Dir: Tim Fywell. UK-South Africa. 2002. 112mins.

A handsome feature debut from director Tim Fywell, I Capture The Castle offers a sensitive, sympathetic adaptation of a much loved British novel. Boasting an acute sense of period trappings and lush locations, it also showcases a memorably engaging performance from newcomer Romola Garai as a teenage girl who proves a shrewd, unsentimental observer of her bohemian family's misfortunes. Well-crafted and wholesome, it might encounter some resistance from UK theatrical audiences all too familiar with such material as a staple of homegrown television schedules. The popularity of the book among several generations of female admirers should still secure it a solid upmarket niche when Momentum distribute it on 75 prints in the UK on May 9, while Goldwyn/IDP releases it on limited release in the US. It should also have a long-term future as a firm family favourite in the tradition of The Railway Children and Swallows And Amazons.

Best known for children's classic One Hundred And One Dalmatians, Dodie Smith published the autobiographical I Capture The Castle in 1948. In recent years, Harry Potter writer JK Rowling has cited it as one of her favourite books and its sales and standing have mushroomed accordingly which can only enhance the international prospects of this long-planned screen adaptation.

The story begins with a prelude in which writer James Mortmain (Nighy) gathers together his family and heads for the sanctuary of a ruined castle in the verdant wilds of Suffolk. "I will write masterpieces here," he vows. Having served a jail sentence for the malicious wounding of his wife, Mortmain has a terminal case of writer's block and 10 years later the family survive in genteel poverty. Book-loving, 17-year-old daughter Cassandra (Garai) remains an oasis of sanity, keeping a diary and watching over the emotional wear and tear on her older sister Rose (Byrne), her brother Thomas (Sowerbutts) and her eccentric stepmother Topaz (Fitzgerald).

Salvation appears to arrive in the shape of wealthy American brothers Simon (Thomas) and Neil Cotton (Blucas) who have inherited the property. A desperate Rose sets her sights on a lucrative but loveless marriage in which Cassandra colludes but subsequent events teach them valuable lessons in the complexities and uncertainties of the adult world.

Maintaining a deft balance between dramatising events and retaining the omniscient narrator of the book, Heidi Thomas's screenplay deftly interweaves an episodic portrait of family life in 1930s England with the timeless journey of a girl from adolescence to adulthood. Fywell's unfussy direction serves the story and only makes serious misjudgements in its fondness for slow-motion emphasis and in the heavy-handed depiction of a lovesick girl's rose-tinted fantasies.

Vaguely reminiscent of a young Jane Horrocks (Little Voice), the gawky Garai ably conveys both the physical and emotional tensions of a teenager who is worldly wise in her understanding of human nature but still hopelessly naive in her expectations of love. She is the shining centrepiece of a fine ensemble that includes outstanding work from Nighy as the feverish, self-destructive father and from Sinead Cusack in a small but telling role as the Cotton brothers bitchy mother.

Prod cos: Distant Horizon, BBC Films
Int'l sales: Content International
UK dist: Momentum
Exec prods: Mike Newell, Keith Evans, Mark Shivas, Steve Christian, David M Thompson, Anant Singh
Prod: David Parfitt
Co-prod: Mark Cooper
Scr: Heidi Thomas based on the novel by Dodie Smith
Cinematography: Richard Greatrex
Prod des: John-Paul Kelly
Ed: Roy Sharman
Music: Dario Marianelli
Main cast: Romola Garai, Bill Nighy, Henry Thomas, Marc Blucas, Tara Fitzgerald, Rose Byrne, Joe Sowerbutts, Sinead Cusack