HALF LIGHT

UK, 2005, 110 minutes, Colour.
Demi Moore, Hans Matheson, James Cosmo, Henry Ian Cusick, Kate Isitt, Therese Bradley.
Directed by Craig Rosenberg.

These days ghost stories tend to be of the slasher variety. This one is not. It is rather an old-fashioned ghost story (though the references in the press kit to Hitchcock seem a little too ambitious) which most audiences could sit through. It has the romantic touches as well.

However, there is a nice twist at the end (shades of Gaslight and some of those golden oldies with tormented heroines) and the ghost story we think we are watching is not the ghost story we should be concentrating on! (that doesn’t reveal the twist or the ending).

Demi Moore came over to the UK to star as an award-winning best-seller novelist (though she does her own stunts with typing on an old typewriter which would mean at her slow rate producing one novel every ten years!). She carries the film quite well, a bereaved mother who retreats to the Scottish coast and meets a charming lighthouse keeper. Then the complications come as her best friend, her husband and her doctor are all concerned about her, let alone the puzzled locals.

The film is beautiful to look at, the Welsh coast standing in for Scotland. It is not a swift-paced thriller. Rather, it ambles along most of the time, an easy entertainment, a kind of neo Daphne Du Maurier drama.

1.An old-fashioned style ghost story? The audience focusing on one ghost story – getting the explanation rationally and then noticing the other ghost story? A satisfying old-time romance thriller?

2.The London settings, Primrose Hill and the fashionable house? The newspaper offices? Restaurants? The contrast with the Scottish coast, the cottage, the lighthouse, the town? The old-style musical score?

3.The title? Half light and half dark? The coast, the symbol for the experience of Rachel Carlson?

4.The opening: the collage of information about Rachel’s career, her success, the awards? Her moving to England with her husband? The photos of herself with her son? Brian not being the boy’s father? Her working at home – slow typewriting? At home, writing, the bond with her son, preparing the meal, the tension with Brian and his rejection letters? His thinking that he ought to be a success?

5.The boy, playing, the bond with his mother? Going outside, to the canal, his death? Rachel’s grief?

6.Eight months later, Rachel and her decision to go and live alone? Putting the divorce papers aside? Brian and his concern? Sharon as Rachel’s best friend, finding the house for her? Her doctor and his concern, the pills? Her driving to Scotland? Finding Finlay Murray and Mary? Friendship? Finding the cottage, adjusting the typewriter and chairs for the view? The lighthouse?

7.Her travel to the lighthouse, meeting Angus, his kindliness? Friendship, talk? The visits? His showing her over the lighthouse? Explaining about his absent wife? His not leaving the island? The sexual relationship? Her coming to depend on him? His character? His promising to come to the birthday party?

8.The birthday party, Rachel and her tension, the welcome by Finlay and Mary? The townspeople enjoying the party? Rachel’s concern, talking out loud about Angus, the Murrays’ reaction, the people’s reaction, the local priest? Her bewilderment?

9.Her interpretation of what had happened? Her return to the island? His disappearance? Everything tidy? The story of what really happened, its being visualised? The death of Angus’s wife, the hooking of the lover? Angus’s killing himself? Her visit to the cemetery, the priest, the gravestones?

10.Her contacting Sharon, her anguish, Sharon coming to visit? Her going to the lighthouse, Sharon’s presence, denying Angus’s presence, her being stabbed?

11.The revelation of the truth, Sharon and her schemes, Brian and his wanting to kill his wife? Get her four million dollars? Using Patrick to act as Angus? The phone calls to the doctor, the doctor contacting Brian? The build-up to the killing of Rachel?

12.Rachel, the chains, the key, her trying to get the key, Brian and Sharon throwing her overboard? Hearing her son’s ghostly voice, his message to look behind, her getting the key, her emerging?

13.Patrick, going to the station, the memories of Rachel, his falling in love with her? His going back, finding the shell? The music playing? The hook and his killing Brian? Brian and the struggle with Rachel, Sharon hitting her head and dying? Rachel following Patrick up to the top of the lighthouse, his killing himself?

14.The aftermath, the papers, her innocence? People’s support?

15.Her going to Morag, Morag and her second-sight, the early explanations about her son and the swing, Rachel consulting her, her warnings? Morag and her going to Finlay and persuading him to go to the island? Saving Rachel?

16.The happy ending, a satisfying ghost story as well as an old-style plot and menace of an innocent woman?