Wetherby on AllMovie

Because of a devastating emotional tragedy in her past, schoolteacher Jean Travers Vanessa Redgrave has never married. Throughout Wetherby, Jean's mind wanders from the present to the 1950s, when her lover was killed in Malaya (the younger Jean is played by Redgrave's daughter, Joelly Richardson). One evening, Jean invites a group of friends over for dinner. A young man named John Morgan (Tim McInnerny) also attends the dinner party. Jean assumes he was brought along by one of the couples, and the guests, in turn, believe he was invited by Jean -- in short, he is a total stranger who everyone assumes is a friend of someone else there. As the evening progresses, politics and social ills are discussed, and one of the couples takes turn sniping at each other, but otherwise, the evening ends on a pleasant note and the guests take their leave. The next day, a particularly lengthy and grueling flashback is triggered in Jean when the mysterious young man from the previous night returns to her home. Slowly but surely, we discover how the secrets of Vanessa's past may provide the answer to her guest's identity and actions. Director David Hare also wrote the prismatic screenplay of Wetherby.