Choice: Film

Marvin's Room, Cornerhouse, Manchester (0161-228 2463)

The British stage premiere of the superior tear-jerker by the American Scott MacPherson starred Alison Steadman and Phyllis Logan. Of course, Hollywood wasn't interested in them. Not that the final choices were unwise: Diane Keaton won an Oscar nomination for her performance as a woman diagnosed with leukaemia, Meryl Streep plays her sister with a strikingly authentic American accent, and her arsonist son comes in the altogether agreeable form of Leonardo DiCaprio. Robert De Niro pops in to dispense the odd diagnosis and light relief (rather in the way he did in Terry Gilliam's splendid Brazil), but this time you wish he'd tone it down. It's the only false move in a good, old-fashioned weepie.