DVD: The Boys Are Back, For retail & rental (Walt Disney Studios)

When Simon Carr's wife died of cancer, he raised his two sons in a laissez-faire "hog heaven" buried under dirty dishes and empty cereal packets.

This film version of Carr's memoir, starring Clive Owen, keeps the tone wry and grounded, with none of the swings between wackiness and mawkishness which characterise most movie portrayals of a motherless household. Emotion seeps out, but it's all the more powerful because the customary wailing and gnashing of teeth are kept to a minimum.