Cast: Amber Tamblyn (Stephanie Daley), Tilda Swinton (Lydie Crane), Timothy Hutton (Paul Crane)
Written and directed by: Hilary Brougher
Release date: April 2007

A sixteen year-old teenage girl collapses in a bloody heap during a school ski trip. Her dead newborn is discovered in a trashcan nearby with toilet paper plastered all over. She is accused of murdering her own infant. It’s the news of the season. She is labeled the ‘ski mom’ by the tabloids.

Lydie Crane is a forensic psychologist assigned by the prosecutors to uncover the truth. Very conveniently, she is 29-weeks pregnant at the time. Moreover, she had a stillbirth around a year back. This is the attention-grabbing premise of this independent film, which won the best screenplay at Sundance’07.

But keeping the few contrivances aside, this movie succeeds by keeping things simple. It does not take sides. It succeeds in pulling the audience into the characters’ minds. It makes us care about the protagonists’ guilt, confusion and grief.

Stephanie comes from a regularly church-going Christian family. They are religious, though not fanatically so. At school, she is taught that the best way to avoid pregnancy is abstinence. Contraceptives are not an option they should be considering. But teenagers will be teenagers regardless of the degree of conservatism or liberalism. Teenage angst is a cliché but that doesn’t make it any less true. She goes to parties with her friends. On one of these occasions, in an inebriated state, she is lured by an older guy with sweet nothings. They end up sleeping together. It’s her first and only time.

She does not realize that she is pregnant and attributes her changing figure to weight gain. But nothing is black and white here. Treading nimbly on a tightrope between ignorance and self-denial, between truth and make-believe, the movie creates an atmosphere of haunting ambiguity.

It is essential to speak of the performances here. Amber Tamblyn plays the role of Stephanie with understated vulnerability, reticence and a fierce conviction. Her doe’s eyes reflect a deep wound within. However, a needless symbolical dream sequence, involving the actual animal, merely jars and does not work.

The ever-reliable Tilda Swinton gives yet another amazing performance. As she gains Stephanie’s trust and gets her to open up, her personal life unravels. Questions are raised, which she doesn’t want to answer at this stage. Her job is an essential part of her identity. But this specific case takes a heavy toll on her psyche in light of the already strained relationship with her husband, Paul.

It is the interaction between the two, which lends the movie its authenticity. This movie starts off as a mystery. By the end, it turns into a poignant study of the briefly touching lives of two women… enshrouded in their personal suffering…. and living with their own private truths…

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