Miss Kahane is wonderful, the rest of the actors adequate. Cinematography and production values are good. Where this film suffers, IMO, is the writing. This seems a curious complaint to have to note when the writer is also the director. It seems to me that some of the dialog is repetitious and doesn't move the story along. The other problem for me is the loose ends left hanging which give the impression a sequel is intended. On the whole, it is a very secular story about forgiveness and redemption of a sort with which some viewers might not be comfortable. That's about all that needs to be said without getting into spoiler territory.
Let's go back to the plot. Jack, a very unpleasant alcoholic whose mother died when he was born, has been living with a maternal uncle in the States since his step-mother spilled the beans a decade or so earlier and let him know she was not his natural mother. Since then, his father has divorced and we never meet step-mother or half-brother. Jack has been goaded by his uncle into going to the UK to spend his 18th birthday with his father who lives alone but has a very attractive French woman, Maria, who comes in days to cook and clean for him. Becky, a local girl makes a play for Jack, but he rejects her to pursue Maria whom he also treats shabbily. At the end, we wonder if Maria really wanted Jack or used him for a purpose of her own.
Let's go back to the plot. Jack, a very unpleasant alcoholic whose mother died when he was born, has been living with a maternal uncle in the States since his step-mother spilled the beans a decade or so earlier and let him know she was not his natural mother. Since then, his father has divorced and we never meet step-mother or half-brother. Jack has been goaded by his uncle into going to the UK to spend his 18th birthday with his father who lives alone but has a very attractive French woman, Maria, who comes in days to cook and clean for him. Becky, a local girl makes a play for Jack, but he rejects her to pursue Maria whom he also treats shabbily. At the end, we wonder if Maria really wanted Jack or used him for a purpose of her own.