Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Wednesday 5 september 2018

A so-so haunted house drama in 'The Little Stranger'

By LINDSEY BAHR Faraday finds himself visit-
Associated Press ing the Ayres' often, drawn
A decaying and haunted by Caroline but also his ob-
manor in the post-World session with the house and
War II English countryside, what it meant to him as a
a grieving family on the child, but things are unde-
verge of madness and niably strange there. The
class divisions make "The Ayres first daughter, Suki,
Little Stranger " a darkly in- died when she was a little
triguing specimen. But the girl. She factored promi-
Lenny Abrahamson-direct- nently in Faraday's rose-
ed adaptation of the Sarah colored flashback of that
Waters novel is all moody party from his youth in 1919.
teases with no payoff, nev- He was jealous of Suki. Car-
er quite congealing into a oline tells him that everyone
coherent whole. was jealous of Suki. Mystery
Domhnall Gleeson leads solved, right? But lest you
the cast as a doctor, Fara- think that the little stranger
day, who finds himself on a must be Suki, let me assure
house call to a stately but you that that is far from
worn mansion, Hundreds clear and Abrahamson
Hall. He visited once as a and the script keep things
child with his mother who This image released by Focus Features shows Charlotte Rampling in a scene from "The Little as confusing as possible for
used to work there, and Stranger." as long as they can.
recalled a magical day in Associated Press The film is Abrahamson's
which he fantasized about first since "Room" earned
what it would like to be as few more years of neglect her daughter Caroline leaving him unmotivated him a best director nomi-
wealthy as the owners, the and it's suddenly not a far (Ruth Wilson); and her son to take care of household nation and it is undeniably
Ayres, whose family has off proposition. Faraday Roderick (Will Poulter), who duties. Gone are the days elegant in its look and ex-
had the property for more has been summoned to has been badly burned of a household staff, too. It's ecution, but it is also quite
than two centuries. look at the maid, Betty (Liv in the war and is suffering just Betty and Caroline do- a lot of build-up to little sat-
Since that day as a boy, Hill), who says she's sick but from some kind of PTSD, ing the lion's share. isfaction or explanation. q
Faraday has improved his has really been spooked by
lot, while the Ayres have something. Everything is a
slid, letting the house fall little off in Hundreds Hall, in- Author weaves 2 related stories
into disrepair. It's not quite cluding its inhabitants: Mrs.
in "Sunrise Highway"
Grey Gardens yet, but a Ayres (Charlotte Rampling);

largest police force on the avoided detection this long
island. without help in high places.
Detective Lourdes Robles In "Sunrise Highway," Peter
of the NYPD knows noth- Blauner weaves two re-
ing of this when she arrives lated stories: the decades-
at the tip of Far Rockaway, long story of the killer as he
at the eastern edge of her moves up the ranks of the
jurisdiction, responding to a police department, put-
call about a young wom- ting influential people in his
an's body that had washed debt along the way, and
up on the beach. the months-long story of
As Lourdes and her part- Lourdes' investigation. In
ner, the not entirely reliable the climax, the two tales
Robert Borrelli, investigate, crash together violently.
they hear about unsolved The prose is economical
murders of a few other girls and precise, the setting
who had been found out- well drawn and the char-
This cover image released by
Minotaur shows "Sunrise High- side of the NYPD's jurisdic- acters real enough to give
way," by Peter Blauner. tion on the island. As they you a chill the next time you
Associated Press continue to dig, they learn cruise past a police car.
about still more bodies that Blauner, who has written
By BRUCE DESILVA had been discarded along extensively for NBC's "Law
Associated Press the island's Sunrise Highway & Order" franchise and for
"Sunrise Highway" (Mino- for decades. CBS' "Blue Bloods," has pro-
taur), by Peter Blauner. Has a serial killer been oper- duced only seven previ-
Forty years ago on Long ating undetected on Long ous novels since he helped
Island, a teenage boy Island for 40 years? Lourdes' set the standard for debut
helped murder a young girl superiors are skeptical, but crime novels with "Slow Mo-
and then lied about who she thinks she's on to some- tion Riot" in 1992. But all of
did it, sending an innocent thing. And the more she them, including this one,
black man to prison. Now, thinks about it, she real- have been worth waiting
the killer is the chief of the izes the killer couldn't have for.q