Product Reviews

If you were the bored wife of a doctor at a 1950s mental health hospital, how would you pass the time? Coffee mornings? The wireless? An ill-advised affair with a handsome but troubled and potentially violent patient? There's little doubt which option Stella (Natasha Richardson) will take. When her lover (Marton Csokas) escapes from the institution she decides to throw caution to the wind, whatever the consequences. A film with two such unsympathetic protagonists is unlikely to engage the viewer's emotions, and Richardson's flat, one-note performance does not help. The supporting cast - including Sir Ian McKellen and Hugh Bonneville - provides class, but this is still a depressing, predictable drama that moves at a torturous pace. The disc includes cast interviews.