Video Shelf

* New this week: “The Son’s Room” is heartbreaking and not. It is a measured, decorous, at times pat film that manages to be quietly moving because it touches on something real. Nanni Moretti, known in Italy for puckish investigations of modern life, not only directed this quite different film, he also co-wrote, co-produced and stars as well. Moretti plays a contented paterfamilias, thoroughly involved with his wife (Laura Morante), and their two teenage children. Then, typically unexpectedly, the worst thing that can happen to a family happens to Giovanni’s: a tragedy takes place, and in its somber, unhurried way, “The Son’s Room” offers an affecting sense of how that would be.

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What’s Hot

Top 5 VHS rentals:

1. Panic Room

2. Monsters, Inc.

3. Murder by Numbers

4. Changing Lanes

5. Big Fat Liar

Top 5 DVD rentals:

1. Panic Room

2. Murder by Numbers

3. Changing Lanes

4. Monsters, Inc.

5. 40 Days and 40 Nights

Rental video charts provided by VSDAVidTrac.