One of those films that makes you admire the quality of its acting, but offers much less in the way of entertainment. Maggie Smith etches to the last detail a repressed Irish spinster with a sideline in piano teaching and a weakness for the whiskey. Moving in with a mealy-mouthed landlady and her bloated post-graduate son who spends his nights with the 16-year-old maid, the spinster soon conceives a hopeless passion for the landlady's brother (Bob Hoskins), back from America after 30 years. Riddled with religious guilt, the story's also frequently dull, despite the razor-sharp acting of a cast that also includes Wendy Hiller and Prunella Scales. Another great performance from Dame Maggie, though, that simply commands your attention.

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