Sarah and Tom are in deep financial trouble. Their situation takes a terrifying nosedive with the shocking behavior of uninvited dinner guest, Jessica.

‘The Trouble with Jessica’ is an entertaining British dark comedy that explores the dysfunctionalities of the middle classes through a dinner party gone wrong. It takes place in the home of Sarah and Tom (Shirley Henderson and Alan Tudyk), a couple going through a difficult patch both financially and in their relationship, which has meant they need to sell their lovely London pad and downsize. Over for dinner they have their friends Beth and Richard (Olivia Williams and Rufus Sewell), who have also brought along Jessica (Indira Varma), a bit of a wildcard who Sarah doesn’t like, largely as she thinks (correctly) that she flirts with her husband.

This set up forms the basis for a movie that explores midlife crises and middle class social mores when one of the guests commits suicide at the house, forcing the others to work out how best to proceed without putting the sale of the property at risk. It is nice and short which always works well for a movie like this, albeit I couldn’t escape the feeling it’d probably have worked much better as a play than as a movie. As a movie I went along with it, but it felt like the writers went for the most obvious things (the nosy neighbour for example, or the buyer deciding he must visit that evening) and it struggles to avoid the natural contrivances of the setup i.e. you hide a dead body in a room, of course someone will nearly discover it.

I enjoyed the performances, Rufus Sewell in particular, and the title cards that played through for each segment of the movie were pretty effective. All in, ‘The Trouble with Jessica’ is an entertaining little dark comedy that has enough charm to overcome some of the creaks in its scripting.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: Matt Winn

Starring: Shirley Henderson, Alan Tudyk, Rufus Sewell, Olivia Williams, Sylvester Groth, Anne Reid and Indira Varma

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt15507128/