Recommended May DVD Releases

Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson are paired in this romantic drama. Harvey Shine (Hoffman) is an aging failed jazz pianist who writes commercial jingles. Divorced and lonely, he flies to London to attend his daughter's wedding, but is crushed when he learns she wants to be given away by her stepfather. He also strikes up a chance acquaintance with the unattached Kate (Thompson), who has had a series of bad dates. Harvey and Kate soon find themselves spending a fun day together in the great city, and she accompanies him to his daughter's wedding reception.

Nominated for 13 Academy Awards including Best Picture, this fantasy stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1922 short story, the movie chronicles the life of Benjamin Button (Pitt), who somehow ages backward, being already an old man when he is born and getting younger as time passes. The story takes place mostly in New Orleans, and the time period covered is 1918 to 2005. The film recounts a number of episodes in Benjamin's life, but the key ones involve his relationship with Daisy (Blanchett), a free-spirited dancer who is the love of his life.

Tom Cruise stars in this dramatization of a true story. Cruise portrays Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, a count who lost an eye and a hand while fighting for Germany during World War II. Later, Stauffenberg became a key man in a 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler and seize control of the German government. Supporting actors in the film include Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Terence Stamp and Eddie Izzard, all of whom play German generals. Directed by Bryan Singer, the movie traces the preparation and attempted implementation of the takeover plot.

Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) stars in this spare indie drama that was well received at festivals and made several critics' best-of-2008 lists, but got only a limited theatrical release. Williams portrays Wendy, a young adult with little money who decides to move from Indiana to Alaska with the idea of getting a job in a fish cannery there. She sets out in her old Honda with her retriever Lucy, and they reach Oregon, where Wendy runs into problems and encounters assorted strangers. The film doesn't have conventional narrative flow: its focus is on character, setting and mood.