Review of Glorious 39 (2009) by Ana B — 08 May 2010

Poliakoff was one of the great talents of the 1990s, but this is first film for 10 years. An old school thriller desperate to immitate 1930s Hitchcock â?? sometimes creepy, and sometimes daft. Its too long and does drag in places.

Poliakoff places a game Garai in the paranoid centre of the action: a bit like Margaret Lockwood in â??The Lady Vanishesâ?? or Cary Grant in â??North by Northwestâ??, she appears in every scene bar a modern-day framing device that sadly dilutes some of the filmâ??s more opaque elements. As Anne stumbles upon some dastardly goings-on, we see everything through her eyes so that you wonder whether sheâ??s a victim or just untrustworthy. Poliakoffâ??s heightened dialogue and his actorsâ?? arch delivery are an acquired taste, but somehow they mostly suit the sense of a nightmare enveloping Anne. If only the plotting were more convincing, and the prologue and epilogue less distracting.