In this funny and touching fable of three colleens growing up near Dublin circa 1957, Minnie Driver is irresistible as Benny, the "big, soft girl" who thinks she's a wallflower. Saffron Burrows is the sophisticated Nan, and Geraldine O'Rawe is the convent-raised Eve. O'Rawe is the only Irish rose in the bunch; the others are Brits. American Chris O'Donnell took dialect lessons to play the Irish rugby star who brings out the woman in Benny. OK, the accents falter, but director Pat O'Connor ("Cal") is pitch perfect at showing how the forces of church, state and sex come between friends and lovers in this bittersweet romance. Driver's tough core of honesty and wit is bewitching. So's the movie.

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.