Appropriate Adult

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Given popular culture's fixation with crime and particularly topics such as serial murderers, it was an inevitability that eventually a film (a TV movie, at least) would be made about the crimes of Fred and Rose West. It was even more inevitable that there would be an out cry that it would glamorize and thus cheapen the real life murders. But, the producers of Appropriate Adult took a novel approach and chose to focus not on the actual murders themselves, but, as the title suggests, the AA that it was felt needed to sit in during Fred West's police interviews on account of his apparent 'learning difficulties.' That woman was Janet Leach, played here by Emily Watson, who went on to sell her story to the tabloids but who also appeared to suffer a certifiable breakdown, after seemingly forming a bond with West, falling under his dark spell. In doing so, it casts an interesting light on the case, bringing up facts that I certainly didn't know before seeing it (i.e. Rose West being a prostitute) and serving to make an unpleasant tale even more unsavoury.

As West, Coronation Street star Craig Charles had been in the running to play the role, but it appears to have gone to The Wire star Dominic West. I've never watched that show, so I can't compare him with what he's probably known best for, but he manages to bring West to life with an eerie darkness all of his own, interspersing his usual barrage of matter of fact recollections of his heinous crimes with the occasional emotional breakdown that reveals a vaguely human side to such a monster. It's his everyman appearance in general that makes him such an unnerving character. In support, Watson also seems like an eerily credible person, a woman desperately trying to stay professional in spite of hearing first hand accounts of crimes she can't accept are humanly possible, while still forming a bond with the perpetrator of these sick crimes.

A drama about West was always going to be in the pipe line for one day, and this is a sensitively handled and none voyeuristic handling, that is relevant, enlightening and of course, very disturbing. ****

Emily Watson, one of the great actors of our time, gives a superb performance as Janet Leach that may well be the finest work she has ever done. She is nothing less than hypnotic here as she lays bare the soul of a vulnerable woman who is involved in an experience she is completely unprepared for. While the portrait of Leach is profound and an incredible achievement, Watson doesn't get in our faces with her ACTING because she is almost invisible as she disappears into the character. What a truly memorable, stunning performance this is. The entire cast is excellent, as are all elements of the production, including writing and direction. However, it is Emily Watson who elevates this film to an artistic level of depth and realism that makes it totally riveting. There is no attempt by Watson to draw attention to herself and "steal" the film. "Gosford Park" is another example of how she shines in an ensemble piece and it naturally becomes her showcase. Her style is not flashy enough and far too superbly subtle to win Oscars. There isn't the teeth gnashing PERFORMANCE style of a Charlize Theron in "Monster", the sort of Halle Berry one-shot fluke that brings home the gold. Watson is an artist in the truest sense and it's her work alone that is her reward. In this film, what she does is so extraordinary, even for her, that perhaps the praise of critics will this time cause award committees and voters to take note of an actor they have too long overlooked because she never yells "look at me!" At any rate, reward yourself by watching an excellent film with an outstanding actress at her best, as usual.

Serial killers are thankfully rare, and almost by definition not normal. But Fred West was particularly peculiar, and is brilliantly captured here by Dominic West in the television drama 'Appropriate Adult'. The drama tells the story from the perspective of a woman (Janet Leach) who acted as a lay adviser to West during his interrogations; it's a way of avoiding the grizzly schlock inherent in the subject matter, although it also removes much of the dramatic potential - Leach had an ordeal in the witness box, owing to her contact with a national newspaper, but fundamentally did not have so much at stake as the Wests themselves, or the families of their victims. But if not that dramatic, the story is certainly compelling. Gordon Burn wrote a book on the case called 'Happy Like Murderers'; the appropriateness of this bizarre title is conveyed here as well. If it hadn't really happened, you couldn't have made it up. The grimmest truth is that there may still be further bodies out there

APPROPRIATE ADULT is a superior, true crime drama. Fans of those masterful UK cop shows (i.e.: PRIME SUSPECT, A TOUCH OF FROST, REBUS, WIRE IN THE BLOOD, etc.) will not be disappointed.

Emily Watson is wonderful as the dedicated Janet Leach, and Dominic West lives his role as the oddly sympathetic serial-killer, Frederic West. The relationship between Leach and West is reminiscent of the cat and mouse game between Starling and Lecter in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.

Monica Dolan is incredibly terrifying as West's sadistic wife Rosemary. She's truly wicked, with facial expressions and stares that do far more than mere words to instill fear.

Highly recommended...

Excellent dramatisation of this deeply disturbing case. Respectfully done with classy performances and simple but effective direction. Seriously gripping.