(rated R, 99 mins.)
From the moment the story opens, Margaret (Tilda Swinton’s) devotion to her family is clear as she sharply warns a local lowlife to stay away from her sexually susceptible son, Beau (Jonathan Tucker). But, when something goes terribly wrong, Margaret proves just how far a mother will go to protect her child, taking matters into her own hands in a way that will either save her family or shatter their future. You’ll wonder why Swinton continues to dig an even deeper hole that could have been eliminated simply by communicating with Beau, but the movie’s implausibilities take a back seat to its eye for detail, its moody turquoise atmosphere, and its deep and surprisingly passionate portrayal of the power of maternal love. Despite its flawed opening, it has an original twist in the middle thanks to a soft-eyed blackmailer (Goran Visnjic of TVs “ER”) who begins as Swinton’s tormenter but then grows into something much more fascinating and complex. The question is: will the audience be sold by a woman who suddenly compromises the same child she aims to protect? Swinton manages to reel us in with extraordinary portrayal of a woman who must juggle the humdrum details of mothering three kids with her sudden descent into a life of danger and deception. Her performance and Visnjic’s slow transition are what allow us to forgive the movie’s flaws.
