This is an honest-to-goodness thriller that keeps you on tenterhooks.
The script is tight, and while it careens to a somewhat expected ending , the way the story is woven engages the viewer. I thought, for a while, that Hector could go on doing his ghastly acts with impunity because he seems so cool and smart that authorities cannot lay a finger on him. That's how effective the plot is to me.
It's a remarkable cast of relatively newbees headlined by Hugh Bonneville and Kelly MacDonald. I like, in particular, how Hugh Bonneville is able to conceal his fiendishness behind a cloak of aristocratic air and respectability; Kelly MacDonald's Lizzy awakens the maternal instinct in the female viewer. She portrays her effectively as the harried, worried and ordinary mom who just wants her stubborn son to succeed; George MacKay as Toby, the son who's clueless as to what he really wants in life but has a natural affinity with those who are maltreated or abused; and finally Percelle Ascott as Jay, Toby's best buddy, a young father who's torn between his love for his young family and close ties with Lizzy and Toby.
All these characters come together to produce a coherent, socially relevant and no-nonsense film.
Watch to enjoy it.
