Fans of Ruth Rendell will be left longing for her Inspector Wexford character to pop up and cut to the core of this big screen adaptation of one of the crime queen's darker mystery-thriller novels. It's a story of child kidnap that has more twists than a corkscrew and more loose ends than a plate of spaghetti. Helen Shaver does well to capture the anguish and conflicting emotions and loyalties of a bereaved mother, who is driven to hold on to another woman's child, snatched by her loony American mother (Lauren Bacall in a rare cameo appearance) from a London council estate. But the rest of the characters remain two-dimensional and totally lacking any sympathy.

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