The women-in-prison film has a long and glorious tawdry history; what’s more difficult to pull off is the story of a lady sprung. In his helming debut, director-screenwriter Philippe Claudel, a novelist and professor of literature, crafts a solid woman’s picture that, as an obvious but no less pleasurable star vehicle for Kristin Scott Thomas, suggests a kinship with Warner Bros. weepies from the 1940s.

First seen rather conspicuously without makeup, her skin colour resembling three-day-old institutional grub, Kristin Scott Thomas plays Juliette Fontaine, a former physician who’s just completed a 15-year jail sentence for murder. Her younger sister, literature professor Léa (Elsa Zylberstein), takes her in, anxiously trying not to upend the snug comfort of her middle-class clan with this new addition. Though Juliette’s re-acclimation to civilian life takes predictable turns, what’s more surprising is Scott Thomas’s slow thaw, punctuated by believably spiky outbursts. Her role nearly screams “awards bait,” but Scott Thomas is a deft enough performer not to out act Zylberstein. The film isn’t without histrionics: Léa loses it during a seminar discussion about Raskolnikov, and a final-act revelation borders on the implausible. Then again, a woman’s film is only as good as its melodramatic excess.

Melissa Anderson

Screens on Mar 24 and Apr 2

Read our other features:
Leader of the pack: Daniel Wu
Time regained: Wong Kar Wai
Presidential assassination: Oliver Stone
Van Dammage: JCVD

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