Dollface

She's going round to his for the first time, with a new coat, her good dress with the butterfly on it. There's an expository telephone conversation with an unseen girlfriend, strategic romantic advice; If Henry doesn't say it, Lilly shouldn't say it. Impressions are important, after all, one wouldn't want to seem desperate, one wouldn't want to seem weird.

He gives her the tour, prompting a reasonable question - "why are we always spending time in my tiny wee flat?" It's a nice house, indeed, it's a lovely house, but it's got a secret - his secret family... of dolls.

Director Louis Paxton stated in Q&A that he wanted to make something romantic, rather than horror or zany comedy - in fact his film quite ably flits between the three. As Lilly, Kim Chapman ably conveys a variety of forms of concern about Henry, and opposite her Simon Harrison has, well, all the women in his life to deal with.

Three, the dolls - mother, sister, niece - hand-made, or at least customised, with terse cut-out paper mouths and button eyes. It's treading a difficult line - there are few things as discomfiting as an audience laughing at mental illness, though they are given space to do so by Paxton's comfort in jumping between genres. On at least one occasion chuckles gave way to an awkward pause, and that discomfort is signal of some well-judged expectation-reversal. There's a good amount of self-awareness within the film, and well-portrayed self-realisation for the characters.

There are a couple of niggles: the hidden room's discovery is a bit pat, though the aftermath of its accidental revelation is well handled; given the scope of Lilly's fascination with butterflies (and that's an excellent bit of set-dressing in a film filled with credible internal environments) it's a surprise she's not got one visible among the other tattoos we've seen; that's nit-pickery though, but perhaps justifiable because the film gets so much else right. It looks, sounds, feels real - which is also true of Henry's artificial family.

Dollface is well put together, expressive and entertaining - while it could very easily have devolved into the grotesque, it manages instead to be touching - albeit with rubber hands.