Lost Girls – 8

What a relief, after watching soaps that have no ending (most recently, The Restaurant), to watch a 90-minute movie that has a premise and characters, develops them, builds dramatically and has a resolution – even if, as the opening credit warns us, it’s an “unsolved” mystery. Amy Ryan is sensational as the obsessed, albeit very flawed, mother who launches a crusade after her daughter, a young sex worker,  goes missing. Gabriel Byrne, one of my favorite actors, is the beleaguered police commissioner in charge of the case, and the similarly wonderful Thomasin McKenzie is the remarkably stable sister of the victim. The film, by Serin’s first boss Liz Garbus, has a message, but it never gets in the way of the story. Her directorial flourishes are a bit obtrusive, but they add a big-budget gloss to low-budget sets and settings.