text: I saw this film purely by chance. It was shown very late, or more correctly very early one morning on television. I had woken up and was having trouble getting to sleep and this film came on.<br /><br />It deals with a subject covered many times elsewhere (it certainly isn't as good as Educating Rita, despite a couple of additional twists) and has a very predictable ending.<br /><br />Despite its very obvious shortcomings I did enjoy the film and this was thanks to the acting of some of its players rather than the story or the piece as a whole.<br /><br />I am a big fan of Sam Neil and have seen him in many different films including: Dead Calm; The Piano; Sirens; Children of the Revolution; Event Horizon; Bicentennial Man and the ubiquitous Jurassic Park. He was very good but he could have played this part with his eyes shut.<br /><br />Some of the acting was, in my opinion, dreadful Rose Byrne for example and some of the elusions were rather heavy handed (all the board woman in empty lives all dressed totally in white for example).<br /><br />However, two actors (who I hadn't, or don't remember, seen before) impressed me a lot Sinéad Cusackn as Frances (Frank) Kennedy, and especially Matthew Newton as her son David. He, in particular, was very convincing and I would like to see a lot more of him.