The Whisperers

It is all presented as if it were being offered as serious social comment on life in Britain today. And it is being accepted as such by American reviewers.

A vestige of a withering generation swallowed by the impoverishment of their once privileged class, Forbes opens in what feels like Charlotte Perkins Gilman territory as a character study.

An investigation of this sort into the phenomenology of old age is rare and praiseworthy and an actress who can demonstrate the basic positions is possibly unique... Edith Evans takes the curse off this with a wealth of quirky observation.

The film is odd and uneasy : through coarse-grained effects it keeps slamming shut doors it has half-opened. But the central performance is a great one.