It is not just her show. Amanda Seyfried is a wide-eyed delight as Sophie, the daughter, who has discovered in her mom’s diary the names of three lovers with whom she had a fling. Which one is Sophie’s father? Sophie, determined to find out, has invited all three to her wedding without telling Donna, who is in for a shock. Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard are amusing as the possible dads, who meet on the way to the island and soon are captivated by Sophie.

Considerable comic relief is provided by Donna’s old-time pals who turn up for the wedding--Christine Baranski as Tanya and Julie Walters as Rosie. Baranski has a knockout of a sexual teasing number called “Does Your Mother Know?” Dominic Cooper is good looking and forceful as Sophie’s intended.

Of course, the madness erupts to the Abba score. There is nothing Greek about the music, only the island atmosphere and the locales joining in with song and dance.

Gibney pursues his subject creatively, with a narration by Johnny Depp, interviews with those who knew Thompson, including two wives, his son Juan, artist Ralph Steadman, and also myriad film clips and audio tapes reflecting aspects of his character and his writing. One can feel amusement and also regret. When his writing was at his strongest, Thompson really had important things to say about the scene in America. He expounded his opinions outrageously with lacerating prose, hence the term “gonzo” given his style. But it is pitiful to see a creative person live a life on the edge in a manner that is destructive to him as well as to others.

The strength of the documentary lies in Gibney capturing the range of Thompson’s life. Although the film begins to feel overlong, it nonetheless is dynamic in all that it covers. It recalls that Thompson became known as Duke, the Uncle Duke character obviously built upon him in Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury comic strip. It recalls Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” upon which the film was based.

Some of the best parts involve his partisan writing extolling George McGovern as a candidate for president, and Thompson’s justifiably vicious take on Richard Nixon. There are admiring appraisals of the writer by Jann Wenner, Thompson’s “Rolling Stone” employer, McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Gary Hart, and most unlikely, Pat Buchanan, as well as many others.

The spectacle of Salman sweating away in the costume is pathetic, but also funny in its absurdist way. We are able to root for him as he fumbles his leaflets because he is so encased and as he takes abuse from passersby. One woman, intrigued by his get-up, hires him to entertain at a children’s party, where he overhears gossip about infidelities and creates a crisis when he spills the beans about what he has learned.

Gallows humor underlines the story, and there are funny visual effects, as when his hand reaches out from an unlikely place in the costume. The choice of a venue for the advertising is odd in itself, as Salman is stationed at an infrequently passed outpost. And whatever happened to sandwich signs?

Strange messages arrive. Could his wife still be alive? What’s going on? The film races along with mounting tension, and there’s the boon of an excellent cast that also includes Nathalie Baye, André Dussollier, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jean Rochefort, François Berléand and Marina Hands.

“Tell No One” abounds in intricacies and challenges the viewer to penetrate the mystery. Meanwhile, events lead to a widening trail--gangster involvement, action, emotional tension and the awaited unraveling of the mystery. Director Canet keeps the film moving intriguingly and the suspense smoldering beneath the well-constructed narrative surface.

China Zorrilla as Elsa, a widow, is a larger-than-life dynamo who takes over a room whenever she enters. She has no compunction about lying when it suits her, whether about family or a fender-bender. Memories of her having been a knockout of a looker back in Argentina linger in her self-perception. She has fancied herself as having resembled Anita Ekberg in “La Dolce Vita” and has imagined herself wading in the Fountain of Trevi while in love with Marcello Mastroianni—a life-long fantasy for her.

Having just moved next door in the Madrid apartment building where she now lives is Fred, a widower, played with reserve by Manuel Alexandre. Fred is reclusive and depressed following the loss of his wife. His manipulative daughter hopes that he’ll provide money for a venture that her loser of a husband wants to undertake.

When Elsa sets her eyes on him, Fred gradually falls under her spell and finds himself attracted to her outrageous but engaging personality. The attention she lavishes on him and which ensnares him little by little has the effect of bringing him out of his despondency and leading him to engage with life again. We watch the process of their growing closeness and the tenderness developing between them. Fred is helplessly falling in love with Elsa, even in the face of her lies, whether big ones or little ones, and her talent at manipulation, and the effect is rejuvenation of his persona.

Fiilmmaker Peter Askin has done a freshly creative job of dramatization by enlisting top actors to recite the letters and using interviews with Trumbo’s son and daughter as well as others who lived through those trying times. The result is a documentary that has much life and brings considerable talent to bear on the screenwriter who had a list of top credits (Kitty Foyle,” “A Guy Named Joe,” “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo”) but was relegated to writing under assumed names, fronts as they were called. An iconoclast under any circumstances, Trumbo went to prison for contempt rather than betray his conscience and accuse others of being Communists.

He has plenty to say in his letters and in interview clips about those who did betray their friends and colleagues rather than lose their work opportunities, and he also has harsh words for the producers who knuckled under to the Congressional witch hunters who ran self-serving, publicity-seeking hearings that vilified those called before it unless they cooperated in the naming names game.

