Superbly lush adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play about the repressed Hester (Rachel Weisz) and her troubled affair with the cavalier Freddy (Tom Hiddleston) in post-WW2 England. Director/writer Terence Davies brings the stifling society of the era to powerful life with beautiful cinematography and a perfect cast: Weisz's frustration and Hiddleston's cruelty (one line in particular is astounding) devastate, as does Simon Russell Beale as Hester's painfully buttoned-down husband. A must-see.

I don't get this remake. Where are all the sharks?!

There is so much to be said about this...but I shan't say it. Suffice to say, any film this beautiful with Simon Russell Beale and Ann Mitchell in it is worthy of your consideration!

Tough for me to enjoy. Like other Terence Davies films it's so much a mood piece about capturing the essence of a place and time in history, that narratively it seems barren and the characters are mad, illogical, unrefined sketches. The pacing is at odds with the scenes of dramatic conflict and it's clear that much more love has gone into dressing, lighting and photographing the sets than script polishing or acting rehearsals. It's an art piece but as narrative cinema it falls completely flat.

I'm not a pensioner, or a fan of melodrama, so this had a hard job to win me over. Nevertheless, I can really appreciate the old-fashioned artistry with which it was made - the art design is great (so brown!), and there are some wonderful, floating tracking shots. And Weisz is luminous, as usual.

Chilling almost to the point of boredom. Might have made a good short, but Davies draws out 15 scenes with excruciating pauses. I'd be interested in the Vivian Leigh version from 1955, but maybe it's Rattigan's material that's not so good.

"Its director's romantic sensibilities wed to Terrence Rattigan's 60-year-old play, this period drama is buoyed by Rachel Weisz's poignant embodiment of a bourgeois wife seeking erotic autonomy." - Bill Weber