If nothing else, the debut feature of Irish TV and stage director Gerard Stembridge should be hailed as a triumph of European unity - an Irish/Italian/French/Spanish co-production - and evidence of what can be achieved with co-operation. It is unfortunate, then, that the content of the film leaves the viewer ruminating not on the suppression of individual rights within ordinary suburban life as intended, but rather on the need to tell such a depressing story at all.
As a study of psychological abuse and claustrophobic oppression within a society that still legally prohibits divorce, this is powerfully written by director Stembridge, and even more powerfully conveyed by Connolly's threatening performance - a dark, dangerous man exerting a choking control over those around him. Russell is equally effective as the suffering, desperate housewife, whose day of small, innocent pleasures is relayed in flashback. Through the clever contrast of her day, with flashbacks of Liam's altogether darker pursuits, the film supplies its most telling shocks.