I curse the sadistic bstrds who conned me into watching what I rigorously avoid seeing by casting Sally Hawkins. My first thought was about the appropriateness of a mentally unbalanced protagonist these days. But it's SallyfckngHawkins and she gives an exquisite performance of palpable human turmoil that causes emotional empathy - they might as well have filmed a wounded baby bird struggling to stumble its way across a busy sidewalk toward unseen cats - excruciating.
Everyone is very good, even the vile ones...the plot, script and direction are noticeably stylized and always interesting.