Dreams of a Life

In January 2006, bailiffs entered a flat above a shopping centre in Wood Green, north London, over unpaid rent. Inside were the remains of Joyce Vincent. The television was still on and wrapped Christmas presents were around her. She had been dead since December 2003, and for more than two years nobody looked for her and nobody reported her missing. Carol Morley's film tries to find the person behind that news item. She spent five years looking for people who knew Joyce: taking out newspaper advertisements, driving a taxi around London with an appeal on its side. The interviews she gathered form the spine of the film, with dramatised passages featuring Zawe Ashton in between. The portrait that emerges does not cohere. Everyone describes a different Joyce and none of the accounts match. The film presents this not as a failure but as the finding itself: nobody actually knew her. Who it's for: Viewers who like documentaries about loneliness and city life, and structures where documentary and fiction mix. Who it's not for: The subject is heavy and the film offers no consoling close. Some viewers will find the dramatised passages unnecessary.