This fairy tale is awfully familiar, from its players to its predictable ending. Yet there's something oddly compelling about Firelight, a tale of repressed emotions and secret identities. The stunningly beautiful and debt-ridden Sophie Marceau makes a deal with Stephen Dillane to sire a child for him in exchange for money, since Dillane's own wife has been catatonic for 10 years. While their initial bouts of lovemaking are cold and distant, the two soon show glimmers of a deeper attraction. Dillane leaves, and Marceau gives birth to a daughter, but the child is quickly spirited away. Six years later, Marceau, unable to forget the child's post-birth crying, is hired as the girl's governess, much to the chagrin of Dillane (who, incidentally, keeps his atrophying wife sequestered in some back room). Firelight's conclusion may be forgone, but the creepy estate and the chilly characters give the film an eerie veneer that recalls something out of The Turn Of The Screw. There are no ghosts here, but plenty of beautifully composed winter scenes (shot on location in England and France) lit by flickering firelight. Marceau and Dillane make fine lovers, and William Nicholson's (Nell, Shadowlands) direction and script are dark enough to differ just enough from most storybook romances.