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4 stars****

Patricia Highsmith wrote good quality thriller novels. Just go look at her Google listings and search out ‘The Talented Mr Ripley’, for example. However, it’s her first book, ‘Strangers on a Train’ that is on the best read list. It was made into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock and then a play that has toured the world. I’ve seen it twice in two different adaptations and it clings right through to the end.

Her 1962 novel, ‘Cry of the Owl’ became a French movie in 1987 – you can still get it on DVD.

Now it’s the turn of an updated version with the screenplay written by Jamie Thraves (who also directed). He’s completed a difficult task with generous results.

Julia Stiles gives the movie it’s big star name. She plays Jenni, who has her own personal stalker. What the stalker didn’t know was that Jenni was a tad more strange than he. She invited him into her house and into her life, dumping her fiancé at the same time.

The twists and turns mix between the expected and the unpredictable. The stalker’s ex wife, played by Caroline Dhavernas, while owning a serious disposition herself, teams up with Jenni’s ex fiancé to rid the world of the stalker. The stalker is now appearing like the most sane character in the whole film. Even the police officers appear to have 40 cents to the dollar.

Paddy Considine, as the stalker, is excellent. This may not be the first movie where the victim falls in love with the stalker, but we end up feeling so sorry for this stalker we want him just to leave his home, his city, his country and just get the hell out of there.

A couple of the twists are quite, well, silly. There are also a couple of coincidences (which move the film along nicely) that are just too way out to be believable. We’ll forgive them, though, as this script moves us in different directions, leaving you believing that a bad day can’t get any worse, but it can.

You’ll say you guessed the ending because it’s quite obvious, but did you really? My guess is you didn’t really expect the way it turned out. Let me know after you’ve seen this agreeable thriller.

I particularly like the acting from Caroline Dhavernas. She’s expertly playing an ex-wife, with more than a small grudge against her ex-husband. Their views of the past don’t tell the same story. The way she jokes about not wanting a divorce and then saying it was just a gag - she does want one - are riviting and sad. If ever you should meet such a person, don’t be afraid to leave the continent on the next airplane. It could save your sanity and your life.

I hope it gets a general release soon. It’s too good to go straight to DVD.