The Trouble with Jessica

The script, by James Handel and director Matt Winn, is tightly constructed.

A critique about the hypocrisies of the righteous upper middle class unfolds halfheartedly, leaving us with performances that might’ve worked better in a sketch comedy scene.

It’s disarmingly strange and freewheeling in tone, undercut by a ruthlessly dark humour.

The film may be full of holes but it’s highly quotable.

What the movie does have going for it is a terrific performance by Shirley Henderson...

This is why the black comedy proves so successful. These are all reprehensible people in the vein that we are all reprehensible people. [They] know the difference between right and wrong, but none are above moving that line when it suits them.

The manic activities of the ensemble notwithstanding, the collective effect proves rather inert. There’s just not quite as much trouble as promised.

[I]t doesn't lack the heart to be as cruel as finding any real humor in this situation requires.

Except for a handful of genuinely LOL deadpan lines delivered by Sewell, it seldom works as well as Winn intends. Nor is any of it the least bit believable.

THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA has a few holes and loses some of its biting humor towards the end of the film but still manages to make some thought-provoking observations about a darkly serious matter like suicide.