Very slow-moving Victorian/Edwardian style melodrama about a high-strung Jodie Foster type who, after her father dies, begins to pay visits to a women's prison with the intention of helping the inmates. Instead, she -- on the rebound from an affair with a girlfriend who has recently married her brother -- falls head over heels for a young woman who claims to be clairvoyant but clearly is a charlatan. The two make plans to run away to Italy together. The first half of this TV movie plays like a Henry James story, such as TURN OF THE SCREW. The second half has a much more modern sensibility to it. And like any modern thriller, it includes a twist ending. As you can see, this was not my cup of tea, but I gave it a reasonably high score for pristine production values and solid acting by all involved. I suspect the average American will not be able to sit through the whole thing. Impressionable types of the British persuasion are, I suspect, likely to be its best audience. By the way, a quick-cut scene at the very beginning betrays the ending, so beware.
