I HAVEN'T seen any of Bruno Dumont's previous critically-divided films, but I found this philosophical study of human behaviour brutal and coercive.

The story is about Andrew (Samuel Boidin), a young French farmer who is sent off to an undisclosed war (it could be Afghanistan but looks like north Africa). He's a joyless, taciturn lump with something of the missing link about him. His girlfriend Barbe (Adelaide Leroux) loves him, but she is a delicate mess and feels the need to throw herself at other men to generate a response from him.

He doesn't blink when Barbe takes up with new man Blondel (Henri Cretel) before he leaves for war. Turns out they're both going to end up in the same unit where they will be exposed to and conduct all sorts of brutality.

Dumont, a former philosophy professor, uses long, static shots and hyper-sensitive sound to anchor us in the reality of his scenes. He then strips the film of emotion, so that we focus on their behaviour.

It feels Bressonian, but where a Bresson character would find little respite from a cold universe, here the subjects conspire against themselves.

Dumont's thesis seems to be humans are unthinking, violent beasts who are, all the same, capable of a chink of insight.

He might be right, but it's a shame he has to bludgeon his characters to this point of knowledge. The small amount of faith he has in people is overwhelmed by his cynicism.

Copying Beethoven (Agnieszka Holland): Ed Harris, Diane Kruger
Running time: 103 minutes
. .

BURLY Ed Harris becomes a booming, deaf-as-a-bat Beethoven in this period drama about his great masterpiece, the Ninth Symphony. Music student Anna Holz (Diane Kruger) lands the thankless job of copying his music for the orchestra . . . this entails close proximity to 'the monster'. "He'll tear you to pieces, " she is warned. A mild battle of the sexes ensues, and a little romance. She asserts herself until she shows him her own compositions which he dismisses as intellectual windbreaking. It's enjoyable, but it only stirs when Beethoven's bone-shaking Ninth kicks in.

Bratz (Sean McNamara): Nathalia Ramos, Janel Parrish, Logan Browning, Skyler Shaye, Chelsea Staub 110 minutes .

WHY have children? The thought came to mind watching this vapid celebration of the have-it-all culture of today's teens. The director's credit goes to one Sean McNamara, but I guess, judging by its hyper-active attention span, it was really directed by a consortium of spoilt Bebo brats.

It's a live-action recreation from the children's toy of the same name about four girls who go to high school only to discover the trials of school life. The moral of the story seems to be: work hard, be inclusive to nerds and you will become a beautiful, fashion-diva princess with loads of friends. But this message is swamped by its girly indulgence. The lasses go by the name of Yasmin, Jade, Sasha and Chloe and the dialogue involves much bonding over lip gloss: "It's so shiny. . . yeah! . . . so. . .am. . . oh yeah!" Oh dear.