Went to the Riverside yesterday to see The Silent Storm, written and directed by Corinna McFarlane. Set on the Isle of Mull and undeniably beautifully shot, this was a slight, underwhelming and overwrought drama that promised depth and delivered stereotypes and a complete lack of nuance. We are presumably expected to see or hear the anguish in Damian Lewis’s fanatical preacher as he wrestles with his faith through abominable behaviour and occasional heavy drinking, but the script gives us nothing with which to work. And his down trodden wife is either downtrodden or a free spirit but, frankly, can’t be both. A free spirit wouldn’t have endured her miserable existence for one second and the downtrodden would not have miraculously transformed into a free spirit (with a deep knowledge of natural hallucinogenics) at the mere arrival of a decent human being with a shared love of romantic poetry. Even the music, whilst beautiful, constantly tried to signify a depth and pathos that isn’t actually present in storyline or script. Not a success.
