The identity crisis that often awaits children of unknown parentage offers endless possibilities for movie-makers. As they set out to find their biological parents the situation is steeped in emotion and surprise.
The scenario has been the theme of the week on TVB. After last night's Made In America, with Whoopi Goldberg's daughter discovering her origins, the theme is taken further and treated more successfully in Flirting With Disaster (Pearl, 9.30pm). This is a rare, unpredictable sex farce, with Ben Stiller's Mel having even more of a shock when he finds his off-the-wall parents.
Flirting is the second film written and directed by David Russell, a talent we will be hearing much more of in future. Russell is exceptional. As anyone who saw his Spanking The Monkey knows, he ignores cinematic formulas, and with increasing confidence in each of his three films to date.
Spanking The Monkey dealt with the darker foibles of suburban America. Flirting is lighter and wilder, but underlying it is the same world view, that we're all crazy in one way or other, with emotions and desires that don't quite tally with reality. In tonight's film, Mel must identify his parentage so he can come to terms with his new status as a dad. Patricia Arquette is his blooming, frustrated wife Nancy - the two are in the midst of a post-partum sexual crisis. Tea Leoni is the psychologist and ex-dancer who masterminds a genetic wild-goose chase across America and gets his libido running more normally. The search for roots gives Russell an opportunity to introduce a series of strange characters, from various prospective parents to gay law enforcers.
This movie's success led Russell on to bigger things. Three Kings, which turns the war genre on its head and stars George Clooney, was released in the United States last month. About American soldiers who set out to steal Kuwait's gold bullion at the end of the Gulf War, it has been hailed as the year's best.
More minds are examined in the final episode of the excellent series on animal behaviour, Animal Minds (Pearl, 8.30pm). The question addressed tonight is whether animals go about their lives thinking or unthinking. Once again Professor Euan Mcphail puts the case against. For him a thinking bee is as likely as a flying flower. Many others, scientists and pet-owners, think otherwise, and new discoveries on the workings of different brains, human and animal, back them up. The experiences of Dr Jane Goodall and others who have spent years studying and living with great apes weigh the argument heavily in the animals' favour.
