The Independent Recommends: Film

THE NEW film from the team of James Ivory, Ismail Merchant and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, is about dislocation and adjustment: everyone in the film is looking to belong; they are each just a touch out of sync. Billy is a French boy who is adopted by the writer Bill Willis (played by Kris Kristofferson, but based on James Jones) and his wife, Marcella (Barbara Hershey, left), while they are living in Paris in the 1960s, but he always remains something of an outsider. I can't pretend that the picture adds up to much, but its leisurely narrative rhythms and sensitive performances are entrancing.

On release

More family problems: a daddy's girl (Drew Barrymore) is tormented by her beastly stepmother (Anjelica Huston), but finds hope in the arms of a handsome prince in a codpiece. This is Ever After - or, more accurately, Cinderella 90210. Ten-year-old girls will think it was made just for them.

On release