85 minutes| Boston Common + kendall square + embassy + suburbs

On a quaint English country road, an elderly man is killed in a mysterious hit and run. London solicitor James Madden (Tom Wilkinson), a rigid workaholic, couldn’t care less until his wife, Anne (Emily Watson), reveals that she was behind the wheel, with her insufferably privileged lover (Rupert Everett) at her side. As he tries to conceal the accident and do the right thing, Wilkinson reprises elements of In The Bedroom with powerful restraint, emerging as a likable cuckold. If Watson’s less-than-desperate housewife lacks passion or motive, it’s because writer/director Julian Fellowes is less focused on his characters than on the circuitous mechanics of deceit and infidelity among Blighty’s town-and-country set. The effect is to leave us with little idea about who these people truly are. Reflecting on his lot, James quips at one point, "It’s a little too Jerry Springer." Perhaps this passable debut is actually not Jerry Springer enough.