Butterfly Kiss

Scarred loner Eunice (Plummer) stalks angrily between the motorway garages of northern England, murdering and stealing while she searches for a mythical lost love. She doesn't kill Miriam (Reeves), however, a lonely garage worker who shows her kindness, and through a complicated series of events becomes a kind of lovesick follower, desperate to find some good in her. Michael Winterbottom’s debut is set in the all too real British netherworld of unemployment, greasy hair and Pot Noodles, but even that can’t drive off the accusation that this is a story of two painfully good actresses trapped in a film that is working against their best efforts. Both Plummer and Reeves turn in exceptional performances, but the whole thing is painfully contrived. It’s ultimately difficult to understand what is driving Miriam to stay with such a monster, even to the extent of hiding her victims. By playing it coy, the script undercuts their relationship and results in a disappointingly alienating experience.