Ten years after Anna (Kidman) became a widow, she finally finds love with Joseph (Huston), a match approved by her mother (Bacall) and sister (Elliott). Then a strange 10-year-old boy (Bright) appears claiming to be Anna's late husband Sean. And he knows far too many intimate details for this to be a hoax. So has Anna really gotten over her husband's death and moved on with Joseph? Or is she tempted to run off with this kid?

Glazer and gifted cinematographer Harris Savides film this like a dark dream--with greyed-out shades of gold washing across the posh Manhattan apartments where Anna and her family live. Despite the relentless warmth, the film has a chilled, otherworldly feel that creates an almost gothic horror mood, even though the film never generates enough energy to be called a thriller.

The mood is so subdued and internal that it would never work at all without such intriguing performances. Kidman gurgles with emotion from the moment young Sean appears, yet she feels beguilingly icy. We never really feel her pain, but we certainly see it seeping out. Meanwhile, the ensemble around her is excellent, with Bright and Heche challenging each other for the creep-out prize (Heche wins, simply because the superb Bright has already done the eerie kid thing in Butterfly Effect and Godsend).

This is a sumptuous film--it looks as gorgeous as Alexandre Desplat's orchestral score sounds. But Glazer keeps it so still and quiet that we grow impatient with his pretentious pacing. The humour is wry. Long takes of Kidman's emotive face are fascinatingly unnerving, but they bring things to a halt. And even when it features a moment of joy, the film has a bleak edge to it. As the mystery grows, so does our interest ... and we really long for Glazer to run with it. But that never happens.

Robert, New York: "Nicole Kidman was fantastic in this intruiging drama. However, the film seems incomplete. And therefore, it left me somewhat unsatisfied." (16.Nov.04)