WE FILM critics do reach for the adjective "operatic" rather too often. The word (rarely meant literally) is routinely dragged out to describe anything expansive, unrestrained or uninhibited. It is, thus, interesting to note how intimate and set-bound most filmed operas have been.

Apocalypse Nowis, in the cineaste's mind, more operatic than, say, Franco Zefirelli's Otello. This decent film version of Verdi's La Bohème(basis of the useless musical Rent) is no exception to that rule. Directed by Robert Dornhelm, who gave us the undistinguished A Further Gesture,the picture is strongly sung and robustly acted throughout. But the film-makers do very little to make a movie of the production. Every now and then you sense them waking up to the medium and calling th e effects team into action: the end of the third act includes an outbreak of slow motion; the final act features  black-and-white footage studded with bursts of colour; smoky images of Rolando Villazón's Rodolfo and Anna Netrebko's Mimi are occasionally juxtaposed.
The sets do, however, still look very much like sets and the costumes look just like costumes.
Ingmar Bergman, in his definitive version of The Magic Flute, had the good sense to allude explicitly to the theatricality of the form. Dornhelm makes no such gesture. That is not to say this La Bohème doesn't belong in cinemas. Featuring a staggering number of international co-producers and an almost equally diverse cast of singers - the leads are, variously, Russian, Mexican and American - Dornhelm offers viewers the opportunity to hear big singing at a reasonable price. If your tiny hands are frozen, then you could  find worse places to shelter than a cinema screening his workmanlike version of the definitive Bohemian tragedy.

Directed by Robert Dornhelm. Starring Rolando Villazón, Anna Netrebko, Boaz Daniel, Stéphane Degout. Nicole Cabell G cert, Light House, Dublin, 115 min G cert, gen release, 100 min