naturalistic and shimmering with Eastern promise.

Straightheads is a brutal and unsettling revenge thriller that sinks to the same unnecessarily violent depths as its characters. Director Dan Reed shows restraint in his depiction of a sickening assault and rape at the beginning of the film, which devastates a businesswoman and her younger lover. But as the plot careers towards its inevitable conclusion, Reed returns to events of the fateful night before his protagonists allow their hunger for vengeance to consume them.

The dark desires, which propel the characters on their journey of self-destruction, might be more compelling if Reed's screenplay were stronger. Unfortunately, his characters aren't well formed, and the longer the writer-director spins out his torrid tale, the more tenuous the film's grasp on realism.

Sexually confident Alice (Gilllian Anderson) hires Adam (Danny Dyer) to install a new security system in her London apartment. Sexual attraction is instant and Alice invites Adam to accompany her to a party in the countryside.

"I can't wear this, I'm just the alarm guy," says Adam, staring at the dinner jacket she just happens to have in her wardrobe.

"You'd be doing me a favour," replies Alice coolly.

After a quick conflagration in the shrubbery at the party, where Alice's friends stare down their noses at Adam, the couple make their way back to the capital.

On the return journey, they almost collide with a Range Rover, which forces them off the road. Adam is badly beaten by ringleader Heffer (Anthony Calf) and associates Jamie (Ralph Brown) and Bill (Steven Robertson), and Alice is raped. Refusing to report the incident to the police, Alice and Adam stagger back to their old lives, bearing the emotional and physical scars of their ordeal.

The pain cuts deep until Alice discovers, by chance, that Heffer and his daughter Sophie (Francesca Fowler) live near her late father's house. The opportunity for revenge is irresistible.