If there is one underrated character actor in the world it is Richard E. Grant. Since his breakthrough role in Withnail and I, the actor has appeared in over 50 films and therefore has one of those faces that has audiences asking, "Where have I seen him before?" With a rubbery face and a remarkable skill with dialects, he seems comfortable with broad and dry comedy, serious drama and crazed villainy, all of which he's exhibited in films ranging from Spice World to The Age of Innocence. He has played the lead in quite a few movies, and carried them very well -- I especially like him in the little-seen A Merry War -- but he is most easily recognizable for supporting parts in which he tends to stand out. He was the one enjoyable part of Hudson Hawk (not that it was hard) and was a piece of the brilliant ensemble in Gosford Park.

After watching his directorial debut, Wah-Wah, I'd like Grant to stay in front of the camera. The film, which he also wrote, is not a wasted effort, but there is nothing about it that is evidence he should be making movies rather than stealing scenes in them. The only significance it holds is that it is based somewhat on his own coming of age in the South African country of Swaziland during its transition to independence from Great Britain. But that is only of significance to Grant, and not to viewers, who, if they are anything like me, could do just fine, thank you, without another cinematic memoir of alcoholic fathers and distant mothers and incoherent scenes that add up to a whole without a center.

Gavin Hood's Tsotsi might surprise you. One of this year's favorites to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film, the South African entry is anything but the masterpiece of inspired filmmaking you should expect it to be. It is a crowd-pleaser, sure, winner of the People's Choice Award at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, but other than being a fairly optimistic story of moral turnover that audiences can get behind, the film has very little to propel its worth to the same level as its esteemed appraisal.

Based on the 1980 novel by Athol Fugard, with many liberties taken to modernize what had been relevant literature of Apartheid-era hoplessness, Tsotsi is a bland look at its country's economic rather than racial separations. The universality of the film's themes is globally accessible, but its tired intentions and scarce intensity keep it from being a great film.