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**
Dir: Jim Sheridan (12A, 108 mins)
A period romance adapted from Sebastian Barry’s critically acclaimed novel, The Secret Scripture promises much but ends up rather unsatisfying. Vanessa Redgrave plays Rose McNulty, who has been confined to an insane asylum for four decades after discretions made by her younger self, Rooney Mara, in wartime Ireland. She is about to be discharged to another asylum but has to be assessed by psychologist Eric Bana first. She does not want to leave, as she believes her long-lost son will find her there. The film then goes into her history with Mara caught as an object of desire by several men, priest Theo James, blokey Aidan Turner, nice boy Jack Reynor and sinister Tom Vaughan-Lawler. What follows is a little scattershot, plot contrivances are abundant, Irish accents slip and no one seems worthy of interest. It’s handsomely shot and evocative but ultimately rather confused and not a patch on some of director Sheridan’s other work.
Opens May 19