Staring Jessica Lange, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jonathon Schaech and Nina Foch. Rated M.

Put two strong-willed ladies in the same household, add a gut-full of hormones and you set the scene for the mother of all catfights.

When Jackson Baring (Schaech) brings his very beautiful and slightly pregnant wife-to-be home to live with Mamma on their sprawling Kentucky stud, the matriarch welcomes her new daughter with all the grace and charm befitting a southern belle.

Martha Baring (Lange) raised her son and singlehandedly ran the family farm and its southern mansion, Kilronan, after an unfortunate accident claimed the life of her husband when Jackson was still very young.

Now the prodigal returns, from a promising career on Wall St, to help Mamma bring Kilronan back from the brink and continue the family heritage, as is only right and proper.

With the skill and subtlety of a master player Martha begins early to manipulate the life of the lovely bride, Helen (Paltrow).

An uninvited guest, Jackson's paternal grandmother, Alice (Foch), warns the bride that Martha is not to be trusted and after some disquieting incidents, Helen subsequently begins to suspect that perhaps Alice knows something she ought to know too, so she pays the old dear a visit at her palatial retirement home.

This draws the wrath of Martha down on the old lady, with chilling consequences.

From about this point on, the storyline tends towards the predictable, but the solid acting performances delivered by both leading ladies commands palpable tension to the end.

Lange in particular, as the outwardly charming but obviously disturbed Xanthippe, puts in a powerful performance, which becomes more credible after she shows her truly evil side.

This movie is well worth a look if you like yours served with lots of nail biting.

There's no action, no shoot-em-ups, no big budget special effects, just good, clean acting and plenty of tension.

In fact, the word Misery popped into my mind about half way through and, judged in that genre, Hush, to my mind, came a very close second.