Movie review: Stricken (R21)

The lovely Carice van Houten plays the powerful witch Melisandre in Game Of Thrones, but here, she is a cancer victim with a cheesy, philandering husband.

Truth is not stranger than fiction, just more depressing.

A bit like one of those Korean romances that starts off all happy, then goes seriously south, Stricken can be quite hard to take.

It is pitiless in its portrayal of male idiocy and nature's cruelty.

There is a point being made, of course, but that does not mean we have to like it.

A big hit in its native Holland, the film is quite beautifully shot and very crisp with popping colours.

Some will love its uncompromising spirit, while others will be thoroughly bummed.

This article was first published in The New Paper.