Few movies are as vividly tactile as "Young Adam". The way the cold blue light of Scotland envelopes everything--wooden bannisters, rippling water, rough fabric, coal soot caked in human skin, and flesh itself--makes you feel like you could reach out and touch it all. A failed writer named Joe (Ewan McGregor, "Big Fish"), slumming on a coal barge, finds himself drawn to barge's owner Ella (Tilda Swinton, "Orlando", "The Deep End"), despite the presence of her husband Les (Peter Mullan, "My Name is Joe"). But Joe's passion is haunted by the girl he's abandoned (Emily Mortimer, "Lovely & Amazing"), whose memory becomes more and more powerful as a murder trial unfolds. The acting in "Young Adam" is magnificent, without affectation yet completely affecting. It's a moody film, but its deep engagement with its characters and the world they inhabit will make a lasting impression. "--Bret Fetzer"