Onegin

Approximately one hundred times more intriguing and emotionally engaging than I'd dared to hope, this beautifully majestic period piece will set your heart singing no matter how hard you try to resist.

An adaptation of Alexander Pushkin's 19th-century Russian literary classic, Onegin is a real slow-burner, and the first twenty minutes or so certainly had me fidgeting a little - but as soon as it gets going for real, the film enchants and enthrals right through to the bitter (-sweet?) end.

The entire project is fashioned with remarkable honesty and love by director Martha Fiennes, sister of those seriously handsome bastards Joseph and Ralph, and the latter plays the central role with his customary class and grace. As Yevgeny Onegin, a cynical yet idealistic playboy born into major wealth, he is entirely disillusioned with the sluggish pace of country living, wants to see the world, and therefore is daft enough to spurn a love-at-first-sight affair with a smitten Liv Tyler on the (impeccably logical) basis that it would be likely to go wrong a few years down the line.

Tyler showed definite signs of maturing talent in the recent Cookie's Fortune, but she hits a career high here, with the film's sparse dialogue and moody atmosphere highlighting her silent elegance to maximum effect. Fiennes is Fiennes, which is fine, and the script is sensible enough to keep them apart for the most part, thus greatly heightening the tension when they do meet. The world-weary Onegin ends up killing his best mate in a duel and travelling far and wide, before slowly reaching the conclusion that he's destroyed his shot at heaven and must go back for more.

It would be criminal of me to give away the ending, but it's quite the most magnificent scene of its kind I've seen since the closing stages of Wings Of A Dove, and it echoed around the darkside of my brain for many hours afterwards.

Obviously, I've never read the book and am extremely unlikely to ever find the time, but if there's a better literary adaptation of anything this side of the New Year, I can't wait for it.

I apologise if I have just sounded like Alexander Walker, but great tragic love stories can have that effect sometimes. Do give this one a chance.