Colin Firth is in pensive mood in this drama, playing a father struggling to raise two daughters after their mother's death. Joe (Firth) hopes taking a new post in Italy will give them a fresh start, until his youngest, Mary (Perla Haney-Jardine), reports seeing and speaking to mum (Hope Davis). It sounds like the premise of a bog-standard supernatural thriller, but in the hands of British director Michael Winterbottom it's actually a down-to-earth examination of the grieving process. Joe concerns himself with trying to establish a routine for the girls, while grappling with Mary's strange behaviour and the tantrums of her teenage sister (The OC's Willa Holland). A romantic subplot involving Catherine Keener also heightens the tension. The fact that none of these tangles is resolved in a conventional way might be a sticking point for some, but the sincerity of the approach and the acting gives it vigour, and Winterbottom captures Genoa in all its eerie grandeur.

A man moves his two daughters to Italy after their mother dies in a car accident, in order to revitalize their lives. Genoa changes all three of them as the youngest daughter starts to see the ghost of her mother, while the older one discovers her sexuality.