The name might still only be vaguely familiar, but 2011 is Felicity Jones‘ year. She’s been working for some time, lighting up the likes of “Brideshead Revisited,” “Cheri” and “Cemetery Junction,” but she got the year off to a killer start by picking up Best Actress at Sundance for her turn in Drake Doremus‘ “Like Crazy,” while the rom-com “Chalet Girl” was something of a sleeper hit in the U.K in the spring. She’s got plenty more on the way, including another project with Doremus that’ll film shortly, but first along is another home grown picture, the coming-of-age tale “Albatross,” and The Guardian just premiered the film’s trailer.
Jones doesn’t actually have the lead in this one; she plays second fiddle to rising star Jessica Brown-Findlay, who’s come to prominence in the last year as the youngest daughter on the TV smash hit “Downton Abbey.” Brown-Findlay plays Emilia, a young aspiring novelist in a coastal town who befriends Beth, a bookish new arrival in town (Jones), but soon begins an affair with her new friend’s father (Sebastian Koch, star of “Black Book” and “The Lives of Others“) that threatens to have devastating consequences. It marks the feature debut of BAFTA winning TV director Niall MacCormick (who was behind the Margaret Thatcher biopic “The Long Walk To Finchley“), and the first screenplay by writer Tamzin Rafn, with Julia Ormond, Harry Treadaway and Peter Vaughn also among the cast.
We weren’t quite sure what to make of the trailer, which seemed promising enough, but a little generic and tonally unsure. But The Guardian also have a clip, which is stronger, suggesting that it could be a star-making performance from Brown-Findlay, as well as providing another good showcase for Jones, who could be an Oscar contender by the end of the year for her performance in “Like Crazy.” “Albatross” picked up good reviews when it premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival earlier in the year, so we’ll keep the faith for now. There’s no news on a U.S. release just yet, but it should land in U.K. theaters some time in October. Check both clips, as well as the film’s poster, out below. 