the living and the dead portray the life of a british noble and his wife and their adult son set in a spectacular country estate . the good day be long past . the estate be in disrepair and at risk of forfeiture and the wife bedridden most of the film and the son clinically psychotic . that sum up the bulk of what can be say with relative certainty about the plot . the rest be a tumble mash of conflict alternate reality and displace time line and hallucinatory vision and fast motion . director or writer or producer simon rumley love the fast motion . leo bill a the son spend much of the film at ten fold speed and race through vast expanse of interior and arm and face animate in a failed attempt to impart the viewer his perspective . it doesn not work and quickly grow tiresome and obvious . rumley so commit to the technique that cloud and the advance sun and branch and vehicle and doctor and nurse eventually join the fray . repeatedly . it difficult to comprehend why since it have no bearing on the quiet desperation rumley grasping at and instead evoke the feel of an eighty music video or a vw commercial . it symptomatic of the film jettisoning coherency for atmosphere . the first half contradict the back with no hint of resolution offer . the son prove more criminally insane than clinically yet no reason offer why he wasn not institutionalize . early in the film when still portray a a happy idiot the father be constantly abusive and stern . fatherly warmth doesn not appear until unconscionable act be commit . the son roam free past the point any modern western nation would have see him incarcerated . we never know why . likewise the rest of the plot be so artificial and bent to the requirement of intense moment all believability be lose and with it any concern for the character . the one bright spot be kate fahy terrific portrayal of the wife . she create the few and fleeting scene in which the film work as intend . not content with these minor success rumley brush them aside to make room for more mind bending plot twist and snatch total failure from the jaw of mediocre success . a movie for the patient only .