Review of Damage

I found "Damage" to be very authentic in its depictions. At the outset, the family seems perfectly normal, insular, self-absorbed, bored by lack of challenge and predictable patterns of action whether socially or sexually. The father is at that dangerous point in middle age, where so many men become disaffected with careers, marriages, children, past interests: The mother,whose true love in life in her son, which while not having reached the point of physical incest, is as obsessive as the father's later actions; the son, who grieves for a closer relationship with his father who knows he is second best in his wife's eyes; the daughter who is probably the sharpest one of all; the daughter's boyfriend with his headphones...all show the detachment so often seen in family relationships.

When the son introduces his sophisticated, unscrupulous girlfriend into the mix it is an impending train wreck . She is a serial man killer, probably once in actuality, we are given to believe, in the death of her brother, and figuratively many times, as warned by her mother to the father-in-law-to-be. She is the pursuer and Fleming is the pursued. She is emotionally cold but sexually insatiable. This is frequently the outcome of sexual abuse at the hands of a sibling.

The mood, scenery, and music were all well-orchestrated and the actors were all excellent. The wife's anguish is an outstanding performance.

Jeremy Iron's wonderful wreck of a face can convey dissolution better any other actor.