Film review: Reawakening is a narcotically gripping drama rooted in the fragile virtues of faith and hope
A scene from Reawakening starring Juliet Stevenson and Jared Harris
- Reawakening
- ★★★★★
- Cinematic release
Plunged into a nightmare when their 14-year-old daughter Clare (Dayna Dixon) goes missing, parents John (Jared Harris) and Mary (Juliet Stevenson) experience a (15A) when Clare reappears a decade later.
Clare (now played by Erin Doherty) has changed considerably in the intervening 10 years, of course, but Mary welcomes her daughter back with open arms. John, however, is less inclined to take the returned prodigal on face value; despite having kept the flame of hope alive for all those years, he himself is unable to reconnect with his daughter.
Written and directed by Virginia Gilbert, is a narcotically gripping drama rooted in the fragile virtues of faith and hope, and how quickly both can wither when exposed to the poison of despair.
What appears to be a simple dichotomy while Clare is missing — Mary’s stoic acceptance and John’s raging denial of their reality — gradually
becomes a far more complex affair when the pair are presented with the stark fact of Clare’s presence, which in turn leads to guilt, suspicion and the creeping horror of failing to recognise your own child.
That Clare — given a wonderfully off-kilter reading by Erin Doherty — seems somewhat strange and fearful of her parents can explain a certain amount, but John and Mary also need to reassess who they are now, given that the void that has previously defined them has been unexpectedly filled.
Juliet Stevenson and Jared Harris are superb here, and Virginia Gilbert’s direction is beautifully understated, creating the time and space for a multitude of intense emotions to coalesce into a finely crafted meditation on what it truly means to love.
