Faith review: Erin Doherty and James McAvoy anchor a taut and unsettling mystery from British writer-director Paul Andrew Williams, whose prolific run continues with a film powered by intense, finely calibrated performances.
Set in a drab British town that feels like the London estuary, the story follows Gina, played by Doherty, a capable single mother to nine-year-old Jamie, who works the line at a local confectionery plant. Content with her tight circle of friends and her sister, portrayed by Liv Hill, Gina is unfazed by the absence of Jamie’s father. Her routine fractures after a raucous pub quiz night when she meets Michael, played by McAvoy, an enigmatic teetotaler whose calm confidence and measured charm prove disarming.
Michael’s interest is attentive but hard to read. His Scottish lilt complicates any class cues, and after a courteous walk home and a barrage of flattering remarks, he declines to come inside. Gina later learns he volunteers at a food bank, a detail that deepens the intrigue around what he actually does for work.
Gina’s sister is wary from the start. She notes his polished manner and hints at something guarded, even superior, about him, speculating whether he taught in the past or if the volunteer work stems from a court order. Gina dismisses the skepticism. Michael visits the house and quickly wins over Jamie, heading upstairs to play Super Mario Kart while Gina, visibly moved by Michael’s easy, quasi-parental rapport, chats with her sister downstairs.
Williams steadily tightens the film’s mood into a potent blend of dread and fascination. It is as if Gina has been drawn into a clandestine design that Michael understands but withholds. He appears to know more about Gina’s babysitter than Gina herself suspects. A pair of central incidents then jolts the narrative into a higher register. Gina becomes fiercely invested and confused, while Michael adopts the composed bearing of someone who has witnessed similar turmoil before. Whether he has come to help or simply to feed off the situation remains ambiguous. The early fear that he might be too good to be true gives way to a thornier concern.
Throughout, Williams’s accomplished cast sustains the film’s tension with sharp focus. The director favors looming closeups of his leads, suggesting that the mystery’s key might be legible in their expressions. The result is a controlled, disquieting chamber piece that lets performance and implication do the heavy lifting.
Faith review at Toronto
The film screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, where its precise tone and commanding turns from McAvoy and Doherty underscored Williams’s knack for merging character study with slow-burn suspense.
As with the eerie anthology showcased in Casey Affleck Company spins eerie campfire anthology, Williams’s film leans on atmosphere and performance to slowly unwind its mysteries, favoring suggestion over explicit explanation.