Dark River elevates generic drama through the sheer force of its conviction

This is surprisingly generic territory for Barnard, whose superb feature debut, The Arbor (2010), employed actors lip-syncing to documentary audio—a borderline avant-garde technique, at least on screen. (It has a more extensive history on stage.) Her sophomore effort, 2013’s The Selfish Giant, was more conventional, but still offered a wealth of specific details that made it feel unique. Dark River, by contrast, hits more or less the notes one would expect from its premise, which has fueled many an indie drama over the years (especially back in the late ’90s, when sexual abuse seemed to lurk in almost every protagonist’s past). Part of the problem may be that Barnard started out writing an adaptation of Rose Tremain’s 2010 novel Trespass, but wound up eliminating several of the book’s major characters and much of its flavor. (Tremain gets an “inspired by” credit.) What remains, while more direct, seems insufficiently rich or complex, hinging mostly on Alice and Joe avoiding the inevitable confrontation about the horror she experienced.

At the same time, though, Barnard’s sure hand with actors and intimate understanding of rural England are still very much in evidence. Wilson, who did sublimely creepy work in the title role of I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House, ramps up the anxiety as a woman haunted by remembered helplessness, moving around every room as if constantly anticipating an assault. (Sean Bean, who appears in flashbacks, doesn’t really get much to do here apart from lurk with implicit menace, but does cleverly avoid being killed in this movie by virtue of playing a character who’s dead before it even begins.) Stanley, best known as Jon Snow’s buddy Grenn on Game Of Thrones (“And now his watch is ended”), vividly communicates Joe’s maelstrom of emotions upon Alice’s return, some of which don’t become comprehensible until we see what he saw, and badly misperceived, many years earlier. Throw in expert use of a picturesque yet oppressive location and Dark River almost manages to overcome narrative inertia via sheer force of will. It’s a beautifully crafted, moodily evocative film that’s missing just one spark of true inspiration.