Boxing Day review

Bernard Rose follows Ivansxtc and The Kreutzer Sonata with another lo-fi Tolstoy update, based on the short story Master And Man and again starring Danny Huston as a noxious blowhard in dire straits.

Here, however, he has a reluctant companion in the form of Nick (Matthew Jacobs), a local chauffeur who shuttles him to foreclosed properties in wintry Colorado that he hopes to make a hefty profit on.

Their prickly banter prompts some mild humour before an abrupt detour steers the film into redemptive tragedy and self-sacrifice.

Yet bleak as it is, its rigour proves darkly compelling