Dir: Terence Davies | Scr: Terence Davies | Play: Terence Rattigan | Ph: Florian Hoffmeister | Prod: Sean O'Connor & Kate Ogborn | Ed: David Charap | PD: James Merifield | AD: David Hindle | Snd: Tim Barker | Cast: Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston, Simon Russell Beale, Ann Mitchell, Jolyon Coy, Karl Johnson, Harry Hadden-Paton, Sarah Kants, Oliver Ford Davies, Barbara Jefford
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The young wife of an eminent, ageing judge conducts an (oft tortuous) affair with an inconsiderate former Royal Air Force pilot in post-Second World War London, eventually coming to leave him and the comforts of privilege for the younger man and a life of uncertainty and heartache, in this intoxicatingly elegant drama. Davies’s exquisite mise en scène, lit with the eye of an old master by Hoffmeister, proves soul-strokingly beautiful, but the film’s performances are something of a mixed bunch, with Hiddleston’s shouty turn proving particularly disappointing. However, Weisz is fine (if perhaps not quite at her best), though Beale’s turn certainly proves affecting.
