THE INCIDENT
Meet Annabel and Joe - young, good looking well off. Beneath the smugly have-it-all surface there are fissures in the relationship, cracks to fall into.
Meet Lily - a young prostitute and petty thief, who convinces Joe to have a quickie with her while he waits for pizza (the least convincing moment of the film, the sullen teenager exhibiting all the seductive charms of an Ann Widdecombe speech....).
When Lily accidentally discovers where the couple live she turns up when Joe is away on business. Knocking back a bottle of champagne from the garage, she sneaks in through an open door, and terrifies Annabel when she appears in the bedroom, before making her getaway.
When Annabel is offered the option of confronting Lily through the victim support programme Joe's guilt kicks into overdrive and he is faced with the choice of revealing his indiscretion, or risking his wife discovering it for herself. When the meeting goes ahead we know the marriage will never be the same again.
What's also clear is that the real victim is Lily herself. Vulnerable, thrust into sexually exploitative relationships, a child at odds with the adult world she has must survive in, making the problems the couple face look trivial and of their own making.
Ruta Gedmintas is excellent as Annabel, forced to confront the problems, and fears, she faces and conveying her inner monologue wordlessly. This a discomfiting film, filled with sharpnesses and angles, awkward moments and painful silences, unsaid truths and hidden lies, and the ninety minutes flew by for this viewer. I hope it can find a way out on to general release.
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