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From left, Wunmi Mosaku, Anna Kendrick, and Kaniehtiio Horn star in “Alice, Darling.” Not that every good film need be entertaining, but Nighy holds the audience right between not knowing exactly what’s going on and a sense of dread that something awful is about to happen.
Anna Kendrick stars in “Alice, Darling.” When Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick isn’t lending her voice to entertaining mainstream films like “Into the Woods” or “Pitch Perfect,” she can usually be found starring in indie dramas highlighting social issues.
Anna Kendrick, left, and Charlie Carrick star in “Alice, Darling.” In order to have a weekend getaway with her best friends, Alice (Kendrick) lies to her overbearing boyfriend Simon (Carrick). In fact, she rehearses the lie to make sure it’s convincing.
From left, Wunmi Mosaku, Anna Kendrick, and Kaniehtiio Horn star in “Alice, Darling.” Not that every good film need be entertaining, but Nighy holds the audience right between not knowing exactly what’s going on and a sense of dread that something awful is about to happen.
Emma Close-Brooks/Lionsgate
Anna Kendrick stars in “Alice, Darling.” When Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick isn’t lending her voice to entertaining mainstream films like “Into the Woods” or “Pitch Perfect,” she can usually be found starring in indie dramas highlighting social issues.
Lionsgate/Courtesy
Anna Kendrick, left, and Charlie Carrick star in “Alice, Darling.” In order to have a weekend getaway with her best friends, Alice (Kendrick) lies to her overbearing boyfriend Simon (Carrick). In fact, she rehearses the lie to make sure it’s convincing.
Lionsgate/Courtesy
Director Mary Nighy, from left, speaks with actors Wunmi Mosaku, Kaniehtiio Horn and Anna Kendrick on the set of “Alice, Darling.”
Packaged and sold as a thriller, the directorial debut of Mary Nighy might push the limits on genre classification. An exercise in minimalism, “Alice, Darling” is a quiet, reflective film about a woman tortured psychologically and emotionally in her relationship.
When Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick isn’t lending her voice to entertaining mainstream films like “Into the Woods” or “Pitch Perfect,” she can usually be found starring in indie dramas highlighting social issues. With such a short running time, Nighly hangs on every second, mostly featuring solo moments with Kendrick’s character: pulling her hair out, exhibiting signs of an eating disorder and lots of internal dialogue that represent tell-tale signs of abuse. “Sometimes the hardest things to see is the truth,” the film’s tagline states.
In order to have a weekend getaway with her best friends, Alice (Kendrick) lies to her overbearing boyfriend Simon (Charlie Carrick). In fact, she rehearses the lie to make sure it’s convincing. For months now, she has tried to mold herself into Simon’s expectation of as partner. Weight, personality, looks and availability, she coaches herself to be better in order to avoid demeaning remarks. Alice’s worsening, strange behavior doesn’t go unnoticed by childhood pals Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) and Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku). An unplanned intervention occurs as tempers flare during the not-so-relaxing weekend. When Tess and Sophie confiscate Alice’s phone, Simon comes looking for his emotional punching bag.
There isn’t an ounce of entertainment in the film, which is either by design, or a lack of experience. Not that every good film needs to be entertaining, but Nighy holds the audience right between not knowing exactly what’s going on and a sense of dread that something awful is about to happen.
The film’s most thrilling and shocking moment amounts to nothing more than a broken windshield, hardly worthy of its genre placement. “Alice, Darling” is a drama that quietly details silent abuse. Kendrick’s role here is to portray feelings of insecurity and a lost sense of self. There is a subtle element of over-performing — meaning, continuous scenes and closeups of Alice pulling out her hair get less subtle as they repeat.
Director Nighy intentionally uses editing cuts and cinematography routinely found in generic suspense flicks to create a false sense of tension to keep the audience engaged. For example, a maul is introduced by Sophie to chop wood for the cabin. “It’s not an axe,” she says, as Alice takes her frustration out on multiple blocks of wood. Again later, Alice tells Tess, “It’s not an axe, it’s a maul.” Beating the audience over the head with visuals of this weapon is the film’s closest thing to a climax. Relationship abuse is a serious topic, emotional or physical. This film attempts to show how even subtle changes in behavior can be red flags for a much larger problem. Unfortunately, “Alice, Darling” doesn’t make any real headway in trying to create dialogue on the issue.
Final Thought: “Alice, Darling”’s over-reliance on minimalism as a cinematic technique in turn minimizes both the subject matter and its effect on the audience.
Dustin Chase is a film critic and associate editor with Texas Art & Film, which is based in Galveston. Visit texasartfilm.com.
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