Among those appearing in the film are Joan Allen, Brian Dennehy, Michael Douglas, Paul Giamatti, Nathan Lane (who played Trumbo on the stage), Josh Lucas, Liam Neeson, David Strathairn and Donald Sutherland. There is a dignified tone to the exploration of Trumbo’s views and his life as a family man in what is presented as a loving marriage.

The film reveals entertainingly what a wit Trumbo was, as expressed in his well-written, often acerbic letters that reflect his delight in being a wordsmith. It invites indignation at the persecution of such a man and others for insisting on their First Amendment rights. By standing on that amendment, those called before the inquisition defended their rights to political beliefs on the ground that Congress had no right to intrude. Those who took the Fifth Amendment to avoid having to name names could stay out of prison but were blacklisted and denied work for not cooperating. Film clips demonstrate the viciousness of these media-circus hearings.

“Trumbo” stands as a vital work that reminds us of those who heroically defied the hysteria at great cost to themselves and their families and of how tyranny can set in, even in a country such as ours, when hysteria sweeps the land. We owe a debt to those like Trumbo who stood firm.

Aristocratic Ryno de Marigny, played audaciously by handsome newcomer Fu´ad Aît Aattou, is to marry the young, beautiful Hermangarde, portrayed with proper aristocratic bearing by Roxane Mesquida. But de Marigny has been carrying on a torrid love affair with the seductive, tempestuous and older La Vellini, played by the fascinating Asia Argento. She is fiercely jealous of the impending marriage, and the sultry, strong-willed lady will not go quietly into the night. At first she angrily tries to put him out of her life, but she harbors a passion for him.

The story moves in the tradition of such adaptations with a grand style that a French movie can bring to such a subject. It effectively explores the conflicts and crises that pulsate with sexual and emotional underpinnings.

I was surprised to find Claude Sarraute as the Marquise de Flers, grandmother of the bride-to-be. I had known Ms. Sarraute earlier in life as an important journalist and critic for Le Monde in France, not as an actress. It was a pleasant surprise to find her on screen giving a convincing performance as the all-wise woman with insight into what was going on, and learning that Sarraute can excel at acting as well as at writing.

The screenplay by Abi Morgan and Laura Jones and the understanding direction by Sarah Gavron effectively focus on key aspects of the meaningful story. Nazneen, a wife and mother played revealingly by the lovely actress Tannishtha Chatterjee, is repressed in the way that women of her background are thwarted. She has yet to experience the joys of romantic love. She is married to a man who controls her and expects what a good wife is supposed to be.

What elevates the drama is that the husband, for all his faults, is not an ogre. Chanu, acted complexly by Satish Kaushik, is struggling to get ahead in London against odds stacked against him. He has to keep up a front for his dignity, yet is hurting from his inability to advance despite his hopes for a promotion. He finally feels impelled to return to Bangladesh and wants his family to go with him.

Meanwhile, Nazneen has met Karim, a handsome young man to whom she is attracted and with whom she has an affair, played effectively by Christopher Simpson. Karim is a militant Muslim. Chanu, no fool, realizes what is going on. Karim’s politics leads to discussion about different Muslim viewpoints, which gives the film an extra dimension. Karim wants Nazneen to break free and marry him.

A friend helps start Nazneen earning money by sewing, frowned upon by her husband. Her life is building into a crisis, as she will have to decide on whether to strike an independent role for herself, or tag along back to Bangladesh. Her teenage daughter definitely doesn’t want to leave London. The film is structured upon the background of Nazneen in her home country, involving tragedy for her mother during Nazneen’s childhood and a sister who has slid into a life as a prostitute.

Directed by Jan Hrebejk and Petr Jarchovsky, the film is a hard-edged realistic look at struggling characters, and there is a strong undercurrent of cynicism. Marcela’s husband Jarda, played edgily by Roman Luknár, is sent to prison for his trafficking in stolen cars, which are stripped in his shop. Marcela also has trouble with her mother-in-law, as well as with her stepfather. She also has two children to look after.

Despite martial discord, Marcela and Jarda engage in some hot sex, a lustful tie that binds. Marcela’s chance for a better life comes when she meets a charming, financially secure older man (Josef Abrhám), who lives in Tuscany but also owns a villa in the Czech Republic. He is understanding, kind to Marcela’s children and wants to make a good life for Marcela, the children and himself.

Otto Tausig plays Max Kohn, a professor and declining writer who, now in his seventies, finds his sexual abilities waning, and he also gets dwindling audiences for the lectures that are booked. On a train, Max contemplates his life and daydreams about various erotic adventures.

Senior men in an audience will find an ally in him. Max is not particularly good looking and his age shows. Yet he is able to attract women—at least in his reveries. At home he is harangued by his wife Reisel, played by Rhea Perlman. She knows he cheats on her and tries to catch him. Caroline Aaron is Rachel, a woman at a resort who has an eye for Max.

Barbara Hershey plays Rosalie, a former student whom he meets on a lecture assignment. She is still attractive and wants to get him into bed. He also encounters Ethel, a widow, portrayed by Tovah Feldshuh, who throws herself at him. But things are not so simple and he is in for a shock.

There is a handicapped Cuban housekeeper in a motel, played by Elizabeth Peña, and she is intent on seducing him, but emotional baggage that she carries clashes with his responses.