Why you can trust GamesRadar+
A collector of 'gifts from the sea', Amy Foster's eponymous raven-haired lass (Rachel Weisz - Stealing Beauty) is considered an oddball by fellow villagers. And when a storm washes up Ukrainian refugee Yanko Gooral (Vincent Perez - La Reine Margot) on the beach, the two outcasts start an inevitable affair. Any director attempting to capture turn-of-the century pastoral angst after Roman Polanski's exceptional Tess has his or her work cut out. And sadly, Kidron's (BBC TV's Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit) Cornish love story manages to miss the mark by an alarmingly wide margin.
Gaily stuffing her movie with clichés, she delivers a cringeworthy Mills & Boonsesque rendition of Joseph Conrad's tragic tale, all of which is made more inane by Perez and Weisz's superficial understanding of their characters. Here's a depressing thought: Amy Foster was awarded a hefty £3 million, the largest sum of Lottery money dished out to a film project so far. Which means you may have paid for it...
The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.
Reject modernity, embrace old games: 2025 is going to be the year I finally embrace my inner retro gaming sicko without apology
Assassin's Creed Shadows had to have 2 different characters because players want both stealth and combat, and you couldn't have both with just one
Invincible season 3 is going into darker territory, but will still have the capacity to surprise: "You think this show is going to go this way? Guess what? It's not."