The movie opens with a title card letting us know that the story we are about to see “is more true than you think.” That’s just a sly way of letting us know the film makers have taken more than their fair share of liberties with the facts. ...

And therein lies the major problem with the script. The film makers clearly take joy in exploiting a real-life case for sociopolitical cheap shots. All throughout the film we are reminded constantly of not just the unfairness of the British class system (gee, we’ve never had that hammered to us before, have we?), but of the repressive, sexist, patriarchal etc., nature of English society from a century ago.

Even this atheist grew tired of the film’s potshots against Christianity, and the frequent suggestions that Edith’s behavior can be simply be excused by her domineering father and strict religious upbringing (the real Edith Swan may have in fact been suffering from mental illness).