It all started with a death in the family. Toni Collette plays Annie, the mother of two kids and the wife of Gabriel Byrne. She makes miniature models for a living in her home workshop. When her mother passes away, she struggles with the loss but lacks grief due to her difficult past relationship. 

When Annie’s daughter, Charlie, dies in a freak accident, the story starts to ramp up the mystery and tension. Annie’s son, Peter, is guilt-stricken with how his sister died. When Annie starts delving into séance territory to communicate with her dead daughter, that’s when things start to go even more sideways. Hmm, it’s almost like messing around with occult stuff and spirit conjuring is maybe not such a good idea.

You never quite know what is really going on until the final reveal, but you’re hooked enough to stay invested. I found myself trying to guess what the major plot device was. My favorite idea was thinking that the characters were shrunken down and essentially stuck in a miniaturized world of the mother’s creation.

The performances were superb, the suspense was a delicate slow-burn, and the ending will probably haunt you for some time. You get what you get out of it and then you don’t need to go back.

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