Big Fish (PG, Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment, DVD £19.99/ VHS £12.99): Stars: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange.

WILL Bloom (Crudup) is a journalist on a quest for the truth. He has spent his entire life listening to his gregarious father, Edward (Finney), regale family and friends with his epic adventures as a young man (McGregor), crossing paths with freaks and misfits including a kind-hearted giant called Karl, a werewolf and conjoined Korean lounge singers. Edward's tall tales never fail to delight his adoring wife Sandra (Lange), but Will has grown weary of the elaborate fantasies and believes his old man to be a liar and a fraud, but a return home finds the son finally seeking the truth about his father's life. DVD Extras: Director commentary, Edward Bloom At Large featurette, Amos At The Circus featurette, Fathers And Sons featurette, The Filmmakers' Path featurette, The Fairytale World featurette, Creature Features featurette, The Author's Journey featurette, The Finer Points - Tim Burton Trivia Quiz

Mystic River (15, Warner Home Video, also available to buy DVD £15.99): Stars: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Emmy Rossum.

AS children, Jimmy Markum, Dave Boyle and Sean Devine were inseparable until the day a man claiming to be a policeman took Dave away in his car. Four days later, the boy escaped from his captors, having been repeatedly raped and abused. Twenty-five years pass in the blink of an eye and the trio's bruised lives have matured in completely different directions. Jimmy (Penn) is an ex-con who runs a grocery store. He has an adoring wife Annabeth (Linney) and a beautiful teenage daughter Katie (Rossum). Then Katie is murdered and her lifeless body is discarded is a quiet area of the park. Sean (Bacon), now a cop, and his imposing partner Whitey Powers (Fishburne) are assigned the case. The chain of evidence leads to Dave (Robbins), who loses grasp on reality, haunted by the nightmares of his childhood abuse. Eastwood directs with his customary cool detachment, allowing the suspense to build gradually.

DVD Extras: Mystic River: From Page To Screen featurette, theatrical trailer.

Published: 03/06/2004