Like the movie, this review is hard to get through.
Some movies are like a storm. There is the calm before the storm, the first gusts, the eye, and then the final tempest rolls through. Like a storm, Detachment whisks you on a directionless emotional flight. When you've finally been put back on the ground, you are just as lost as you were in the air.
This is a consequential movie that has left me breathless, broken and despondent. If I judge my film of the year based on emotional response, this one might just have it.