I wasn't sure what to make of this movie, it's good in parts, it has two very good central performances from Olivia Coleman and Jessie Buckley but suffers from a really uneven tone.

The tone problems all stem from the direction of the piece. Its great to see such a diverse cast, but that diversity of casting does a historical injustice to Karpal Kaur Sandhu who was the first serving Asian woman in the police, her story is truly heroic and tragic, and ignoring any racial tension in 1920's Britain is also anachronistic and fantastical. Those moments give the work an uneven tone, and the longer the movie goes on the more the direction lurches from a fun tone it something closer to what the movie can be.

The outstanding moments in this film come from Jessie Buckley, who like Maggie Smith in her younger years bursts onto the screen with energy and charisma. Olivia Coleman is always full of nuance and depth - those two central performances carry the movie. Anjana Vasan is charming and full of comic energy she is required to carry a part which has some very odd writing and character development. She does it like a star.

A very odd movie in some ways but worth you time if you can get over the anachronisms and the uneven tone.

The film is set in 1920. At that time, it would have been very unusual to have a couple with mixed races (black/white), a black criminal judge or an Asian policewoman, as shown in the film. The ethnic minority characters are a modern phenomenon which unfortunately look anomalous. Also, the "offence" of libel which forms the basis of the trial is a civil matter and not a criminal one. There was no law requiring someone to wear a helmet on a motorbike until 1973 so it would not have been illegal in 1920, and the child protection service (mentioned several times during the film) was not established until 1989.