CRITICS' PICKS

Just in time to refresh Oscar voters' memories, and to give people who missed it a second chance to see it on the big screen, Jane Campion's "Bright Star" returns to Los Angeles. This exquisitely done, emotional love story marries heartbreaking passion to formidable filmmaking restraint, all in the service of the unapologetically romantic belief in "the holiness of the heart's affections." Those words belong to the 19th century English poet John Keats, and his romance with the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, is utterly transforming in the hands of writer-director Campion and stars Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw. If you think they don't make them like they used to, this luminous work will change your mind. Starting Friday at Laemmle's Royal in West Los Angeles.

-- Kenneth Turan

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