Film Weekly

Rachel Getting Married

Releasing (in the UK) January 23

Chick-flick veteran Anne Hathaway plays a jealous sibling in this acclaimed new drama from Jonathan Demme. In fact, she's a jealous sibling with, gulp, a weekend pass out of rehab to attend her sister's nuptials. Things naturally go very wrong, and Oscar buzz has already been generated by the show-stoppingly excruciating rehearsal dinner scenes.

Women are as susceptible as men to the lure of a jolly night out over an improving headache though, so chances are that many of us may end up plumping instead for Bride Wars (January 9), in which Hathaway has more wedding trouble - this time with rival bride Kate Hudson.

Doubt

Releasing February 6

To follow her decidedly unchaste role in Mamma Mia!, Meryl Streep has chosen to star in this deadly serious 1960s-set tale of a schoolteacher nun who suffers doubts after she suspects a priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of getting too close to a pupil.

There is just the faintest whiff of parody about this (Kate Winslet's Oscar-hungry, habit-wearing cameo in Extras comes to mind), but it's apparently excellent. It co-stars Amy Adams, whose fairytale film Enchanted raked it in at the box office last year.

He's Just Not That Into You

Releasing February 6

For those who don't fancy two hours of Streep in a wimple, here's a paper-light romcom starring Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson and Drew Barrymore, based on the straight-talking dating manual of the same title.

It's not the last of these weird adaptations we'll see in 2009 - Hilary Swank has snapped up the film rights to French Women Don't Get Fat, the finger-wagging weight-loss manifesto that instructed us on how to be as slim as our eclair-scoffing Gallic sisters. Presumably the logic is that self-help books are to women what graphic novels are to men, and are therefore ripe for adaptation. Yikes.

Wendy and Lucy

Releasing February 6

This has been tipped as a terrific film: Kelly Reichardt's sombre tale of a homeless woman, Wendy (Michelle Williams), and her lost dog, Lucy. It doesn't sound like the sunniest watch (subplots revolve around the obstacle course of scumbags Wendy negotiates), so this is in danger of falling into the same let's-watch-something-fun-instead trap as Rachel Getting Married.

Still, dogs are generally perceived to be catnip to women. Look out for some seriously girly marketing of Beverly Hills Chihuahua (talking-dog comedy, January 19) and Marley and Me (labrador weepie, March 13).

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Releasing February 20

Based on Sophie Kinsella's dubious chick-lit franchise, Isla Fisher stars as a girl with a shoe fetish who gets a job on an investment mag to pay off her spiralling debts - and frankly it's hard to imagine anyone with a brain popping along to this. But it may still prove a winner. Producer Denise Di Novi (whose snoozy romance Nights in Rodanthe failed to set the box office alight) credits the balance between 'real emotion and wish fulfilment' as the reason for Sex and the City's success, so expect more of that here.

The argument goes that Carrie Bradshaw may have been fabulously clad, adored by her pals and enviously slim, but she was also 42 and jilted at the altar. Likewise, then, a woman with a cupboard full of Jimmy Choos and a bedside drawer of unpaid bills may prove an empathetic heroine.

The Young Victoria

Releasing March 6

The success of Mamma Mia! was initially credited partly to artful programming: the musical opened in the US on the same weekend as The Dark Knight, in the hope of appealing to women unmoved by the thought of spending 140 minutes in the dark with Christian Bale.

That same manoeuvre must be behind the decision to release this costume drama about Queen Victoria's early relationship with Prince Albert, against Watchmen - surely the most eagerly anticipated comic book adaptation yet.

Cadillac Records

Release date to be confirmed

It has taken a while for Hollywood to twig that Motown biopics are guaranteed winners: what's not to like about stonking tunes, enormous tantrums and tumultuous relationships? Dreamgirls (2006) is the pre-eminent example of the genre, but even Taylor Hackford's 2004 biopic Ray majored on the women in the Mr Charles's life.

Cadillac Records stars Beyonce Knowles as the singer Etta James, and looks set to go big on her many troubles with men and drugs as well as her superlative tune.