Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall) is an unusual woman for 1921. She is informed and educated, and is on a self-imposed mission to expose phony spiritualists who prey on those who lost loved ones in the Great War: we understand that she may well be motivated by her own loss. She is approached by teacher Robert Mallory (Dominic West) to attend a boys' boarding school in the north of England, where one boy has recently died after allegedly seeing a ghost: Matron Maud Hill (Imelda Staunton) has read Florence's book and suggests that her sceptical approach may be what is needed.
This film, co-produced by BBC films, is an old-fashioned ghost story in which there may or may not be a ghost. Despite the presence of a couple of "made-you-jump" moments, it is not a horror film. Instead, it is a portrait of a damaged woman in a world which is itself damaged by the recent War, and it carefully portrays the various repressed feelings of that time: they slot into the story well. But the story also progresses under its own steam, and not always in directions which are entirely predictable. I do not want to say much more about the directions followed because some of them surprised me.
The cast are all excellent. Rebecca Hall is both strong and fragile at the same time, and straddles a line between plainness and luminous beauty. Dominic West's character could well have been a cipher with a couple of facets for character clarification: West makes him a rounded, believable character. Imelda Staunton is, as usual, perfect, and the rest of the cast is good, too.
The photography is excellent - this is a good looking film.
This is highly recommended for anyone who likes an unhurried, but good, ghost story, told with quality.
This film, co-produced by BBC films, is an old-fashioned ghost story in which there may or may not be a ghost. Despite the presence of a couple of "made-you-jump" moments, it is not a horror film. Instead, it is a portrait of a damaged woman in a world which is itself damaged by the recent War, and it carefully portrays the various repressed feelings of that time: they slot into the story well. But the story also progresses under its own steam, and not always in directions which are entirely predictable. I do not want to say much more about the directions followed because some of them surprised me.
The cast are all excellent. Rebecca Hall is both strong and fragile at the same time, and straddles a line between plainness and luminous beauty. Dominic West's character could well have been a cipher with a couple of facets for character clarification: West makes him a rounded, believable character. Imelda Staunton is, as usual, perfect, and the rest of the cast is good, too.
The photography is excellent - this is a good looking film.
This is highly recommended for anyone who likes an unhurried, but good, ghost story, told with quality.