The List: Choice Film

Night Falls on Manhattan (15), on general release

Director Sidney Lumet started out in 1957 directing Twelve Angry Men. Twenty years on, he was still great, blasting the media in Network, but what has he served up recently? The frankly unbelievable Close to Eden, in which Melanie Griffith goes underground in the Hasidic community. (You may have to read that last sentence twice.) Guilty as Sin was just as ridiculous, but his intelligent new movie is a return to form, as a district attorney investigates police corruption. Sounds like your basic genre picture, but there are moments of startling originality and the cast alone - Andy Garcia (above) and Ian Holm - demands your attendance.