Facing Pregnancy On A Daley Basis

It has been six years since writer/director Hilary Brougher began work on her second feature, Stephanie Daley. Fortunately, Brougher's time was not wasted: her film is extraordinary, and with it, she announces herself as one of the United States' top up-and-coming directors.

Daley tells the story of two women in different stages of their lives, connected by pregnancy. Stephanie, played by Joan of Arcadia's Amber Tamblyn, is a 16-year-old tricked into sex by a 19-year-old marine-in-training. While her performance is not fully convincing in the early parts of the film, Tamblyn permanently captures sympathy when her face breaks as her first sexual partner assures her, "I didn't come," pulls up his pants, and sprints toward the door. This moment is just one of many in the film that reminds the viewer of the emotional chasms that can materialize between people in a matter of seconds.

Tamblyn's raw emotion is complemented perfectly by Tilda Swinton's generous professionalism. Swinton plays Lydie Crane, a forensic psychologist who is in her third trimester and panicked about her pregnancy because of her relatively advanced age and the stillbirth that she suffered a year earlier. Lydie has been assigned to determine whether Stephanie, whose pregnancy also ended prematurely, was criminally insane when she cut short her newborn's life.

Swinton has 20 years of experience in the film industry and has done everything from working with independent directors like Jim Jarmusch and Spike Jonze to performing almost entirely in front of a blue screen for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. She puts that practice to good use in this film, improving the acting of everyone around her while also creating a fully developed character. In particular, Swinton brings out the best in Tamblyn, reacting intelligently to her co-star's confessions without ever stealing focus from Tamblyn's big moments. When the time comes for Lydie to unravel, Swinton delivers completely and devastatingly, setting the stage for a final scene that refuses to leave the viewer's mind.

Few directors are as talented as Brougher when it comes to forcing an audience to simultaneously identify with a character and acknowledge the unreliability of that character's perspective. In one effective sequence, Brougher draws the viewer into sharing Lydie's suspicion that her husband might be cheating on her. The marvel of the sequence is that although we suffer through Lydie's anxiety, we also understand that her distrust is most likely paranoia born from her insecurity about her physical appearance in her third trimester.

Unfortunately, Oscar winner Timothy Hutton as Lydie's husband, Paul, is a little bit flat, although Tony winner Denis O'Hare shines as Lydie's friend, Frank. Overall, Stephanie Daley is an engaging and powerful work, and, incidentally, one of the first great films of 2007.