Affliction

(Universal)

Paul Schrader's adaptation of Russell Banks's harrowing upstate New Hampshire novel gives us Nick Nolte as a middle-aged part-time sheriff who's hoping to marry his nurturing waitress girlfriend (Sissy Spacek), and start a new life -- only he's driven by the need to investigate a fatal hunting accident. Schrader preserves the slippery nature of Banks's point of view, of truth and its perception.