Frozen

This is Shirley Henderson's film through and through. If "Frozen" does nothing else it must surely let casting agents see that Henderson can be stretched further than we have ever seen before and that she will deliver the goods. Her performance has already been recognised in the BAFTA Scotland Awards in 2005 where she (rightly) picked up the Best Actress prize. This is the first time that she has carried a film as the star that she is. Here there are no places to hide since she is on screen in mostly every scene. With a flawless Lancashire dialect (she is Scottish) and a paper-thin fragility, she convinces us that she is trapped in this bleak but beautiful (and rarely filmed) place as she searches for the truth behind her sister's mysterious disappearance.

The film is slow though well paced, stark and bleak, but never dull, but would have been a whole lot better if the end wasn't so obfuscated and needlessly confusing. In a whodunit (and this is) you can't short change the audience by not telling them what happened. From what I can tell, about half the audience when I saw it really liked the film. Others were disappointed and without doubt this is not a commercial film by any standard, but it is one worth seeing just for Henderson's tour de force.

I just returned from seeing this film in Lancaster. Hearing about a locally shot film, I expected not much more than a mini-DV cheapie. However this film is far removed from that.

Kath is a young woman (33) whose sister Annie disappeared two years ago without a trance. Kath rather obsessively hunts around for information to try and work out what happened. The centre of her focus is CCTV footage of her sister, that seems to suggest that something odd happened.

Shot entirely in the Lancaster/Morecambe/Fleetwood region, in the North West of the UK, the film has very powerful visuals, the scenes shot on the bay itself have an amazing dream-like quality almost Herzog-like. The direction is never pedestrian, always adding to scenes.

Shirley Henderson is superb as Kath, who is just by rights, a typical northern girl and comes across very well as such. The supporting cast is all solid.

The script is simply superb, with an ever changing story line, and some very interesting sub-plots, that add a lot of detail to the characters and remind you that nothing ever happens in isolation, there are always other things going on in their lives. Fortunately these do not pose any real pacing issues. The ending is solid.

A unique film, it is hard to determine who it would really be aimed at, certainly fans of Don't Look Now, and similar, would really enjoy this - on a larger scale, any fans of small scale, artistic cinema should get their money's worth.

In all, a very good film and certainly worth seeing if you get the chance. I am looking forward to a DVD release so I can watch it again.

I looked forward to seeing this film as it features the Scottish actress, Shirley Henderson, who I have really admired for years and who finally gets a starring role here.

This story of a woman's search for her missing sister feels quite relevant to today's newspaper stories of disappearing women. As the grieving Kath (Henderson) begins her search, the film takes on the form of a thriller and this story unfolds in a measured way that becomes totally mesmerising. The escalating tension is well judged, never letting the audience get ahead of the plot.

What is pleasantly surprising are the strong performances that director Juliet McKoen gets from all her actors in her debut film. As expected, Henderson is superb, but I would also single out Richard Armitage as the Port Authority boss who helps Kath with her investigations into CCTV footage of her sister and who gives a performance of some subtlety. The treatment of Kath's encounters with the counsellor, movingly played by Roshan Seth, also treads a fine line emotionally.

The sense of place in this film is palpable and is one of director McKoen's real achievements. You feel she knows the territory. The film is set in the port of Fleetwood which makes the film visually very distinctive. There are also strong scenes on Morecambe Bay producing some beautiful images of desolation that are quite haunting.

The scenes of Kath and her fellow workers at the fish factory are well handled, though I would have liked to see some of these actors given more to do. It is a tribute to McKoen's casting efforts that many of these smaller parts are played by actors who have a track record in British TV drama. But it is Henderson, with an impeccable Lancashire accent, who carries the full weight of this film as she appears in virtually every scene. With some powerful close-ups of her expressive face, we really get inside this character's mind.

There is a seriousness about this film which is to be applauded in an era when I, for one, find many filmgoing experiences instantly forgettable. There is plenty to think about here and this is one that stays with you

Up until a few days ago I hadn't heard of this film but when I saw it listed in the television guide and read that the always excellent Shirley Henderson was in it I decided to give it a go. I'm glad that I did as it was pretty good.

Shirley Henderson plays Kath a woman who can't get over the disappearance of her sister two years before. She is convinced that somebody has done something to her but the police have no evidence to suggest foul play. The only real clue is CCTV footage which shows her entering an alleyway but doesn't show her leaving. Kath is helped by the CCTV operator who lets her review the tapes and by her Counsellor who she discusses her problems with. I won't say anything about the ending as I wouldn't want to spoil it for first time viewers.

The film is fairly bleak, both in the subject matter and the way it is filmed, there was a constant sense of isolation and cold. As I'd expected Shirley Henderson did a great job in the leading role, the supporting cast also put in good performances, I especially liked Roshan Seth as her counsellor. While I did enjoy the film I felt it looked more like a superior television production rather that a cinematic production intended for the big screen, not that that is necessarily a bad thing, it makes a nice change to see a thriller with no guns in sight let alone the explosions that seem de rigueur these days. If you get a chance to watch this fine film I'd certainly take it.

Juliet McKeon's film 'Frozen' tells the story of a young woman searching for the truth about her disappeared sister, and has elements of the thriller, the supernatural, a tale of mental disintegration and, most convincingly, a portrait of Fleetwood (in Lancashire) as a place beyond the end of the world (think of Pavel Pawelikowski's interpretation of Margate in 'Last Resort', and then imagine somewhere even more bleak). But it's a low budget, low-key affair, and while I often consider these virtues, McKeon doesn't quite have the skill to put everything together, or the ability to lace her portrait of darkness with the dose of lightness and humanity necessary to make us care. The result is somewhat alienating for the viewer, and the final message unclear; it feels like a beginner's piece, and more reminiscent of a BBC television film from the 1980s than a conventional movie.