A desperate tale of love gone awry as Lady Hester (Rachel Weisz – Disobedience, The Favourite) falls for a former wartime RAF pilot.
Escaping a privileged yet suffocating marriage to High Court Judge Sir William Collyer (Simon Russell Beale – The Death of Stalin, Operation Finale), Hester finds herself lodged post war in a run down London boarding house with an increasingly absent Freddie (Tom Hiddleston – Thor, Only Lovers Left Alive). Refusing to return to the marriage home, Hester must confront the end of the affair as Tom continues to live through his wartime exploits – preferably with a beer in his hand at the local pub.
Adapted from the play by Terence Rattigan, director Terence Davies (Distant Voices Still Lives, A Quiet Passion) creates a patiently nuanced unfolding of a narrative that plumbs the depths of despair. Weisz is luminous, Russell Beale appropriately staid: only a one-dimensional Hiddleston upsets the balance. But maybe that’s how it should be.
Rating: 68%
An Opinion or Two 