ACE-PT tricks - Personal Trainer American Council Updated: 2023

The most interesting new release of the week is the least commercial. Personal Velocity consists of three short stories about women, and it's a promising first picture by writer-director Rebecca Miller, daughter of playwright Arthur and wife of actor Daniel Day-Lewis.

It's cheaply shot with very little visual flair, and the over-use of narration makes it too much like an illustrated reading. Structurally, its attempt to weave the three stories together by means of a traffic accident - a device she seems to have pinched from the Mexican hit Amores Perros - is so perfunctory that it barely registers.

However, Kyra Sedgwick, one of Hollywood's finest and most underrated actresses, is outstanding as a woman who escapes her abusive husband with only her children and sex appeal to keep her going.

Parker Posey is also excellent as a wife rediscovering her career ambitions and falling out of love with her nice-but-boring husband. Fairuza Balk has the easiest but least rewarding role, as a tough punk who discovers - to her surprise - that she has maternal feelings.

The films are almost too truthful about the dark side of the human condition to be entertaining, and they are probably too literary and self-consciously feminist for popular taste. But though they have an over-familiar agenda of empowerment, they have a subtlety and thoughtfulness that raise them high above most feminist drama.

All three stories will strike a chord with many women. For my money, Personal Velocity is better acted, less depressing and considerably more profound than The Hours.

Casper Berry will talk about how to lessen risk-taking and how to make more informed decisions at the Middlesbrough Business Forum event tomorrow.

Mr Berry is a former poker player in Las Vegas, and the business he co-founded, Twenty First Century Media, was bought by Bob Geldof’s media empire Ten Alps.

Also during his career, Cambridge University graduate Mr Berry, who hails from the North- East, has been a screenwriter for major film companies Miramax and Columbia TriStar. He was also poker advisor on the James Bond movie Casino Royale.

The free event is at Middlesbrough’s Thistle Hotel, at 4.30pm.

Call 01642-322544 to book.