It's unfortunate that this adaptation of Ruth Rendell's excellent novella "A Judgement in Stone" has dispensed with Giles Mont and replaced him with the comparatively weakly drawn Bobby Coverdale. Giles, the possibly autistic son of Jacqueline Coverdale, is an exquisite foil to Eunice Parchman; both Giles and Eunice isolate themselves from society, though Giles does so by obsessive reading, and Eunice does so by obsessively avoiding the printed word. Giles, through an indefatigable search for his spiritual leanings, also works as a foil to Joan Smith, whose shallow but militant religious fanaticism drives her to conspire in the murder of the Coverdales.
Rita Tushingham is excellent as Eunice Parchman, but she alone can't make up for what the screenplay lacks. What a shame.
Rita Tushingham is excellent as Eunice Parchman, but she alone can't make up for what the screenplay lacks. What a shame.