A married couple’s relationship is tested when uninvited guest arrive at their home, causing the woman to adjust everything she has been working on.
I honestly have no idea where to start with this review of a film that I found to be extremely awful. Honestly, what on earth do you watch with this one and why have people actually loved it and appreciated it I will never understand. Even after reading the articles with Lawrence and Aronofsky where they explain the plot and meanings behind everything. You shouldn’t have to explain everything, we should be able to pick it all up when watching. I mean maybe some people did, but I certainly did not. Also why is it listed as a horror? Nothing on the horror scale at all for me, it was a little strange and I guess creepy at times but never actually scary.
The first act sees a man and woman turn up and stay in the house after the husband has said that it is no problem. Something is very strange especially about the woman but we never really get any answers about them. When the two sons turn up everything takes a slightly different turn and the house ends up filled with people. The second act sees the husband eventually write again and becomes very successful, mother cannot deal with that the thought of losing him to so many people, who yes you’ve guessed it come into the house and it all goes extremely crazy from that point. With one very sick and disturbing scene which is why I am guessing the film was given an 18 certificate in the UK. By that point though I wanted to leave, I did not enjoy anything about the film and cannot even give high praise to the performances as none of the characters had any development or any good qualities to be brutally honest.
I find this all to be such a shame as I have been a fan of Darren Aronofsky who really did put together such an incredibly talented cast for this film. Jennifer Lawerence is a truly incredible talent but I really don’t think she got to show much of that in this film, with the camera angles being constantly in her face and spinning around her. I mean I get that it was supposed to make us the audience feel like we were seeing things from her point of view but it was another thing that just didn’t work at all. Pfeiffer and Harris are both incredible as well, but just didn’t have enough to work with for what turned out to be rather small roles. Not as small as Domhnall Gleeson though who you probably know I am a huge fan of his work.
Something else I feel I must mention is that whilst sitting watching the film I had that awful similarity to a film I really hated ‘The Neon Demon’ which was certainly not a good thing. Although until the final scene I didn’t feel that same sickly feeling, which happened throughout Demon. Maybe sometimes you should actually read reviews before wasting your time with a film? That is how I currently feel about this one, if I had read more about it and then decided to miss it. I actually left the cinema feeling really annoyed about it, the screening was just quiet at the end with many people wondering why we had just wasted two hours watching something where the point of it was not clear at all.
I get trying to be different and well shocking for an audience to feel different emotions but everything about this film was lost on me. Leaving more of an angry state than a content and happy one which I feel you should feel the most when watching a film. You should be able to enjoy it and well quite frankly at least understand parts of it. Maybe I just didn’t get it at all. I want to know how people loved it?
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