People are voting emotionally.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Set in a small all-girl school in 1969, this film is centred on pupil Lydia Lamont who is virtually inseparable from her best friend Abbie Mortimer. Lydia is not too impressed when Abbie announces that she has started having sex. It soon emerges that Abbie is pregnant and the girls discuss what she should do but then Abbie collapses and dies. Not long after that Lydia faints at school; she isn't the last girl to faint; soon most of the pupils are collapsing as well as a young member of staff. The school authorities have no idea what to do; are the girls all faking it? Is it a case of mass hysteria? Or is there a medical cause? While this is going on Lydia starts to explore her own sexuality and ultimately learns why her mother hasn't left the house for sixteen years.After hearing some very positive reviews I was a little surprised to see the film's low score and poor reviews here… having seen the film I was less surprised. Personally I thought it was really good but can understand why others wouldn't. If you want an explanation for what is going on you will be disappointed. Writer/director Carol Morley does a great job creating a disturbing atmosphere; nothing really scary happens but there is a general sense of unease and a feeling that something could happen. Sixteen year old Maisie Williams does a brilliant job as the troubled Lydia; it helps that she is the same age as her character. The rest of the cast are impressive too; notably Maxine Peake as Lydia's cold, almost indifferent mother. Overall I thought this was something special, one of those films one keeps thinking about after it has finished, so would certainly recommend it to anybody looking for something rather different; it certainly won't be for everybody though.

I thought it was very good - it's a slow atmospheric movie in the British movie tradition of Nic Roeg. Reviews here complain of unanswered questions but that's only if you don't pay attention. I did think it was a private school, but seems not - a private school of the 1960s would be more the environment where repression and hysteria are confined, only to spiral out of control. It did lose pace in the last quarter, though concluded with a strong scene. Acting was excellent from all the main parties. I'll certainly look out for her next film. Ludicrously I'm now required to add more lines to make my review more interesting - a pithy review of the salient points is far better than a lengthy ramble. As other's have said above the mother figure was the least satisfactory - being a class conscious Brit there was a clear disconnect between the mother's Southern England rural accent and the daughter's well spoken accent - was it meant to be a grammar school? I don't know.. otherwise the late 60's was very well drawn.

****MASSIVE SPOILER***(The film and this review is spoiled and terrible) I saw trailers for this film last year and thought, this film looks like the sort of thing I'd like. The cinematography appeared ethereal and dreamy. The cast was interesting and I thought I'd found another independent gem for my collection of pseudo intellectual DVDs and blu-Rays I leave lying around to show how clever I am.This film is weak. Area Stark is vapid and stares off into space a lot. Maxine Peak is good, she's literally the best thing in this film. The film is not scary, don't be fooled by the trailers into thinking this film has some sort of supernatural haunting quality. It's literally a film about two girls, one is slutty, the other one isn't, and then the non slutty has really gross sex with her brother and her mum catches them. So I guess they're both slutty. Oh and there is some fainting at school. Then non slutty brother sexer gets expelled (maybe she was excelled before the sex? Who cares, it doesn't matter) The end.So yeah, spoilers, but I've really just saved you two hours of your life that's you'd never get back, k.

English screenwriter, producer and director Carol Morley's second feature film which she wrote, is inspired by her pervasive research into mass psychogenic illness. It premiered in England, was shot on locations in England and is an English production which was produced by producers Cairo Cannon and Luc Roeg. It tells the story about a student named Lydia whom has been raised by her mother named Eileen who in every sense of the word lives inside and whom whilst studying at a girls school in England where skirts should be no more than two inches from the ground when kneeling, starts experiencing unintentional and intangible mental states which gradually turns into physical symptoms.Distinctly and precisely directed by English filmmaker Carol Morley, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a diversely re-educating portrayal of what happens to an adolescent daughter who sometimes blinks with her right eye and some of her fellow students after her friend named Abigail finds herself in a situation. While notable for its mysteriously atmospheric milieu depictions and distinct cinematography by French cinematographer Ágnes Godard, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about accidents in the home where a character named Miss Alvaro utters: "This generation, they think they're so misunderstood. If they had any idea what it is like to be a middle-aged woman, they'd know what misunderstood meant." and which was made one-hundred and seven years after a French-Jewish 19th century thinker who once lived in London, England created a term called Élan vital or vital force, fifty-seven years after an American journalist named Faith Augustine was born, forty-five years after the death penalty for murder was abolished, the Representation of the People Act 1969, the Matrimonial And Proceedings And Property Act 1969, the Divorce Reform Act 1969, an English professor of sociology and social policy named Ann Oakley attained a Doctorate of Philosophy at Bedford College, University of London, forty-three years after an Australian professor emerita said in an interview: "It is only impossible to castrate a woman because it's assumed that she has no sex from the outset. Because she is assumed to be a castrated thing from the outset. I mean I didn't castrate women, Freud did." thirty-four years after women's rights activists made a day for a state of peace, thirty-two years after Englanders sang: "… Don't help them to bury the … Don't give in …" and eight years after an English-Jewish revolutionary feminist and member of the English Women's Liberation Movement named Linda Bellos received the OBE for services to diversity, depicts an authentic study of character and contains a great and timely instrumental score by composer Tracey Thorn.This perspicacious mystery which is set in England in the late 1960s a decade before the first Aldermaston march and during the decade when an English typist named Myra Hindley (1942-2002) was sentenced to life imprisonment and taken to the HM Holloway Prison in Islington, London, England and where a peaceful existence becomes a rationally spiritual transition into conscience, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, rhythmic continuity, masterful screenplay, fragmented flashback scenes, interesting cinematic reference, scene where Lydia is questioned by a psychiatrist and the eminent acting performances by English actress Maise Williams, Australian actress Greta Scacchi and English actress Maxine Peake. An advanced narrative feature.