Dreams of a Life

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"You'd like to think that everyone has got someone." In 2006, officials from the housing association came to repossess Joyce Vincent's bedsit in Wood Green, London. When she didn't answer the door they forced their way inside, pushing back a mountain of mail that lay under the letter box. In the sitting room, sitting on the floor with her back leaning against her bed, they discovered her skeletal remains. The TV was on and she was surrounded by the Christmas presents she had been wrapping. The expiry date of the food in the fridge read 2003 – she had been lying there for three years.

It sounds like the profile of a shut-in, or a lonely old woman whose family had died, but Joyce Vincent was a stunning 38-year-old woman (some compare her to Whitney Houston) with four sisters, all of whom refuse to contribute here. With reconstructions and interviews with ex-boyfriends, co-workers, old flatmates and friends, director Carol Morley goes about painting a picture of Joyce, up until now a mystery to the public, in the run up to her death. Along the way she pushes for an answer from her interviewees: how could they not notice they hadn't heard from Joyce in three years? That question, which takes a while coming, is largely met with shrugs, or the vague notion that Joyce would have a habit of drifting in and out of relationships – you'd be close but then you wouldn't hear from her for six months.

Lookalike Zawe Ashton is front and centre for Morley's reconstructions, and does a fine job is showing Joyce's lighter side, but can also darken her face accordingly during the sombre moments, of which there are more than a few. It's not all doom and gloom, however, but Morely's attempts at levity serve only to be disrespectful. One such moment sees interviewees disagree over the costume of the stripper at Joyce's 21st birthday party, with Morely's reconstruction showing the various costumes they remember it to be. Morley also insists on using irritating music constantly throughout, killing the mood she needs to make her documentary work.

The closer we get to her death, however, Dreams Of A Life becomes the documentary it should have been from the off. The pacing quickens, the tone darkens and the guilt of those interviewed – especially ex-boyfriend Martin, whose defensive smiles finally give way to tears – emerges. The annoying music remains, however.

Entertaining to a point but there was a better documentary to be had here.