Cracks

Jordan Scott’s directorial debut is a suggestive beast. The title of the film itself, adapted from a Sheila Kohler novel of the same name, is a coy allusion to the artifice of innocence - a central tenet to a story augmented by a formidable cast and Scott’s playful signposting. Against the backdrop of an all girls boarding school in 1930s England, a close-knit group of pupils are disrupted by the arrival of Fiamma (Maria Valverde), a Spanish girl whose preternatural maturity sees her swiftly taken under the wing of the enigmatic Miss G (Eva Green), the girls’ teacher and diving instructor. It’s from this point on that Cracks’ underlying themes of cruelty and corruption begin to surface, captured by the delicate hues of the ornate cinematography. Such a contradictory juxtaposition of beauty and malice makes for a fascinating basis for a film that delights in framing detestable acts on rather morally ambiguous terms.