Albatross Review

Niall MacCormick’s debut feature sees four lives at an impasse. A former bestselling author who’s blocked (Sebastian Koch), his wife (a droll Julia Ormond) who dreams of her long-faded acting career, their daughter struggling to escape the family home (Felicity Jones) and her friend, the enigmatic Emelia (Jessica Brown Findlay), who harbours lofty literary ambitions. Stuck in a creaky old seaside guesthouse, they rattle off one another like spinning tops. It could be an exercise in indolence if not for the razor-sharp dialogue that springs from the screen, especially in the precocious mouth of Brown Findlay, whose performance is startling. The only real let-down is an uneven third act and an inappropriately neat ending that unnecessarily rounds the story’s irregular corners.