The Lesson

Alice Troughton makes her directorial debut with a film penned by Alex MacKeith. Liam (Daryl McCormack) is a writer and tutor. He is given an opportunity to tutor Bertie (Stephen McMillan) the son of famous writer J.M Sinclair (Richard E. Grant) and his wife Helene (Julie Delpay). Liam finds a home that is far from happy. Instead it is an oppressive household, mourning the death of Bertie’s brother, with fractured relationships between father, wife and son. But at least Sinclair is writing, inspired by a new story, but a story with a dark secret, a secret that Liam soon finds himself pulled in to.

This is an odd, but often intriguing film. It’s not one that fully works, but has plenty in it to keep you engaged and interested enough to stick with it. It’s a story that feels a bit like a classic TV thriller/horror of the 70’s (think Tales of the Unexpected, Hammer Horror) including its sometimes stilted dialogue and unusual angle camera shots. All part of trying to keep you off balance as the story takes its twists and turns.

The cast do a decent job with the solid enough script, playing out it’s intriguing story, that keeps you guessing up to and including its final act twist.

But there is something about it that doesn’t quite work and I’m not quite sure what. It is perhaps that it stretches the story a little bit, or tries to be a little bit cleverer than it really is. But while it doesn’t fully work, it does work just about enough.

This is an odd and uneven film that feels like a throwback to TV thrillers of the 1970’s. But while it didn’t completely work for me, that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it. The story is intriguing and engaging and the cast more than watchable. While not destined to be a classic, it’s still worth a watch.