The Trouble with Jessica directed and co-written by Matt Winn is a north London-set black comedy.
The Dinner Party That Goes Wrong
by Alexa DalbyThe Trouble with Jessica
CAUTION: Here be spoilers
The Trouble With Jessica is actually very funny, in a First-World-problems kind of way. Its central farcical theme of concealing a body seems as if it owes quite a debt to Joe Orton’s seminal Loot. but its humour is shoutier and swearier.
Sarah (Shirley Henderson, (Greed, Stan and Ollie)) and Tom (Alan Tudyk) have to sell their lovely house in a hurry for various reasons that the film reveals, so long as their prospective buyer (Sylvester Groth) does not find a reason to back out, such as a body on the premises. Their friends Beth (Olivia Williams) and Richard (Rufus Sewell) come to dinner, bringing with them author Jessica (Indira Varma), who seems to be an unwelcome guest. When she without warning commits suicide in the garden, the two couples are divided by their reactions to her death: secrets are forced out into the open. Anne Reid, reliably, has a cameo appearance as a well-meaning neighbour.
The Trouble With Jessica stars a range of well-known British actors. It is fast-moving with comic intertitles, a delicious box of milk chocolates with a dark centre.
The Trouble With Jessica is released on 5 April 2024 in the UK and Ireland. www.jessicafilm.co.uk. The Trouble with Jessica is available on digital platforms iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Sky Store, Vubiquity (Virgin), BT, BFI Player, Rakuten from 15 July 2024.
“Wickedly brilliant…Smart and funny”
