FILM

UK 2011 95 mins Dir: Carol Morley Starring: Zawe Ashton, Alix Luka-Cain

It takes 15 minutes until we see what Joyce Vincent looked like. Later, we hear her voice and even catch a glimpse of her on film. That's rather more than journalists unearthed when the 38-year-old's decomposed body was found in her flat above a busy North London shopping centre three years after she died in 2003. The TV and heating were still on and her remains were surrounded by partially wrapped Christmas presents. How did she die? Nobody knows. By then, she'd melted into the carpet.

Fascinated by this grisly story, documentary film-maker Carol Morley embarked on a mission to learn all she could about Joyce, tracking down former partners and work colleagues to find out how someone could perish alone and forgotten in the middle of a bustling metropolis. Her haunting drama-documentary overturns preconceptions from the outset. A vivacious, strikingly attractive woman of mixed Indian/West Indian parentage, Joyce had four sisters and plenty of friends. Naturally, everyone who agreed to speak on camera expresses bafflement at how she met her end. Early boyfriend Martin, a nice if rather spoddy white bloke whose mates couldn't believe his luck, was clearly in love with her. Alistair, who introduced her to the black music scene, appears somewhat less enamoured. Joyce seems to have been something of a chameleon, her family refused to speak to Morley, and there are suggestions of domestic abuse in later relationships. Some of the 're-imagined' dramatic inserts overstep the mark in speculating on Joyce's state of mind. But no easy answers to the mystery are forthcoming and Morley doesn't offer any narration or opinion on the often contradictory testimonies, allowing viewers to bring their own interpretations to her subject's achingly sad demise. (Robin Askew)

Website http://dreamsofalife.com/

Opens: December 30

Copyright Robin Askew 2011