‘All the buzz has been around Kieran Culkin’s performance as the hyperactive pain in the ass Benji, and Culkin has already won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, but to my mind Jesse Eisenberg is the one who deserves most of the plaudits for this movie.  He wrote and directed as well as taking on one of the two lead roles. ‘

‘Hugh Grant is very good as the deranged, religion-obsessed psychopath, and I liked the slow pace at which the filmmakers allowed suspense to build and the atmosphere of claustrophobic menace to intensify….[but] over the course of the story [it] loses subtlety and degenerates into what I would have to call a slasher flick’

‘This movie does us a service in bringing this brave woman’s story to the attention of a new generation.  Due justice is done to the awful gravity of the events that prompted her most important work, but it’s a pity that so much time is wasted on awkward melodrama which at times swamps her personal story.

Gone are the days when motels and caravan parks were run by Mum & Dad teams who got up early to make breakfasts, stayed up to welcome latecomers, took time off in the middle of the day and still managed to answer the phone if you rang at a reasonable hour. 

Nowadays such places are run by big chains whose employees keep strictly 9 to 5 hours onsite and don’t like you ringing them up, even in those rare cases where they actually provide a number to call.