Masquerade

Tilly (achingly vulnerable) plays a fragile young heiress who returns from college to find her loathsome stepfather (Glover) and his girlfriend monopolising her swanky Hamptons pile. She takes up with Lowe, whose professional yachtsman front masks his activities as a gigolo, and they marry, Tilly believing that he loves her for herself; but she is the target of a long-term conspiracy that results in double murder. Swaim has pulled together a dense, stylish, Hitchcockian thriller in noir vein which turns on the moral and sexual ambiguity of the Lowe character, beautifully shot in crisp, pristine tones that contrast effectively with the sordid goings-on. However, Swaim's analysis of American class structures is limited: the film finally sides with the rich as innocent victims of the criminally-embittered less privileged.