A compelling performance from the often miscast actor carries an otherwise by-the-numbers look at a Christian couple who spectacularly fell from grace
Back in 2011, the sudden ubiquity of Jessica Chastain – from small-screen blink-and-misses to big-screen “oh her again” hits – meant that doors that had previously been closed were now opening, a relative embarrassment of riches for an actor breaking out in her 30s. While her three roles that year were all playing “the wife”, they still showed a promising versatility (an Oscar-nominated comedy wife in The Help, a thriller wife in Take Shelter and a Terrence Malick wife in The Tree of Life, the most challenging of all the wives) and thus, Chastain was thrust to the upper echelons of casting wishlists.
Related: The Guilty review – Jake Gyllenhaal’s tense 911 call thriller
