Cause Celebre
The true story of Love, Lust and Murder that obsessed a nationIt’s 1935. The headlines scream "murder most foul." All England is boiling with fury – scandalized by the "crime of the decade." Cause Célèbre is an emotionally complex real-life drama of love, betrayal, guilt and obsession spun hopelessly out of control. Did Alma Rattenbury (Helen Mirren) – as she confessed – bludgeon her ailing husband to death? Or, was it Bowen, her 18-year old lover – desperately driven by their affair into a fit of jealous rage?Whatever the truth, as an upper class wife and mother, she is already condemned by an outraged public for the unforgivable crime of loving a boy only half her age. Into this maelstrom of emotion, facing Alma’s confession and the public’s wrath steps T.J. O’Connor (David Suchet), the distinguished, brilliant attorney for the defense fiercely determined to save his client.Helen Mirren weaves a spellbinding web as Alma Rattenbury, a fragile, free-spirited woman caught in a passion she is helpless to control.