In desperate straits, a young mother of three (Emily Barclay) takes in her former husband’s father and Alzheimer sufferer, Doyle (John Hurt), over Christmas. Oldest daughter, Lou (Lily Bell-Tindley), yearning for her absent father, develops a strange relationship with him where he believes her to be his long departed wife and Lou plays along with the fantasy, using her bond with Doyle against her mother.

At one level this is an engaging story of three people each looking for rocks of dependence in their lives. Hurt does an excellent job and Bell-Tindley, stunningly beautiful, gives a terrific debut performance. However, at deeper levels the story has inconsistencies that fail it. For a family on the bread line they possess a large LCD TV and the three children seem to have an endless collection of clothes. The oft used images of sugar cane burning lacked relevance, never seemed to apply the cane adjoining this family’s property and in any case Christmas is not cane harvesting time. Further, it is not clear over what time the changing relationships evolve as late in the film the Christmas tree is still in view.

While the cinematography is passable, there seemed lost opportunities to film in some terrific country that sugar cane parts of the world present.

Lou is not without merits but lacks the cogency and vision to acclaim it great.

Kryztoff Rating  3.5K