A Beautiful Misfire [spoilers]

Caught this on Film4 recently. Despite some good performances and beautiful cinematography, this film was let down by an incredulous ending.

Serena has a mysterious past and we are not quite sure what part she played in the events which took place in her childhood. However, I found her total descent into 'bunny boiler' territory at the end of the film quite hard to swallow. Also I found Rhys Ifans' Galloway to be far too much of a caricature.

The stuff with the panther/cougar was not a enduring theme throughout the film, although it began and ended with it, in rather ludicrous add-on fashion.

This film could have been so much better with tighter, coherent story telling and believeable characters.

What a criminal waste of the fantastic Kim Bodnia (The Killing, The Bridge, etc) who appeared briefly in one non-speaking scene as, presumably, the father of Rachel who bears Pemberton's illegitimate child.

Cooper and Lawrence did a decent enough job with what they had to work with (although I am not sure why they keep getting thrown together in movies), but I can't help thinking that a couple of relatively unknown actors would have been a better choice and would not have brought with them the type of film couple 'baggage' that Bradley and Jennifer do.

On the whole I found this film a rather frustrating experience.

CARRY ON CLEO
Ceasar: If Cleopatra and this other upstart ...
Brutus: Ptolemy?
Ceasar: I am telling you!