The Silent Storm ** (2014, Damian Lewis, Andrea Riseborough, Ross Anderson) – Movie Review

Writer-director Corinna McFarlane’s romantic drama is her directorial debut and stars Andrea Riseborough as Aislin, who finds herself living and working on a remote Scottish island both with her abusive and crazy fire-and-brimstone minister husband Balor (Damian Lewis) and Fionn (Ross Anderson), a poetry-loving juvenile delinquent sent to live with them. Somehow, she then also  finds herself caught between the two men, not a safe place at all.

The film has a Scandinavian kind of spare austerity that is impressive, but Lewis’s misjudged deranged performance largely scuppers it, at least while he is on screen. But Riseborough and Anderson do fare better in decent performances, and some of the setup, plotting and dialogue in script works.

There’s hardly anyone else in the film, which is basically a three-hander, but Kate Dickie and John Sessions briefly provide good character work. And it does look impressive, too, in Ed Rutherford’s cinematography, making the most of the spectacular Isle of Mull scenery. And, though it can’t be anybody’s idea of a good night out, it does have a little something – good intentions, serious ambition and intelligence among the things it has to offer.

It doesn’t help that Riseborough and Lewis are both struggling with their ‘Scottish’ accents, and that the story is so predictable, following such familiar lines, leaving the audience awaiting much-needed tension and surprises that just don’t come.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Movie Review

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