Abstract
This is a quite remarkable film. It is about a family and incest. The photography is superb. The setting is utterly stark. It is Devon in winter – cold, bleak and unforgiving. The mood is set for this darkest of portrayals of family life.
The family has recently moved from London to a rather remote cottage in Devon. There are two teenage children and a very pregnant 40-something mother (Tilda Swinton). The realism of the film is such that Swinton is unmistakably actually pregnant and, later, actually lactating. This is a truly remarkable performance. The husband (Ray Winstone) is very much an earthy character too. The fact of the pregnancy and the sensuousness of their interaction suggests a vibrant relationship between the couple.
The son, Tom (Freddie Cunliffe), is a moody, pimply adolescent, unhappy with the family move to the country and restless for his friends in London. The daughter, Jessie (Lara Belmont), is a sultry young woman who is pretty casual around her younger brother, both with nudity and with including him in a sexual rendezvous on the beach with her boyfriend. Yet Jessie's sexuality seems almost overshadowed by the drama of her mother's pregnancy.
The imminent birth of the new baby sends all four into the car, speeding off to the hospital. There is a crash, but all survive. There is a sense of a family about to crash. While his mother is in hospital Tom becomes aware that there is something going on between his sister and his father. He confronts Jessie, but she denies it.
Tom is struggling with his own emergent sexuality. Jessie tries to arrange for his deflowering. She seems to be inviting him into the swirl of sexuality, but she pushes him away at the last moment. Her motives are complex, she is at once seductive and protective.
The tension between Tom and Jessie is incredibly powerful. Tom is shocked, disgusted and enraged by what he has discovered about his sister and father, but the tension is sexual too. It builds to a fierce climax.
Having recently seen Kosky's Oedipus, I found this tale even more powerful because it depicts a real family. This is no mythical Greek family, it is a family we have seen many times. We like to think that incest is confined to grossly dysfunctional families, that only a seriously disturbed man would rape his daughter, that only a collusive mother could be unaware of these occurrences. But incest takes place in ostensibly ordinary families. It occurs when there is an apparently adequate relationship between the parents.
This is a heart-gripping portrayal of the tragedy of incest. Every psychiatrist should see this film because every psychiatrist has encountered this family and most of us have not known the secret when we did. For a first-time film director this is a stunning debut.