Veteran actress Charlotte Rampling is in great demand these days averaging three new movies a year. Like fellow Brit Kirstin Scott Thomas, Ms Rampling successfully flits back and forth to Europe and is equally at home making both French and English movies. It would be interesting to know what criteria she uses to make her work choices, but for her latest role in this yet to be released new movie, I think it fair to assume that the over-riding factor was that the young man making his directing & screenwriting debut was her son Barnaby Southcombe.
In this rather stunning film noir, Ms Rampling plays Anna, a divorcee and mother, who is quite the femme fatale. We first see her when she is somewhat reluctantly taking part at a Speed Dating Party, and as a consequence ends up going home with a rather pushy man who picks her up. The next scene has her departing his apartment building in the early hours of the morning at the same time a Detective Inspector is entering it on his way to investigate a murder. It took place in the same apartment where Anna had spent the night, but it is far from clear what actually happened and if Anna is involved.
The Inspector had noticed Anna and tracks her down via her car’s licence plates and some days later he follows her to yet another Dating Event. When they actually ‘meet’ there is a mutual instant attraction by these two similar lonely people, but we are never sure if the Inspector sees Anna as a potential partner or as a murder suspect (or even a mixture of the two).
Anna is clearly a troubled woman but as the story unfolds it seems its not just the events of that night that are giving her bad dreams but some tragic incident in the past that she only remembers piecemeal. The ambiguity of several of the strands of this rather intriguing story add greatly to the tension and make the outcome completely unpredictable.
Ms Rampling is pitch perfect as the rather aloof dejected middle-class Anna who is trying to make the best of her pack of cards she has been dealt, and the very believable chemistry between her and Gabriel Bryne as the Detective Inspector really makes this movie work so well. The excellent cast also includes Eddie Marsan and Hayley Atwell, but keep your eyes peeled for a small scene at the beginning when Anna is given a pep talk by an older woman …..she’s played by none other than Miss Honor Blackman (now a mere 87 years old).
It’s an impressive first movie from Mr Southcombe and he gave it some great highly stylised touches, and he obvious has a love affair with London which has a crucial starring role in this fine psychological thriller of his.
Due to be released in the UK in December 2012, but no date set for the USA yet.
★★★★★★★★
