'The Edge of Love'

(No MPAA rating; 1 hr., 50 min.): In John Maybury's speculative investigation of the romantic entanglements of poet Dylan Thomas, Keira Knightley plays Vera Phillips, Thomas' real-life childhood friend from Wales. As the film opens, the two reconnect during the London blitz, when Dylan (Matthew Rhys) is writing British propaganda copy and Vera is crooning in tube stations turned into makeshift cabarets.

For a moment it looks like the obvious spark between them will ignite into something more, when up pops Dylan's fiery Irish wife, Caitlin (Sienna Miller), and the three embark on a by turns passionate and toxic menage a trois. (Cillian Murphy plays Vera's long-suffering husband, William Killick.)

That none of the protagonists earns the audience's sympathy is more likely a failure of the real-life characters rather than the actors. Contains profanity, nudity and adult themes.

The film is available in Blu-Ray as well as a standard single-disc edition. The single-disc edition includes a feature commentary provided by director Maybury and star Rhys, but the only other extras are a single featurette, the film's theatrical trailer and a series of outtakes.

'The Haunting in Connecticut'

(PG-13 for some intense sequences of terror and disturbing images; 1 hr., 32 min.): Solid acting and handsomely realized effects depicting ghostly visions and visitations make this a chilling occult tale: There are flashbacks of someone preparing to snip the eyelids off a body, and of seances in which ghostly ectoplasm spews from a live person's mouth.

Virginia Madsen plays Sara, whose teen-age son, Matt (Kyle Gallner), has a life-threatening illness. She moves the family to an old house near the hospital where Matt is treated. He immediately starts seeing dead people and worse in the house and becomes detached and obsessed. A cleric (Elias Koteas) helps Matt reveal the secret behind the haunting. Contains intense sequences of terror and disturbing images.

The film is available in Blu-Ray, single-disc and a special two-disc "unrated" edition. The two-disc edition includes the film's theatrical trailer, a "making of" featurette, a two-part documentary about the "real" events that inspired the film, a featurette about the practice of photographing the dead and deleted scenes.

Director Peter Cornwell provides commentary on the deleted scenes and teams up for a feature commentary with producer Andrew Trapani, co-screenwriter Adam Simon and editor Tom Elkins.

The Washington Post