ON the face of it, giving Indian director Mira Nair the task of bringing a classic English novel to the screen may seem odd.

But, in the way Ang Lee's outsider's eyes invigorated Jane Austin's Sense and Sensibility, Nair's objectivity adds an exotic touch to Vanity Fair (PG).

There is a colourful edge to this retelling of the story (though not the Bollywood makeover afforded to Bride and Prejudice) with many of the outdoor scenes awash with vivid hues. But at its heart there remains a solid retread of William Makepeace Thackeray's once shocking tale of a low-born woman's shocking ambition.

Becky Sharp, played with cut glass perfection by Reese Witherspoon, is the daughter of a drunken artist and a dead chorus girl who refuses to live her life in the narrow lanes dictated by her social station.

She elects to marry herself out of poverty, a notion not unheard of in Indian culture that the director embraces.

Her first target is Joseph Sedley (Tony Maudsley), the brother of her best friend Amelia (Romola Garai).

Becky diverts from taking up a post as governess to shambling aristocrat Sir Pitt Crawley (Bob Hoskins) to turn young Joseph's head but just as she seems to have done the trick, Amelia's fianc George (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) warns him of her scheming nature, not to mention her family's poor standing, and persuades him to leave her alone. Unperturbed by this setback, she arrives at Sir Pitt's door and ingratiates herself with his rich spinster sister Matilda (Eileen Atkins). She invites Becky to London, where she meets and secretly marries dashing heir Rawdon Crawley (James Purefoy).

When the truth finally emerges about their illicit union and Becky's selfish plotting, she is ostracised from the upper echelons of polite society, and by her nearest and dearest.

To make matters worse, Rawdon loses everything at the gambling table and the couple face financial ruin.

That is until Becky finds a patron in the powerful Marquis of Steyne (Gabriel Byrne).

His support seems to offer Becky a way out of poverty but what he wants in return is far more than just her gratitude.

Witherspoon devours the chance to portray one of literature's greatest female characters, throwing herself into the role with gusto and an impeccable English accent that is even better than Rene Zellwegger in Bridget Jones or Gwyneth Paltrow in Emma.

Arguably, she smoothes too many of Becky's sharper edges but it's a compelling performance nevertheless.

Witherspoon is supported by a fine ensemble cast, including Atkins in imperious form as the domineering matriarch with a seemingly endless arsenal of biting insults and one-liners.

Screenwriters Matthew Faulk, Mark Skeet and Julian Fellowes, the latter traversing similar territory to his Oscar-winning Gosford Park, revel in the richness of Thackeray's text.

Patrick Marber will be best known to millions of people (if only they put a name to the face) as the actor who played many of the unfortunate guests in Alan Partridge's Knowing Me, Knowing You.

But away from cringe-inducing comedy he wrote Closer (PG), an award-winning play that has now been made into a film by the legendary Mike Nichols.

It tells the painful, emotionally-charged story of two couples, Jude Law and Natalie Portman, and Clive Owen and Julia Roberts, whose tangled relationships are exposed as a tissue of lies and deception.

Closer is a film in which all of the fireworks are verbal.

There's scant opportunity for director Nichols to impose any of his own personality on the film; he simply has to remain focused tightly on the characters as they wriggle from one uncomfortable revelation to the next.

All four leads are excellent, particularly Owen as the cuckolded boyfriend who fights back.

And talking of tangled relationships, if the sight of puppets having sexual relations is too much to bear, you might want to stay well away from Team America: World Police (15) a bitingly unsubtle piece of satire from the people behind South Park.

Using Thunderbird-style puppets they tell the story of the World Police, an all-American band of heroes dedicated to ridding the world of terrorists ie anyone who doesn't think America is great.

Number one target is South Korean president Kim Jong II, who is planning to take over the world using weapons of mass destruction.

The team plan to take him out using a litany of gung-ho heroics, dirty songs and a series of running jokes about Alec Baldwin.

Not all of this is very funny but there are some good moments, particularly when they joke about the puppets themselves. One Matrix-style martial arts battle ends up in a mess of tangled limbs and strings.

By Gary Lawrence