AMERICAN WOMAN ****

The "American Woman" of the title is Sienna Miller and she's absolutely terrific here, so good in fact that she should have been a serious Oscar contender last year. She plays a single mother whose teenage daughter goes missing, leaving her to pick up the pieces and take care of her grandson. This slice of blue-collar Americana was directed by Ridley Scott's son. Jake and the film, like Milller's performance, is very fine indeed. This is the kind of intelligent, grown-up American film that was once commonplace but which we see so seldom nowadays as Marvel movies flood our multiplexes.

If Miller dominates the picture she is very ably supported by Amy Madigan as her mother and Christina Hendricks as her sister, by Will Sasso as her kindly brother-in-law and by Aaron Paul and Pat Healy as two of the men in her life, one sweet, the other sour while Brad Ingelsby's excellent screenplay captures the small-town milieu perfectly and despite it's grim subject, (domestic abuse is also to the fore), the film itself is never grim. Rather it's often funny, frequently very moving and something of a tonic and I can warmly recommend it.