RICHARD E Grant's semi autobiographical film witnesses the decline of the British Empire reflected in the fraying relationships between the members of a colonial family in 1960s Swaziland.

Teenager Ralph Compton (Nicholas Hoult) watches dumbfounded as his parents' marriage implodes after his mother Lauren (Miranda Richardson) runs away with her lover, John Traherne, abandoning her high ranking husband Harry (Gabriel Byrne) to the drinks cabinet.

Harry sinks deeper and deeper into a whisky-fuelled stupor, hoping to forget the pain and to escape the twittering of John's wife Gwen (Julie Walters), who has been left equally bereft by the adulterous affair.

Life begins to look up when Harry falls under the spell of spirited American air stewardess Ruby (Emily Watson), whose disdain for the snobbishness of the upper classes in Swaziland ruffles lots of feathers.

Ralph finally finds someone he can trust again but just when it seems like the wounds of the past are beginning to heal, Lauren swans back into town, leaving chaos in her wake and driving Harry back to the bottle.

  • See it at Tivoli (from Mon)