Simon Thomas

Has a few technical/photographic and/or otherwise unsettling moments but never transcends the sum of its parts, getting badly caught between the fluffed territories of body horror, indie psych. thriller and coming-of-age sexual awakening flick - and ultimately doing none of them very well. Apart from a faintly boho wig-maker, the main characters (including the tedious protagonist herself ) are flatly, fitfully and ultimately boringly drawn - the boyfriend and his co-worker, in particular, are crude-speaking and/or numbingly under-developed - while the sea/swimming symbolism (a 'great healer', apparently) red nails, fireworks and bonfire in the ham-fisted finale slap us about the head with a whole ton of sub-Hitchcock/Wicker Man cliches. The director apparently went through a lesbian coming-out experience during her heterosexual marriage (let's hope she had more respect for her poor husband than her lead does her for her admittedly tedious boyfriend), so obviously felt her life was a fascinating template for a debut movie. Sad to say, it isn't.