Whilst the subject matter here is quite interesting, the execution isn't especially. "Sylvia" (Jessica Chastain) is working in the social care system whilst bringing up her daughter "Anna" (Brooke Taylor). Her life, as effectively illustrated by her door locking and burglar alarm routine each day, is a structured affair with little variation. She has a strong relationship with her sister but is completely estranged from her mother. The two women attend a school reunion one night and, leaving early, she is followed home. It's a miserable night and next morning she discovers him asleep outside her door. Inspecting his wallet, she discovers his identity and calls his brother "Isaac" (Josh Charles) who explains that "Saul" (Peter Sarsgaard) has memory issues. Was he stalking her or is there more to this rather meandering scenario? Chastain does work quite well, but I found the story seemed to randomly inject way too many "incidents" along the way that seemed designed to enliven or empower the plot. Many seemed a little too disaster-scenario prone and are used to enhance purely for dramatic purposes. The culminating scenes lacked plausibility and at times the whole thing came across as little better than an A-list soap opera. Coincidence underpins just a bit too much of the film and the delivery of information about the characters to the audience is all delivered in just too sporadically a fashion. I felt sorry for just about everyone involved, but I didn't feel particularly engaged.
