Young Adam

Scottish writer-director David Mackenzie's impressive second feature is a cool and creepy adaptation of Glaswegian Beat writer Alexander Trocchi's 1957 novel about a disaffected young man who wrestles with his conscience only to discover that he may not have one at all. A white swan paddles across the screen and the livid, bloated corpse of a dead woman, dressed only in a slip, floats into frame. It's the 1950s, somewhere on the shore of the River Clyde, where bargemen like Joe (Ewan McGregor) and his grizzled boss, Les (Peter Mullan), make their living hauling coal up and down the canals that connect the capital city with Edinburgh. Joe spots the body, but Les drags...