ALICE, DARLING – Review

So, a couple of weeks ago we saw the “Mr. Nice-Guy” of the movies, Tom Hanks channel his inner grump as A MAN CALLED OTTO. And now a new release has another actor “pushing” out of their cinema “comfort zone”, though maybe not as jarring as Mr. H. For the last few years she’s made her “name” in bouncy musicals (even a music franchise) and frothy, but usually witty, “rom-coms”. From this film’s title, many moviegoers may think this effort falls in the latter category. And they would be mistaken. Granted it concerns modern relationships and a romance that, to put it lightly, has taken a turn. As you might guess, today’s tech (social media, cell phones, etc.) “amps up” the problems. Perhaps that’s why there’s more than a touch of irony in its title, along with general menace, with what should be a phrase of endearment, ALICE, DARLING.

The story begins with some dream-like images as a young woman dangles her legs in dark water before diving in and slowly sinking downward. Abruptly, the locale cuts to dry land, actually a busy city street outside a bistro. The “woman in the water” is Alice (Anna Kendrick), who is trying to respond to a barrage of texts on her cell phone (I think the phrase is “blowing up”). As the messages subside she enters the eatery and meets her two BFFs, Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku) and Tess (Kaniehtilo Horn). Their get-together is to finalize an upcoming getaway. Tess is having a major birthday, so Sophie is providing her parents’ lakeside house (they’re out of town) for a week-long celebration/”chill-fest”. But they can tell Alice is distracted by a new flood of texts from her beau (and her pals aren’t keen on him). To appease him, Alice dashes off to the restroom to send a “sexy selfie”. Upon her return, she invites the duo to her boyfriend’s art gallery show. They begrudgingly agree to attend. After they say their goodnights, Alice returns to her apartment to shower and pull out a few strands of hair, before her partner Simon (Charlie Carrick) arrives. Of course, he has to get all the details of her evening before he derides her old pals. . The art show is the next night, and (no surprises) Tess and Sophie “bail”. Simon is bummed by the absence of “VIPs” while Alice frets about telling him of her “girls’ trip” the next morning. Finally, she fibs about a big out-of-town work “thing”. The next morning the trio “hits the road”, but the Simon texts keep coming. At long last Tess has had enough and hides Alice’s cell which lifts a huge weight off her shoulders. But what happens when this act of friendship leads to an encounter that will alter their “dynamic” forever?

Of course, the actor I alluded to earlier is the film’s title lead, Kendrick, who truly delivers a complex dramatic turn as the story’s fragile focus. Her Alice is truly “walking a tightrope, as she puts on a confident front to her friends while demurring to her domineering beau behind closed doors. Kendrick captures that unease with a jittery often hesitant line delivery as her expressive eyes show us that Alice is quickly deciding on the response each listener wants to hear. Unfortunately, she only shows her strength when her pals try to give her a “wake-up call” before she returns to the plush “cage’ run by Simon where she’s quick to agree with his verbal abuse as she cowers. Her body language conveys Alice’s “spirit” leaving her body. Kudos for Kendrick’s command of the character. Adding to the conflict are the unique performances of her two “sisters’ who aren’t exactly a united front, though both are aware of their pal’s baffling behavior. The most strident is Horn as the formidable Tess, the “bad cop’ of the duo who dishes out the “tough love”. Alice tries to push away her views as that of a frustrated artist, but Horn’s steely glare tells us that she will “breakthrough” to her somehow. The “good cop” is Mosaku’s Sophie who doesn’t want to “break” the fragile Alice, as she attempts to be the impartial referee (“Now, you both have good points…”). Finally, she needs to “take a stand” and ease out of the “middle ground”. And the source of the rift is the sensitive, smarmy manipulator Simon played with a passive-aggressive bullying tone by Carrick. As Simon heaps all of his insecurities onto Alice, we see him using his constant texts and insults as pummeling blows to Alice’s self-esteem. Despite his sophistication, Simon is a toxic bully who thrives on her passivity, as a vampire in need of blood.

In her feature directing debut, Mary Nighy has crafted a tense, often languid look at the changing dynamics of friendship. With the tranquil lakeside setting, the tension slowly bubbles up, as the trio may shatter into a duo. We wonder what the women will do, as Alice appears to be in the final moments of a “shame spiral”. The unexpected twists in the screenplay by Alanna Francis and Mark Van de Ven lead down paths that take us to surprising destinations. A subplot involving a missing teen girl near the lakeside village seems to point to a standard studio mystery/thriller ala’ SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY or ENOUGH, but it doesn’t veer into an action finale. Instead, it’s a compelling and quiet look at the new tech tools of a modern “controller”, and how the power of friendship can break the emotional “chains”. Those long-standing relationships are the heart, along with the terrific turn by Kendrick, of ALICE, DARLING.

3 out of 4

ALICE, DARLING is now playing in select theatres