From first to last, this is a riveting and beguilingly reconstructed account of a real life cause celebre in the 1920s. High-spirited Edith (Natasha Little), a lively 19-year-old from a lower middle-class English family, bowls over shipping clerk Percy (Nick Moran), liberating him somewhat from his stern mother. Marriage, however, reveals Percy as stiff, unromantic and misogynistic. When her sister's boyfriend (Ioan Gruffudd, not quite right for the role) falls for her, Edith is soon seduced. A seaman, he proves an ardent lover and is soon urging her to divorce her husband or (if Percy refuses) worse. This is a finely-crafted, immaculately-set gem that has vivid supporting performances from Tom Wilkinson (Edith's flirtatious but good-hearted boss) and Imelda Staunton (her quick-brained mother). But the film belongs to its leading lady, who displays an astonishing range, Whether enticingly flirtatious, ecstatic with her lover, or horrifying distraught in extremis at the climax, Little dominates the movie with an animated, highly-charged performance that, were to have been given by a big star, would undoubtedly merit an Oscar nomination.