A woman with previous mental problems comes to believe that the brutal serial killer preying on the local neighbourhood is her husband. This is less of a whodunit and more of a "is she right about whodunit?", well acted by Helen Mirren (who keeps her clothes on!) as the suspicious wife, and George Costigan who is the dodgy travelling salesman husband. As she follows the case, checking up on dates and times and growing ever more convinced, her suspicions are ridiculed by friends, family and police, all convinced that her previous mental illness is causing her to imagine the whole thing. Unusually, the film concentrates on the wife and the details of domestic life as they fall apart with the strain of suspicion, and the sadistic sexual murders are scarcely touched on - there's little in the way of gore or action here. The film does keep you unsure of whether she's right or wrong right up until the end, but the dreary domestic details and focus on the wife's mental state make this quite hard work - it felt so much longer than an hour and a half.
Review of The Hawk
