London,

The Deep Blue Sea

Cert: 12A

Description: Hester is married to High Court judge William Collyer but the fissures are clear to see. She begins a passionate affair with former RAF pilot Freddie Page. The red hot ardour slowly cools and while Hester vigorously pursues their relationship, he slowly draws back, leaving her to rake over the smouldering coals of the relationship and rue everything she has given up.

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Dir: Terence Davies.

Cast: Rachel Weisz, Karl Johnson, Simon Russell Beale, Tom Hiddleston

Country: US/UK.

Year: 2011.

Duration: 98mins

Amour fou: married Hester (Rachel Weisz) has fallen hard for ex-airman Freddie (Tom Hiddleston)

Terence Davies's much-anticipated film (his first in 11 years) is based on a 1952 Terence Rattigan play in which a judge's wife called Hester falls too hard for an ex-airman called Freddie. Talk about amour fou. Hester loves Freddie. Davies loves this play. But why?

Rattigan produced some fine work but this one's a stiff. After moving into Freddie's grim lodgings, Hester (Rachel Weisz) tries to kill herself. When our heroine's doting husband, Sir William Collyer (Simon Russell Beale), declares the situation a tragedy, Hester says bravely: "It's sad, but it's hardly Sophocles." Ain't that the truth. Half the time, it isn't even sad. It's amazing that Davies - who famously loves classical music - can't hear the wrong notes.

Indeed, the crudeness proves infectious. Davies inserts a scene in which Hester has to spend time with William's battle-axe of a mother. The females don't converse - they assault each other with epigrams. In the left corner we have Hester, representing dangerous passion. In the right, Mrs C flies the flag for repression. Guess which one we're supposed to root for?

Davies is an odd figure. Spartan, autobiographical features exploring working-class guilt and "deviant" sexuality made him an art-house favourite. Then, in 2000, came House of Mirth, a swooning, handsome picture built around a hot, classy star (Gillian Anderson) that actually softened the rigour of Edith Wharton's novel, fetishised female vulnerability and wound up drowning in its own tears.

The Deep Blue Sea has much in common with that film. Are the camera moves graceful? Of course they are. Hypnotically graceful. Even the cigarette smoke looks like it's taken ballet lessons. But there's a bit more to the drama than meets the eye.

Tom Hiddleston as Freddie is as beautifully skeletal as Leslie Howard and just as good at demonstrating weakness under pressure. He finally makes an impression as a man who can't convince his lover that she is loved. Weisz, forced to telegraph so many emotions early on, also settles down.

In the closing scene Hester - desperate for warmth but so bad at generating it herself - sits before a cheap gas fire. As it bursts into life, our own hearts flare. We're inside her head - at last! - and the effect is sublime.

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