这是一个有关女性自我实现的故事。面对丈夫的背叛，罗伯塔的世界轰然坍塌了。多年来，她随着在海军服役的丈夫四处奔波，已毫无个人事业可言。现在这一切都幻灭了，她必须重新自食其力，同时还得抚育两个幼子。背井离乡的罗伯塔来到全国最乱的纽约东哈林区。除了资质、韧性和往日攒下的50把小提琴外，她已一无所有，教孩子们拉琴成了她谋生的惟一选择，但来自各方的怀疑让她苦恼。重压当头，罗伯塔的激情感染了学生，混乱不堪的街区里传来了美妙的音乐，人们驻足凝听。罗伯塔成功了。然而好景不长，音乐教室维持了10年后，校方突然决定撤资，罗伯塔面临事业搁浅的危机……

一次不幸的经历让心理医生珍（卡里斯·范·侯登 Carice van Houten 饰）陷入了痛苦的境地无法自拔，为了摆脱熟悉的环境的悲伤的回忆，珍自告奋勇的接下了女孩桃乐丝（詹·穆瑞 Jenn Murray 饰）的案子，在这件耸人听闻的案件中，年仅15岁的桃乐丝竟是被告，她被控告意图谋杀她所看护的婴儿。 桃乐丝住在位于爱尔兰附近的偏僻小岛上，刚到岛上，敏感的珍便察觉到这里弥漫着压抑而诡异的气氛。珍见到了桃乐丝，却发现这个女孩的言行举止完全颠覆了她积累多年的职业经验，难道事实真的如同岛上牧师所说——桃乐丝的身体里住着恶魔？随着调查的深入，令人震惊的真相逐渐浮出了水面。©豆瓣

A clever fortune-hunter with a penchant for murder does in his elderly, supposedly rich, wife and manages to get away with it. After an investigation results in a decision of 'accidental death', our crafty killer discovers that his late wife's 'fortune' is not what he thought it was. Driven to find another unsuspecting spouse; he discovers that his new bride, a widow, is no fool. When she tells him that she intends to keep her accounts separate from his, he is driven to contemplate murder once again

The story appears simple on the surface, but is revealed, especially after multiple viewings, as more multi-layered and textured than Cassavetes at his best. Ostensibly it concerns a 14-year old Catholic girl, Wynne (Agutter) growing up in this post-modern wasteland, who develops a crush on her much older adoptive brother (Marshall)- a crush which perversely deepens and grows into infatuation once she starts to believe he is the local sex killer. This is in itself an idea that makes you sit up and jolt, but as the narrative develops, it continues not necessarily along a linear path but in several confusing and fascinating directions: the family's history, (detailed effectively in chilling flashback during an improvised seance) is a chequered one, and has suffered at least one major relocation and upheaval in the last ten years. At the crux, however, it's the depiction of socialal changes that make I Start Counting so fascinating and elevate its language far beyond the confines of the standard horror film. The major subtext- that teenage girls were maturing more quickly than before, and developing full sexual and romantic appetites (even if in thought rather than deed) but were not possessed of enough discretion to make the right choices- was a step forward for a genre in which its young females had previously been portrayed as bimbo victims (Cover Girl Killer and The Night Caller spring to mind), but not one that all viewers would necessarily agree with. But most striking of all, and possibly the most enduring image which the viewer will take away with them, is of the masterful symbolism with which director Greene invests every shot. Every inch of the Kinch family's world- their house, their walls, their TV, Agutters underwear, bedroom furniture and toys, Sutcliffe's clothes, Marshalls van, the local Catholic church, their town centre, their record shop) - is painted a bright, scintillating white- a white which, by inference, is slowly becoming smudged and corrupted with the dirt of the outside world. White also symbolises, of course, purity and innocence (two qualities Catholic schoolgirls are supposed to hold dear), and it is into this world of innocence that the ever-present red bus (a symbol of violation and penetration), conducted by the lecherous yet similarly juvenile Simon Ward, makes regular journeys. The allegory is further expanded in one scene where Agutter believes she sees the Christ figure in church weeping blood: by the time we acknowledge it, its gone, but the seed has already been planted. Rarely in a genre production has the use of colour and background been so important or effective in creating a uniformity of mood. I Start Counting is as near-perfect an end to a decade as one could hope for, and exactly the kind of film people should be making now- which is, of course, exactly why they never will. A genre essential. by D.R. SHIMON@lounge.moviecodec.com

Late one night, two young toughs hold hostage the passengers in one car of a New York subway train.