This rather ponderous film carries the weight of it's own sense of self importance on its shoulders throughout and despite a promising premise does not reward the slow build up.

Ita fails to deliver either as a morality play with echoes of Arthur Miller or as a gripping crime thriller opting for something non comittal down the middle. It eschews real drama for greyish tones of dramatic tension which dont ever become fully realised. The character of the wife played by Chastain has the suggestion of transcending the archetypal boss wife role but never comes to fruition leaving her trying to make the most out of an underwritten character which intended to be more central and integral to the action.

The acting is good in a kind of 'we are in an important movie and cam take as much time as we like ' kind of way but self indulgent and slow and lacks an edge.

The climax is suitably lacking and the audience is left to feel if the script had been rewritten a few times with more plot development and directed by someone with more dramatic sense of could have been a great film.