Reviews

• 

  ★★★★½ review by Ghostsmut on Letterboxd

  This is an absolute gut puncher of a film. It's about a woman who falls pregnant and begins to experience visions that suggest her baby will be the second coming. Is she crazy? How will her partner react to the news as they've not been intimate in so long?

  Considering it's only one hour forty long it stretches every scene. Long, meandering handheld shots that often never show us what is really taking place in the scene - we have to read much of the dialogue in the characters eyes. The editing is phenomenal and often leaves dialogue from future scenes running over current scenes then jumpcuts to catch up.

  I had a really emotional experience here. I still feel sick after watching it. Not just for the carefully realised domestic life Debbie Tucker Green manages to capture but also from the shocking sense of loneliness Nadine Marshall's character comes under as everyone starts to turn against her. Additional content around getting pregnant after previous miscarriages all hit close to home personally and I found the emotional weight of the film almost too much to bear at times.

  Definitely one for a mature audience - if I'd seen this when I was younger I would have thought it was boring rubbish. I'm sorry to say but it feels like one where you need a bit of life experience for many of the themes here to resonate.

• 

  ★★★½ review by Matt Thomas on Letterboxd

  Idris Elba is the attention-grabbing casting, but it is Nadine Marshall who gives the far more compelling performance. Ultimately its a well-worn story but told with some finesse.

• 

  ★★★★ review by Luke Brown on Letterboxd

  WOW! Incredible piece of movie making. Right up my street. Bursting with in depth character and layers upon layers of the intricacies of human relationships. I love this stuff and Second Coming does it so well. Each scene, shot and frame lovingly put together without a second being wasted and the performances are utterly stellar. All three members of our central family unit are incredibly believable, heartfelt and heartbreaking all at once.

  Such a moving film and as always I wish I had better words and articulation to describe how great I thought it was. Watch it.

• 

  ★★★★½ review by jamawive on Letterboxd

  Brilliant performances by Idris Elba and Nadine Marshall in a powerful movie about a family in deep pain and turmoil. Directed by Debbie Tucker Green (who also wrote it) with tenderness, and great patience and stillness in key moments. Fine sound and camera work. Mesmerizing, shattering, and ultimately... good. [Advice to other viewers: it helped me tremendously to have the English subtitles feature on.]

• 

  ★★★★ review by Paul Perkins on Letterboxd

  Jax (Nadine Marshall) has just found out she is pregnant. She should be happy as she leads a lovely life with the perfect husband Mark (Idris Elba) and son JJ (Karl Francis Lewis). There is an issue, however. Jax and Mark haven't been together for quite sometime and Jax hasn't been with anyone else, not that Mark believes this.
  
  This is a stunning drama from director Debbie Tucker Green, it's spells out nothing and leaves the audience to draw its own conclusions as to what is actually happening.
  
  The film features stunning performances from Marshall, who to my knowledge, I have never seen before and a career best on film for Elba, I still think his career best has come on TV.
  
  This is a tiny but very effective British gem of a film and I urge you to see it, it's another example of the truly exceptional cinema coming from Britain at the moment.

• See all reviews