Displaying a sturdy professionalism throughout that stops just short of artistry, director Gary Ross, who co-scripted with Collins and Billy Ray, does his strongest work in the early scenes, which set up the stakes with chilling efficiency.

But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, […] By the time we reached the house we were thanking our stars she had come. Mrs. Cooke came out from under the port-cochère to welcome her.

That test was a killer.

an embryonate plant