Stephanie Daley

With a calmness that bespeaks confidence, this small, spellbinding second feature by Hilary Brougher brings together two women, trapped in separate states of denial and distress, who manage to end each other's entrapment.

Some cases should never come to trial, because no verdict would be adequate. You are likely to be discussing this film long into the night.

Without standing on a soapbox Stephanie Daley suggests a tragic gender gap between men who judge and women who feel.

The film itself is dark and chilling, if occasionally plodding, but worth seeing for the absorbing potency of its main performances.

This is first-rate stuff.

A taut, provocative, sometimes overreaching but always absorbing thriller.

The movie amounts to an extended short story that progresses slowly and fades away with key questions unanswered. Ambiguity isn't necessarily interesting.