"Simone Ashley plays this with perfection, switching from vulnerable to angry to sweet at the drop of a hat"

Written and directed by Jennifer E. Montgomery, This Tempting Madness is a compelling character study that explores memory following a tragic and near-fatal accident that leaves Mia (Simone Ashley) with no memory of what happened to her. The film follows her road to recovery and her hopes of piecing together the events that led to the accident.

To say much more about the plot would do a disservice to the film and to this young filmmaker, who certainly hasn’t made things easy for herself with her feature directorial debut. Making films is hard work at the best of times, and this was made all the more challenging by the fact that her psychological thriller, This Tempting Madness, is based on events that happened to a close friend of Montgomery’s.

The central performances from Simone Ashley as Mia and Austin Stowell as Jake are nothing short of extraordinary. You believe these two as a couple; you believe he is paranoid and she is high-maintenance—but that’s marriage, right?

Whilst This Tempting Madness is based on true events, it is not a documentary, and job one of a narrative feature is to entertain. I was fully entertained. It’s compelling, bleak and dark in places, and every twist and turn will have you on the edge of your seat right through to the very end. This is a ride you’ll want to be on all the way to its thrilling conclusion.

The narrative structure of This Tempting Madness is an interesting choice. It isn’t linear, and since this is a story about memory, I think this disjointed and fragmented approach was the best way to tell it. We are piecing things together alongside Mia rather than simply being handed the answers, allowing the structure itself to become part of the experience.

We are essentially finding out the developments as Mia is learning them, but because of her injuries, she forgets them just as quickly. Simone Ashley plays this with perfection, switching from vulnerable to angry to sweet at the drop of a hat. In fact, the supporting performances, led by Suraj Sharma as Ajay and Zenobia Shroff as Lakshmi, Mia’s mother, are fantastic.

All in all, This Tempting Madness is a triumph in storytelling. Montgomery and her creative team have crafted a film that is genuinely one to watch, anchored by two exceptional central performances. If this is what Jennifer E. Montgomery can deliver with her feature directorial debut, she has a very bright future ahead of her.