‘Alice, Darling’ needs some help
HANDOUT
When you think of a movie about a woman experiencing emotional abuse in her relationship, what do you picture? An impactful drama released in theaters or a TV movie of the week?
This is not a commentary on the subject matter–it’s important, which goes without saying but let’s say it anyway–but the struggle for a two-hour production to present something without the visual cues of physical abuse. “Alice, Darling” attempts to tell this story through flickers of memories and twitches, lost hair and vanishing self-esteem. In her best role and performance in years, Anna Kendrick does all she can, revealing both the person Alice’s friends (Wunmi Mosaku, Kaniehtiio Horn) know her as along with the person she has become due to her boyfriend Simon’s (Charlie Carrick) treatment–an onslaught of comments that no one else sees that create a dependence and control from which Alice feels she can not escape.
In its best moments, “Alice, Darling” presents this private trauma as isolating and seemingly without end. Shame, then, that the film also includes a subplot about a missing girl that feels like it belongs in another movie, and a plot focused largely around Alice and her friends going away for a week. (Not to mention too many superficial metaphors involving water.) It’s worth considering if this story would’ve been better told by depicting the red flags of an abuser like Simon and how someone might find themselves in a relationship with someone like him, beyond simply the impact of being in it.
Kendrick, a producer on the film, has spoken out about her own experience with abuse. This just-OK movie is part of a necessary conversation, but only accomplishes so much on its own.
C+
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