Terra Nova

What with a mad skinhead downstairs, a landlady who accepts sexual favours in lieu of rent, and the boy next door having a family crisis of his own, the Terra Nova apartment block is not the first place you would chose to bring up your child. Just right for Cronin's Ruth, however, since it's also the last place anyone might think to look for her and her daughter, snatched illicitly from grandma and grandpa. They want to see the young mum back in psychiatric care: all she wants is a chance to run her own life for a change. In the event, this is easier imagined than done, as the film pitches its vulnerable protagonist between the frightening demands of personal freedom and the suffocating arena of misplaced parental concern. Familiar material perhaps, but Cronin's performance is refreshingly free of empty exaggeration, and the director is attuned to the sudden rush of everyday anxiety.