New DVDs

The latest releases reviewed

BREACH

Directed by Billy Ray. Starring Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Laura Linney, Dennis Haysbert, Kathleen Quinlan 12 cert ****

Phillippe impressively plays a young FBI trainee agent planted as a mole to monitor and expose Robert Hanssen (the excellent Cooper), a senior agent suspected of espionage in this fascinating, factually based thriller.

Writer-director Ray succeeds in taking a story where the ending is known from the outset and infusing it with palpable tension throughout. (available exclusively at Xtra-Vision) - MICHAEL DWYER

MICHAEL CLAYTON

Directed by Tony Gilroy. Starring George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Sydney Pollack, Michael O'Keefe 15 cert ***

Gilroy, the screenwriter of the Bourne trilogy, turns director with a cluttered, overrated moral drama enhanced by fine performances from Clooney as the specialist in his law firm's dirty work, Wilkinson as a colleague struggling with a crisis of conscience and Swinton as the ruthless counsel for a company faced with a multibillion dollar lawsuit. - MICHAEL DWYER

THE NANNY DIARIES

Directed by Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini. Starring Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti 12 cert **

The co-directors of the adventurous American Splendor opt for a disappointingly conventional approach on this formulaic picture of a caring nanny (Johansson) employed by a wealthy but selfish and unhappy couple to look after for their unloved son. - MICHAEL DWYER

NANCY DREW

Directed by Andrew Fleming. Starring Emma Roberts, Josh Flitter, Rachael Leigh Cook, Laura Harring, Barry Bostwick PG cert **

Teenage sleuth Nancy (the perky Roberts) moves to LA and sets out to unravel the mystery surrounding a long-vanished movie star. The reasonably lively film can never decide quite how snarky it wants to be about its source material. At times, we are in Scooby Doo territory. Elsewhere the action seems to be aping Chandler. Weird. - DONALD CLARK