Small Screen Reviews

Studio:
Lionsgate UK   

What’s It About?
Set in the 1840s, an acclaimed but largely ignored fossil hunter develops an intimate relationship with a young, grief-stricken woman.   

Who’s In It?
Kate Winslet (Titanic, The Reader, & more recently Mare of Easttown)
Saiorse Ronan (Atonement, Brooklyn & more recently Little Women)   

Other notables include:
Gemma Jones (Sense & Sensability, Bridget Jones, & more recently God’s Own Country)
Fiona Shaw (My Left Foot, Harry Potter, & more recently Killing Eve)  

Director: Francis Lee (God’s Own Country)   

Audiences Expect:
After his acclaimed debut film, God’s Own Country, director Francis Lee brings his talents to another intimate, intelligent story.
This time, he focuses on Mary Anning, a talented and high successful fossil hunter and palaeontologist in Lyme Regis who has never received the acclaim she deserves, with her finds usually claimed by less talented men and ignored by the scientific community. She runs a trinket shop of sea shells and small fossils for tourists, where she lives with her mother, enabling her to fund her real passion of palaeontology.
One day a couple from London descend on the shop, where Roderick Murchison hands over his clinically depressed and grief-stricken young wife to recover in Anning’s company through bracing walks, fossil hunting and sea air.  Despite misgivings, Anning accepts the substantial payment, and despite her misgivings the pair soon develop an intimate and intense relationship.
Kate Winslet is typically sublime in the lead role, though the supremely talented Saoirse Ronan matches her all the way in what proves to be an incredible, electric on screen pairing. There is able support from the likes of Fiona Shaw and Gemma Jones, but this is really Winslet and Ronan’s film, and hopefully audiences will get to see them star together again.   

In A Nutshell:
A romantic and fascinating portrayal of an intimate relationship between two women, told by a supremely talented filmmaker.   

Highlights:
The lead performances – pure and simple   

Lowpoints:
N/A