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How to make a terrible movie: 1) Take one outstanding children's story from England with wit, spark, inventive language and joy throughout 2) Invite Guillermo del Toro - who is originally from Mexico - to turn this great book into a dud screenplay (The Hobbit anyone?) 3) Hire a director who has no clue, perhaps was never a child? 4) Pick a random cast of unknowns with a range of dodgy accents, plus a well-known female actor in a leading role 5) Add "kid-friendly" CGI 6) Poll some Hollywood execs for a few other must-have elements for "comedy" because a children's film is supposed to be "funny" 7) Simmer in a large pot for 9 months 8) Release

A lavish production in all the right ways (script, cast, direction, location, details), this is a perfect literary adaptation - very much in the heritage of the BBC's 1996 Pride and Prejudice, but perhaps even better. Toby Stephens (the son of Dame Maggie Smith) plays the brusque, flawed Mr Rochester with exactly the right admixture of arrogance and warmth, while newcomer Ruth Wilson is luminous as English rose Jane Eyre - like a swan swimming, her impassive face nevertheless conveys a wealth of feeling churning beneath. The location filming is handled deftly, with careful camera angles leaving us with the sense that we haven't seen everything yet - and oh, what locations: this is how it was always supposed to look.

Highly recommended.

Highly recommended for the accurate and intelligent script, this is a rare example of a movie about a specialist subject (here, espionage and code-breaking) which does not talk down to its audience. The result is a classic spy movie, with great re-watch value too as it has certain subtleties which would be missed on a first viewing.

Although it was made in 1992 it was written earlier and has a mid-80s kind of feel to it, with a healthy dose of 1960s paranoia and idealism. It has a clever, realistic script and a fine supporting cast - Dan Ackroyd, Ben Kingsley, Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, and David Straithairn giving the best performance I've ever seen of a blind person - and his blindness is dealt with in a human and realistic manner, without being in the slightest bit patronising.

Some other obvious recommendations (also starring Robert Redford) would be "All the President's Men" and "Spy Game". More generally, if you liked "Mission Impossible", "Enigma", "Anti-trust" or the straighter Bond movies such as "From Russia with Love" then you will probably hugely enjoy this - but if you preferred "Mission Impossible 2", "The Net" or the more outrageous Bond movies like "Moonraker" or "Die Another Day" then this is probably not going to be your cup of tea.