ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

SHIRLEY HENDERSON is one of Scotland’s most admired and prolific performers, with a CV that stretches from ‘Hamish Macbeth’ to ‘Harry Potter’. She never gives a bad performance, and is always willing to lose herself within the most extreme characters.

‘Frozen’ is the first time she has played a leading role on film, and it is her accomplished performance that lends stature to an undeniably atmospheric but slightly muddled story.

Set in the bleak, faded fishing port of Fleetwood, ‘Frozen’ is an ambitious mixture of mystery yarn, supernatural saga and character study.

Henderson plays Kath Swarbrick, a woman who has spent two years trying to come to terms with the sudden disappearance of her sister. A sympathetic priest, Noyen (Roshan Seth), provides her with counselling whilst she haunts the local police station desperate for news.

Eventually, she watches the CCTV footage of her sister’s last known appearance, walking down a backstreet that leads nowhere. It merely increases Kath’s conviction that the sister is still alive somewhere, trapped, frozen, just out of reach.

Was the sister murdered? Did she engineer her own disappearance? Does her ex-boyfriend (Jamie Sives) know more than he cares to admit? ‘Frozen’ is a thriller of sorts that also speculates on the unbreakable bond between siblings, the blurring of myth and reality and the different planes of existence in the journey between life and death.

Distinguished by its strong sense of location, ‘Frozen’ captures the dying Lancashire seaport in ominous grey skies, cobbled streets and mudflats that look like an alien landscape. Its sense of storytelling is less certain, and tends to fall apart in a slightly rushed and confused ending.

Henderson commands your attention to the last drop, playing Kath with a mixture of vulnerability and steely determination that remains compelling.

Nationwide release, selected cinemas

Director: Juliet McKoen
Stars: Shirley Henderson, Roshan Seth, Ger Ryan, Richard Armitage, Jamie
Sives
Screenplay: Juliet McKeon, Jayne Steel
Certificate: 15
Running time: 90 mins
Country: UK
Year: 2004

© Allan Hunter, 2006