Chilling supernatural jigsaw that really grabs the viewer

Rating: Null/10 (1 June 2002)

One of the best chillers to emerge in the modern era, this moody and nerve shredding tale is well worth anyones time to watch. It combines an intricate story line with wonderful ensemble acting and intensly moody direction. The plot borrows some of it's neater twists from other recent Hollywood ventures into the supernatural and the visual style is very much that of Hitchcock (Kidman bears an uncanny visual resemblance to Grace Kelly in REAR WINDOW for instance)but the sheer strength of story and performances are what you will remember most. Kidman, playing an upper class English woman, with considerable conviction, only lets the cut glass accent slip slightly here and there. Her character's increasingly frantic situation draws out a career best performance with it's wide eyed incredulity and overbearing religeous zeal. The children she so desparately tries to protect (they have a lethal allergic sensitivity to daylight so live behind closed curtains) are both superbly portrayed, a rare occurrence for such young English actors who, as a rule seldom behave as naturally on screen as their American contemporaries (and I say this as an Englishman born and bred). The curious trio of servants who arrive apparently looking for work at the beginning of the film never seem quite "right" and this aspect is central to the story itself. In fact nothing seems to be quite as it should be, from the continual foggy weather to the piano that plays itself - or does it?. This clever, and subtle displacement of reality keeps the viewer guessing constantly throughout. Just what IS going on here? Of course it all becomes clear at the end in time honored style and you will either pat yourself on the back for having worked in out or kick yourself for not doing so.Either way it will be satisfying. In this respect it's a film that has combined the elements of both a classic whodunnit and a supernatural chiller with great success. Are the children really at risk from the light? Are the servants working to some hidden agenda? Has the lead character become divorced from reality behind those closed curtains, alone with her dependant children and her deep religious beliefs ? Just why did the previous staff walk out and what has happened to the father who went off to war and has yet to return?
Perhaps the sense of time and place isn't quite achieved. The location is the island of Jersey, shortly after it's liberation from years of Nazi occupation but aside from a few references to power cuts and having to make do, this could be anywhere at almost anytime from the 1920's to the 1950's. The whole film is set in and around a large country house and the fog keeps out any picture postcard scenery, the staff don't have local accents or backgrounds that we are aware of and such things as fuel and food rationing are never even refered to, although they would have been very much a part of life at the time.
Aside from that it's a rattling good yarn and the small cast are all convincing in their roles. The atmosphere is built up strongly from the very beginning and it's carefully paced to keep the viewer thinking all the time without becoming bored at any point, even if things do, by design develop very slowly throughout. Top marks to all concerned, a film that has lived up to it's word-of-mouth reputation.