The Winter Guest

The Winter Guest is a low-key slightly static drama, which is not plot-driven, but has an episodic structure.

Although director Alan Rickman uses the Scottish landscape to great advantage, this adaptation of Sharman Macdonald's play still feels uncinematic, maybe because the dialogue is at the centre of the film at the expense of a progressing story.

The Winter Guest takes place in one day in a village on the Scottish coast. It explores the relationships between four couples. At the centre we find Frances, who has recently become a widow, and her meddlesome mother Elspeth. There are also Frances' 15-year-old son Alex, who becomes attracted to Nita, a girl his own age. The less interesting characters are two pensioners and two boys who play truant.