It's sort of good to hear the Ilford accent represented in film, and this production is dressed and dramatised beautifully. There are no slouches among the cast either, Imelda Staunton and the two sisters being particularly convincing. Ioan Griffith too gives jolly good antihero. (SPOILER) So it's a shame that this film really just crashes to a halt. Maybe it's the stage origin, or the ultimate banality of the actual crime - which is what, fifteen years coming? - World War One seemed to last all of three minutes. Another Life is performance led, and these are top class, but the obscenity of the merciless convictions is done too fast. It's just not tragic enough, in spite of Natasha Little's redefinition of the cliché execution scene. Somewhere among the period detail, emancipation of women and general air of repressed sexuality this movie loses its focus on who's actually the villain; is it the abused but spoilt Edith, or pathetic Percy the husband? How come Freddy Bywaters suddenly goes postal? Or is it just Edwardian society (strangely thinly populated, but hey, it's low budget) being dragged into the twentieth century? (Big-ups to Elizabeth McKechinie as the Mother-in-Law from Hades at this point). If you enjoy atmospheric old British second features like This Happy Breed, It Always Rains on Sunday, or the more modern Scandal, you'll enjoy Another Life, a dependable British period drama which will stand repeat viewing. But it won't thrill you all the way to the end.
Review of Another Life
