A beautifully photographed and acted film about a middle aged couple, Myra (Kim Stanley) and her hen-pecked husband Billy (Richard Attenborough), slowly going insane in their suburban house following the trauma of a stillborn birth. Myra is a clairvoyant and is convinced that she's in contact with their dead child. She devises an outlandish plot to kidnap ("borrow" in her parlance) and then locate a child using her "psychic powers". Against Billy's better judgement he agrees to participate but things quickly unravel and come to a head at the seance that Myra holds one wet afternoon in the company of police inspector Walsh (Patrick Magee). "Seance on a Wet Afternoon", written and directed by Bryan Forbes, from the novel by Mark McShane, is an overwhelmingly sad film with a strain of desperate melancholy running through virtually every frame. Despite their indefensible actions it is hard not to feel sympathy for Myra and Billy and their unending mental anguish. Much of this is down to the fine performances by Kim Stanley (who was Oscar nominated) and Richard Attenborough, both of whom essay their roles with a stiff upper-lip British middle-class reserve, behind which lies a quiet desperation which eventually overflows into an overwhelming emotional explosion. Forbes hints towards a hidden supernaturalism but keeps the film grounded in the everyday and the grim struggles between Myra and Billy. The film is beautifully shot by Gerry Turpin in crisp, formal monochrome, which gives Billy and Myra's gothic home and all it's strange ornamental paraphernalia a strange, other-worldly feel. John Barry provides a spare score that subtly adds to the tone of the film. Not knowing anything about "Seance on a Wet Afternoon" I anticipated some form of supernatural ghost story and was therefore surprised to discover a slow-burning, claustrophobic psycho-drama played out between a husband and wife, with the themes of parental loss, mental anguish and psychic disintegration all playing a thematic role. The film is brilliantly acted and is technically highly admirable, but given the overall tone of dread and desperation it's difficult to say whether it was actually enjoyable. ( )