STN, December 2007

Starring: Ben Chaplin, Penelope Cruz, Ralph Fiennes, Ian Holm, Kristin Scott Thomas, Damian Lewis, Rhys Ifans

Written/Dir: Martha Fiennes

Rating: 15

Marcus's (Lewis) life is slowly falling apart. His wife, Iona (Thomas) can't tell the difference between retail therapy and a shrink. Their son runs amok, exhibiting psychological problems stemming from lack of parental affection. At work he has been promoted to partner at his law firm, but his boss wants to suck him into a high-stakes scam. Not to mention the strange and heart-warming story of prostitute Gloria (Cruz), her daughter and their social worker Colin (Ifans). All this and Marcus's Uni friend Trent (Chaplin) is now a journalist with a social conscience trying to break the big story.

Martha Fiennes has tried to bring together a weave of several different story lines to merge together in a Crash-esque way, but with no racial overtones, of course. The majority is exposing the cracks, grey areas and amorality of the upper English class. This is not the old-fashioned tea and crumpets brigade. Now the upper-class are new-age yuppies, embracing "modern art" while still trying to recapture their youth long gone, and deal with a family they have no emotional tools to handle.

In this sense, the writer/director has done well. She has not glorified or vilified her prey. She puts the subject in front of the audience with no bias and simply tells the tale, letting it unfold with a certain sense of inevitability. But the most interesting story is that of Gloria, the cancer-ridden prostitute, and how she relates to the main strands of the film. This is quite simply Cruz's finest English-speaking role.

She embraces the role of mother, cancer patient and prostitute all extremely convincingly. Her reluctance to accept help from Colin but then ultimately submitting for the sake of her daughter is touching and feels very real.

For much of her immoral existence, Gloria is the best character. She tries to be the best mother she can by doing the only thing she knows. Colin too is the sole shining light in the bureaucratic mess that is the social services. None of his colleagues care; their charges are just names on a sheet.

This small film is very much stamped with the feel of "Englishness". And at times the comedy is so dark it does have the feel of Woody Allen's London film Scoop. While the director paints an unsympathetic picture of the rest of the cast, she then tries to draw it back at the end and bring some sense of reproach, but by then we are too far gone to change our minds. Really the film is kept together by the compelling story of Gloria. Without her, the film would lack any soul.

****