Kim Stanley delivers a tremendously affecting performance as a sad English suburban housewife who desperately wants to prove her validity as a medium and will go to criminal means to do so in this chilly and chilling drama.
Critics heaped praise upon Stanley, always known as more of a stage actress than a movie actress, and the Academy awarded her a best actress nomination for her work in this film, and rightly so. At a time when movie acting could still be superficial, when Hollywood starlets were cast in ill-fitting roles because they looked better and would sell more tickets, Stanley gave a performance that distinguished itself in sheer commitment to character. It was rare then and still rare now to see a performance in which the actress creates a living, breathing human being before your very eyes.
But in the interest of fairness, one must also mention the equally strong work of Richard Attenborough, who gets a less showy but as important role as Stanley's beleaguered husband, who will do anything to keep his wife happy, even after he begins to suspect that she may be ill. Attenborough creates the image of a middle-aged man who suspects that he was lucky to get the wife he has, and who wants more than anything to live a normal, family-oriented life that seems to always remain just beyond his grasp.
"Seance on a Wet Afternoon" is not a masterpiece, but it is a subtly and intensely disquieting film, the kind that lingers in your head long after you've seen it.
Grade: A-
