Synopsis
During a long, hot summer in seventies London, young neighbors Holly and Marina make a childhood pact to be friends forever. For Marina, troubled, fiercely independent, determined to try everything, Holly stays the only constant in a life of divorcing parents, experimental drugs and fashionable self-destruction. But for Holly, a friendship that has never been equal gradually starts to feel like a trap.
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Cast
- Anna FrielMarina
- Michelle WilliamsHolly
- Oliver MilburnNat
- Trudie StylerLinda
- Marianne DenicourtIsabel
- Steve John ShepherdCarl
- Allan CordunerMax
- Nicky HensonRay
- Kyle MacLachlanDaniel
- Deborah FindlayJudith
Recommendations
- 90
Slate
Rich, finely judged, gorgeously acted movie. - 88
Chicago Sun-Times
Has a bracing truth that's refreshing after the phoniness of female-bonding pictures like "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood." - 80
Salon
This film's intelligence and forthrightness about the things women sometimes do to one another -- and its resoluteness about where the line should be drawn in terms of selflessness between friends -- set it head and shoulders above most contemporary movies that deal with friendships between women. - 75
Philadelphia Inquirer
A chick movie? Well, yes, but it's a whole lot cooler than that one with the "Ya-Ya's" in the title. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
A powerful new film from British writer-director Sandra Goldbacher. - 70
The New York Times
Under its drab contemporary trappings, the movie, is really a Jane Austen-like moral parable in which goodness is rewarded and selfishness punished. - 70
Variety
The two appealingly played central characters and the film's enjoyable evocation of the 1970s and '80s keep it buoyant and diverting. - 60
Film Threat
A sum greater than its parts. The viewer is taken on a journey spanning nearly three decades of bittersweet camaraderie and history, in which we feel that we truly know what makes Holly and Marina tick, and our hearts go out to them as both continue to negotiate their imperfect, love-hate relationship.
