It is hard to believe that this exquisite production was made for television. Vanessa Redgrave delivers a splendid and quite seductive performance as the famous novelist whose biography is pending of being written, while she already stands at the doors of her own death. Olivia Colman also delivers as the hired asexual, tomboyish, amateur biographer who also has a story to tell. But the girls’ characters stole the movie!!! They are beautifully creepy. Madeleine Power has a bright future in movies.
The script is an adaptation of Diane Setterfield’s first published book. I will refrain myself from commenting the story to avoid spoiling the plot. Suffice to say it deals with a mysterious family affair that includes death, loss, guilt, and reconciliation.