Firing blanks

Rating: 5/10 (2 January 2019)

This film promised much but delivered very little. It looks great; the three central performances are all excellent, and the cinematography, costuming and locations are all superb, although the score is a little jarring at times. Sadly, the entire edifice is a house of cards, built on the shaky foundations of a vague and unfocused script. Too many scenes add little to the plot, which advances in lurches reliant on the characters of Sarah (Weisz) and Abigail (Stone) doing inexplicable and self-destructive things for no obvious purpose other than to bring about their own downfalls. Anne (Colman) is supposed to be the unpredictable and mercurial character, but hers is actually the most consistent. This movie is best summed up by the scene in which one character fires an unloaded pistol at another, describing it as a great jest that they must find a use for later. They never do.