Reawakening

Stars: Jared Harris, Juliet Stevenson, Erin Doherty, Niamh Cusack

Director: Virginia Gilbert

Even as a critic, it's hard to stay impartial when a film is written and directed with such passion, and acted with such painful conviction as this one. However, more rational feelings insist that this painstaking study of grief and possible redemption is also slow, claustrophobically set and as miserable as you could wish, leaving behind more loose ends and unexplained questions than can be decently tolerated.

Director-writer Gilbert takes a well-worn dramatic theme. John (Harris) and Mary (Stevenson), working-class Londoners, are still consumed with grief 10 years after their 14-year-old daughter Clare ran away from home, with Mary at times almost suicidal.

Then one day, John returns from his work as a freelance electrician to find that 'Clare' (Doherty) has returned home. Or has she? Mary accepts the incomer joyously, whole-heartedly, but John has nagging doubts that refuse to go away, especially when the girl proves mildly evasive about taking a DNA test.

Despite the relatively brief runtime, the film still seems to take forever to get round to its denouement, which is quietly unsurprising. The questions are many - if Clare is an imposter, how does she escape from her real name? What does the mysterious black girl know that makes her treat John with contempt? - but , if you can forget forget the plethora of plotholes, there is much to admire in the acting, with a nice cameo from the ever-reliable Cusack along the way.

David Quinlan

UK 2023. UK Distributor: Eclipse. Colour by Harbor.
90 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 12 Sep 2024