Firelight

(Buena Vista)

William Nicholson's 19th-century melodrama boasts strong performances but an implausible story. Charles Godwin (Stephen Dillane) wants to have a child, but his wife has been in a coma for years, so he hires the debt-ridden Elizabeth (Sophie Marceau) to engage in intimate relations for a few days. They fall in love, of course; she gives up the child, then, years later, shows up at Charles's doorstep as his daughter's new governess, and we get a tale of Victorian sentimentality as Elizabeth's maternal and spousal devotion begin to take effect.