Recommended April DVD Releases

Four actors received Academy Award nominations for their performances in this drama: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis. Also, for transposing his own hit stage play to the screen, John Patrick Shanley got an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The story is set in 1964 at a Catholic church and school in the Bronx. The straitlaced principal, Sister Aloysius (Streep), comes to believe that likable Father Flynn (Hoffman) is behaving inappropriately with a troubled 12-year-old male student, but the evidence is ambiguous.

Nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, this historical drama is based on a true story. Among the film's other Oscar nominations are Best Director (Ron Howard), Best Actor (Frank Langella) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Peter Morgan working from his own stage play). The story is about the 1977 confrontation between British TV personality David Frost (Michael Sheen) and former President Richard Nixon (Langella). Frost risked his own money in hopes of rejuvenating his floundering career, while the disgraced Nixon was seeking absolution.

People who have a working knowledge of the story in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice will likely enjoy this lighthearted fantasy, which was originally seen as a three-hour, four-part British TV miniseries. Amanda Price (Jemima Rooper) is a 21st-century Londoner with a boring job in a bank. With her unromantic, beer-guzzling boyfriend on her couch, a time portal appears in her apartment. Later, she goes through it and is transported to Pride and Prejudice's 19th-century Bennet household. Culture clash abounds as Amanda becomes embroiled with the Bennet family and Mr. Darcy. <

Kate Winslet won a Best Actress Academy Award for her performance in this drama, and the film was nominated for four additional Oscars including Best Picture. A faithful adaptation of Bernhard Schlink's novel, the movie takes place in Germany from 1958 to 1995. The story centers on the relationship between Hanna Schmitz (Winslet) and Michael Berg (played as a young man by David Kross, as an older man by Ralph Fiennes). At age 15 Michael has a sexual relationship with the 30-something Hanna, but she disappears and years later he finds her on trial for war crimes.

Mickey Rourke is perfectly suited to play the title role in this drama, and he gives a great performance that earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Also, Marisa Tomei turns in a fine performance for which she got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Rourke plays Randy "the Ram" Robinson, once a top pro wrestler, but now aging, he is reduced to working menial jobs and wrestling at shabby venues on weekends. He tries to form a relationship with a lap dancer (Tomei), and he attempts a reconciliation with his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood).