The film received mixed reviews, one of which commented that "newcomer Emily Beecham plays a young woman determined to take the veil and holds her own well against such stalwarts as Brenda Blethyn and Susannah York".[2] In highlighting the impression made by Beecham, the film columnist Hannah McGill, who was the Edinburgh Festival's artistic director from 2006 to 2010, decided that she should be one of the recipients of the coveted Skillset Trailblazer Award. That same year, Beecham gave her first professional stage performance in Ian McHugh's first play, How to Curse, at the Bush Theatre in Shepherd's Bush, London, directed by the theatre's artistic director Josie Rourke. In 2011, she received the Best Actress award at the London Independent Film Festival.[3]