Lorna Irvine reviews the limited release of a 'stunning noirish thriller'.
Barnaby Southcombe's debut feature is a stunning noirish thriller set in London, focussing on the vulnerability of a woman of a certain age.
Charlotte Rampling, those sad brooding eyes never more heartbreaking, gives one of the performances of her illustrious career as Anna, a lonely divorcee with a secret out on the speed-dating circuit, who finds herself being tailed by Bernard, a detective chief inspector, subtly portrayed by Gabriel Byrne, when she becomes embroiled in a murder case .
Every shot is stunning- even a simple green frog umbrella becomes a totem of something sinister; arcades look creepy,mundane interiors simmer with malice.
Yet there is heart in the storytelling, a tenderness along with the tough cityscapes, typified in the relationship between Anna and her daughter Emmy (Hayley Atwell) who encourages her mother to get out and live her life.
A pulsing, gripping film with a quietly devastating climax which lingers long in the mind
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