I didn't really enjoy this film, indeed if it hadn't been based on a true story, I would have thought it rather a poor effort despite good performances from Julianne Moore and, particularly, Stephen Dillane, as well as some excellent period design.
If it is a true account - and there is some cause for doubt as one of the surviving characters has gone on record as saying several of the more extreme events depicted have no basis in reality - then it's a shocking portrait of the one of the most dysfunctional society families I have come across.
I think the film probably tells us more about the corrupting influence of wealth and privilege than the causes and consequences of family dysfunction. Frustratingly, it says nothing at all about the links between privilege and social pathology.
Phillip French though it good, while Peter Bradshaw called it "gripping, coldly brilliant and tremendously acted movie". For me, it's just about worth seeing. Unusually, for a film depicting dreadful trauma and psychological anguish, it left me feeling weirdly unemotional.
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