Nik Dadson

I nursed people with dementia in the 80s/90s and can attest to how well it represents the illness and its fallout. The script, production and casting are fantastic. I felt the confusion and could empathise with the father and daughter's terrible plight. And the acting... wow. Everyone did an incredible job. But Hopkins' performance was a masterclass. I had a lump in my throat most of the way through and tears in my eyes for the last third. The regression to a child in the final scene was the only real negative for me. I've never seen that or heard of it.. But that absolute despair, utter helplessness and the anguished sobbing - totally. That Paul tho... Nearly a 4.5.

Outstanding actors, raw emotion and atmosphere... takes you on a trip to 17th C America and the desperate plight, mindset and fears of early English settlers. It does sort of vindicate their belief in witches... but hey, who knows?

The script is unbelievably weak. The dialogue is just plain awkward and doesn't hang together. I'm guessing a TV exec's teenage kid wanted a crack at writing. I'm guessing it's supposed to be grimly funny, but it's way off the mark. Where do you start? There are so many disparate strands. One scene: Whoops, the vicar's son has child porn on a data stick, so it goes into kind of physical comedy with the vicar's dad chasing his son's tutor to get the data stick off her - a kind of wisecracking Tom and Jerry chase. Good grief... scene by scene, storyline by storyline it's beyond awful.