A young woman meets her boyfriend’s wealthy family, then discovers their dark secret. | The Forfeit

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The Forfeit is used with permission from Josie Charles and Phoebe Brooks. Learn more at https://linktr.ee/theforfeit.

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Ffion is a working-class Welsh woman who is meeting her wealthy English boyfriend’s eccentric family for the first time during the holidays. Seb’s family is intimidating, cultured, intellectual and quite posh, and Ffion feels very much like an outsider. And nowhere is that more apparent than when she plays the traditional family game for the first time.

Many of the clues elude Ffion at first, much to the disdain of Seb’s family members. But the resourceful young woman is a quick study, and soon she picks up on some of them — including a few that allude to a dark family secret.

Directed and written by Josie Charles and Phoebe Brooks, this bracingly dark comedy-mystery focuses on one woman’s initiation into her boyfriend’s family milieu. It’s a fraught situation for Ffion, who is nervous about meeting Seb’s intimidating clan. But it is also complicated by the wealth and class differences between Ffion and Seb — and his family’s very serious competitive streak during their holiday game.

Briskly setting up the rules of the family game — which is a more high-minded variation on balderdash — Ffion enters Seb’s family home, confronted with a host of characters from snobby siblings to erudite uncles. With its mordant preoccupations, rarefied settings and arch tone, the film is in the vein of Alfred Hitchcock and Agatha Christie: a mystery whose intrigue hinges on the contrast between a very civilized, very British surface and the nasty, brutish impulses of humankind underneath it.

As such, the writing reveals a sharp eye for dialogue, where even the most off-hand comment has loads of insinuation and biting wit, and the pacing is nimble and quick, reflecting both the nature of the game and the family’s efforts to put Ffion through her paces. As the story and game proceed, we also get a sense of the gulf between Ffion and Seb’s family, as well as a dark family secret.

The larger cast of characters is well-drawn, and the ensemble of actors makes vivid impressions and lands laughs even with their few lines. But the focus of the story is on Ffion, who is sometimes cowed but often intrepid. Actor Kate Morgan-Jones plays both Ffion’s mousiness and her resolute nature, as well as her innate good intentions and intelligence. With each round of the game leaving clues about the family secret, Ffion can’t help but be drawn into it, and she seeks to find out what exactly happened, perhaps to her peril.

Darkly comic and full of stylistic panache, “The Forfeit” ends with not only the resolution of the mystery but Ffion on the precipice of a great choice, one that could change her future and fortunes. Like the earlier portion of the storytelling, it’s handled with an acid bite and a flourish of cynicism — fitting for a film exploring how the upper classes perpetuate themselves with secrets and mistakes of violence and exploitation, only to cover it up with a veneer of elegance and refinement.

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A young woman meets her boyfriend’s wealthy family, then discovers their dark secret. | The Forfeit

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