This is the kind of film that British film-makers do very well. An ambitious brother and sister have grown up distant from each other. The tension they feel when they meet comes to a head when Natalie initiates Richard into an incestuous affair. She maintains control throughout and he is tortured. The whole story is set against a background of urban London and sumptuous Richmond middle-class wealth. It is very well acted and has an interesting sub plot of Richard's boss who is dying of AIDS.
It deals with the difficulty of finding permanant relationships in the late 1980s/early 1990s, but it makes the point with subtlety. It looks mainstream, but falls into the art cinema category, probably because it was intended for television broadcasting. It deals with a very controversial subject with taste, but it is explicit enough for you to feel the attraction between Natalie and Richard with conviction. The lead characters in it are attractive too with great support from Alan Rickman as Natalie's dominating husband. It is as English as anything by Merchant/Ivory, but has much more edge.
It deals with the difficulty of finding permanant relationships in the late 1980s/early 1990s, but it makes the point with subtlety. It looks mainstream, but falls into the art cinema category, probably because it was intended for television broadcasting. It deals with a very controversial subject with taste, but it is explicit enough for you to feel the attraction between Natalie and Richard with conviction. The lead characters in it are attractive too with great support from Alan Rickman as Natalie's dominating husband. It is as English as anything by Merchant/Ivory, but has much more edge.