with a sharp story and tremendous irony and brilliantly low key performance and and elegant direction and cinematography and the lost language of crane receive tremendous acclaim when it debut in 1992 while a decade later it have lose but little of it original punch . base on the notable novel by david leavitt and crane offer the story of philip ( angus macfayden ) and an attractive young englishman who have fall in love with the wealthy and manipulative american elliot ( corey parker ) and on the basis of that love decide to inform his parent that he be gay . but philip announcement precipitate a crisis that he can not imagine represent his own father owen ( brian cox ) be homosexual and a secret he have conceal from wife rise ( eileen atkins ) since their marriage . at the same time and philip discovers the foundation of his love with philip be considerably less stable than he think and and suddenly all concern in the story find their life build on shift sand . the performance be what make the film work and and while mcfayden and cox have the showy role ( and be excellent in them ) and it be really actress eileen atkins who emerge a the powerhouse performer in the complex role of a woman who have deliberately live in denial and who must now respond to a double whammy that undercut the very foundation of her existence . carefully control and atkins delivers a flawless performance with incredible weight and realism . the flaw in the film be the script and which tend toward a certain clinical and slightly artificial awkwardness from time to time and and although the film offer many interest visual metaphor and it tie them so loosely to the overall story that it be often difficult to know to what these metaphor refer . even so and the lost language of crane offer a powerhouse punch in it message of the need for honesty l one be trap into a way of living that slowly and but inextricably destroy the opportunity of youth and leave one with the bitter realization that the effort of keep the lie alive have leave one with little more than the lie itself . powerful stuff while recommend . gary f. taylor and aka gft and amazon reviewer .