Dir: Philippa Collie Cousins. Wales. 98mins. 2001

The guilty legacy of past indiscretions provides the backdrop to Happy Now, an atmospheric tale of smalltown secrets and deceptive appearances where the eccentricity is self-conscious and the elaborate mechanics of the plot fail to convince. Polished and well performed, it will make superior television fare for a dark winter's night but doesn't possess the necessary qualities to attract or justify theatrical interest.

A BAFTA winner for the short film The Deadness Of Dad and a BAFTA nominee for the documentary Enchanted Castle, director Philippa Collie Cousins makes a promising feature debut handling an uneven screenplay by Belinda Bauer that takes its most immediate inspiration from David Lynch's cult television series Twin Peaks. In the creepy Welsh town of Pen Y Wig, nobody is quite what they appear, everyone seems to be in flight from a past they cannot face and the death of a beautiful young girl is the key to unravelling an age old mystery that touches some of the town's most prominent citizens.

Starting in the past, Cousins lets the audience in on the mystery from the very first frames. Newly crowned as a local beauty queen, Jenny (Rossum) is accidentally killed by the hotheaded Glen (Considine). Stretching credibility to breaking point, her boyfriend Joe (Coyle) and Glen callously bury the body and pin the blame on local vagrant Tin Man (Puri). The body is never found and the case is considered closed.

Fourteen years later, Tin Man is about to be released from prison. Even more dramatic is the arrival in town of Tina Trent (Lynch) and her daughter Nicky (Rossum again) who is the spitting image of the dead Jenny. Joe believes that the past has returned to haunt him. Glen, now a pillar of the community, is willing to do anything to protect his position. Lonely, bashful Max (Gruffud) is the local detective confronted by a sudden crime wave and his own attraction to Tina.

Happy Now tries to make the most of its isolated setting. All brooding skies and dark, satanic mountains, Pen Y Wig is the kind of place where sleepy respectability conceals a hotbed of passion and intrigue. The characters are similarly burdened with potentially interesting flaws and conflicts. Max, for instance, has fled from the big city to a backwater where nothing is supposed to happen. Shy and self-deprecating, he signals his true feelings through constant references to his favourite television series Bonanza. The biggest problem in accepting all of this is an overly busy scenario, awash with bizarre characters and unconvincing developments.

It is hard to believe the lynch mob attitude to the apparently well-liked Tin Man, the irrational acts of the deeply disturbed Glen or the limitless extent of Joe's pusillanimity. The performances are generally of a high standard with Considine getting under the skin of his self-centred bullying baddie and Gruffudd bringing a gentle, understated charisma to the detective who cleans up the town and courts the pretty lady. Unfortunately , the heady, overcooked brew means that some quite prominent names are pushed to the edge of the story and its difficult to see what attracted the likes of Susan Lynch, devil worshipper Jonathan Rhys Meyers and iron lung landlady Alison Steadman to their modest roles.

Prod co: Ruby Films
Int'l Sales: Summit Entertainment
Exec Prods: David Thompson, Anat Singh, Paul Trijbits
Scr: Belinda Bauer
Cinematography: Richard Greatrex
Prod des: Andrew Grant
Ed: John Wilson
Mus: Dario Marianelli
Main cast: Ioan Gruffudd, Paddy Considine, Richard Coyle, Susan Lynch, Robert Pugh, Om Puri, Emmy Rossum