You're the critic in our At the Movies forum. They court, they quarrel, they re- open old wounds. And then, every so often, duck inside to have a cup of tea. Unfortunately, everything is just a little too sober and serious. The wind howls.
People stare off into the vague wintry distance.
Ice cracks portentously under the uncertain tread of boots. Thompson is good as a grieving, closed-off widow and Phyllida Law is quite believable as her mother. There's also an awkward seduction scene between young Arlene Cockburn and Gary Hollywood that's just as fervent and fervid as real life. But the cross-cutting between the film's four stories only dilutes the power of what should be its chief one, the rapprochement between mother and child. And the endless shots of barren fields and frozen lakes only overdoes the Bergmanesque mood, and overwhelms what could have been a small, carefully observed family drama with weighty symbolism.