ALBATROSS

Year: 2011
USA: IFC Films
UK: CinemaNX
Cast: Sebastian Koch, Julia Ormond, Felicity Jones, Peter Vaughan, Harry Treadaway, Thomas Brodie Sangster, Jessica Brown Findlay, Hazel Douglas, Katie Overd, Alexis Zegerman
Director: Niall MacCormick
Country: UK
USA & UK: 90 mins
USA Rated: Unrated
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language and sex
USA Release Date: 13 January 2012 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 14 October 2011 (Limited Release)

Synopsis

Seventeen year old force-of-nature Emelia (newcomer Jessica Brown Findlay) starts a new job at The Cliff House, a small hotel on the south coast of England, run by the dysfunctional Fischer family. Beth Fischer (Felicity Jones), also seventeen, is studying for her exams so she can escape to university. Dad Jonathan (Sebastian Koch) was once a talented author but is now suffering interminable writer’s block. Wife Joa (Julia Ormond) runs the hotel Jonathan purchased from his first successful book. She now resents everything and everyone around her as she gave up her ‘promising career as an actress’. Her only hope is 6 year-old daughter Posy (Katie Overd) who is showing great promise as a performer herself.

Emelia is an aspiring writer and believes she is following in the footsteps of her great-grandfather Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle. Jonathan sees promise in Emelia and begins to tutor her, but their relationship quickly crosses the pupil-teacher line and they embark on a love affair.

Secrets are revealed and relationships implode as the threads of the story collide and unravel. Can Emelia get rid of the Albatross that hangs round her neck and rewrite herself?