Fiona Shaw, Tamara Lawrance, Jack Lowden
“KINDRED” My rating: C+
101 minutes | No MPAA rating
Thrillers can be too classy for their own good.
Such is the case with the British “Kindred,” a variation on “Rosemary’s Baby” (and not a few other women-in-distress pictures) that has been well made and nicely acted but never sucks us in the way we want.
The premise of Joe Marcantonio’s film is tried and true. Charlotte (Tamara Lawrance) and her boyfriend Ben (Edward Holcroft) are expecting a baby. They reluctantly pop over to the rural estate where Ben grew up to inform his widowed mother, Margaret (Fiona Shaw), of the good news.
And to announce that they’re emigrating to Australia.
Mama is not pleased. The family’s once-resplendent castle in the country is now marked by peeling wallpaper and threadbare rugs; Margaret has long prayed that as the heir Ben would move back and return the place to its former glory. Now her hopes are dashed.
That is, until Ben dies in an agricultural accident. Shortly thereafter the grieving Charlotte begins to suspect that far from being a pampered guest she is a prisoner in this shabby palace.
Marcantonio’s screenplay(with Jason McColgan) is noteworthy in that until the very end it keeps us guessing as to whether Fiona is a variation on the wicked witch or if it’s all in Charlotte’s head (her own mother had mental issues, and being preggers doesn’t exactly calm our heroine’s mind).
Butler's Cinema Scene 