Dark River

Acting leads Ruth Wilson and Mark Stanley raise this British drama above its ceaseless tone of misery, although the film is also truly compelling for its evocation of strangely menacing farm country. Wilson is Alice, a thirtysomething woman returning to her recently-deceased father’s (played by Sean Bean in flashbacks) farm following 15 years of absence. Confronting her upon arrival is Alice’s older brother Joe (Stanley), who is resentful that she has not been seen at all while he cared for their father through the latter’s protracted illness. The backstory on Joe and Alice’s painful family history is alluded to in disturbing bursts of memory as tensions escalate between the siblings when they end up competing for tenancy of the farm. The images of Yorkshire country carry a deceptive beauty, as the rich green belt of Alice’s and Joe’s farm teems with unfathomable, even unsettling, numbers of creepy-crawly life. Although the ending is a bit clunky, overall writer-director Clio Barnard’s Dark River offers a fascinating exploration of what happens when a family is not ready to confront, forgive, and heal. Recommended. (T. Keogh)