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Resurrection Review
Image Credit: IFC Films
Loading...Directed by: Andrew Semans
Written by: Andrew Semans
Starring:
Rebecca Hall – Margaret
Tim Roth – David
Grace Kaufman – Abbie
Michael Esper – Peter
Angela Wong Carbone – Gwyn
Jaime Zevallos – Driver
Running Time: 104 minutes
Not Rated
There is a persuasive case to be made that Rebecca Hall is one of the top actors working in film today. I know that’s a lofty statement; it’s the kind of hyperbolic thing you might expect Vin Diesel to say about working with Cardi B on F9. (No hate on either, but you know it’s true.) And yet, in Hall’s case it sincerely seems warranted. Hall has been tearing it up on screen for years; even when she’s in films that don’t deserve her like Transcendence or Godzilla vs. Kong she’s delivering fantastic performances. And when she gets material that she can really sink her teeth into like the underseen Christine or The Town…watch out.
Hall loves playing complicated roles, and in some ways Resurrection is the culmination of that. Andrew Semans’ sophomore feature as a writer and a director, which hits theaters on Friday, gives Hall plenty to work with, allowing her to build her genre cred much like last year’s The Night House did. While Semans’ film doesn’t stick the landing in the same way that movie did, it hits some very strong notes thanks to the performers and some wild swings, even those that result in misses.
Hall plays Margaret, a confident and capable woman working for a biomedical company in New York. She is balancing her work life with being a single parent to Abbie (Grace Kaufman), a teen nearing 18 who’s preparing to leave the nest, and even has time to counsel a young intern under her on her relationship issues. Grace seemingly has everything under control until something comes along to mess that up: she sees her ex David (Tim Roth) at a conference she’s attending.
The reaction is immediate; she gets up and runs straight home in a panic and tells Abbie not to go out anymore. She has a surreal dream in which she experiences some incredibly disturbing imagery suggestive of trauma. Then he shows up again, seeming like he doesn’t know her when she confronts him but calling her by name.
Is this real? Or is this all just in the head of a woman obsessed with control, who is about to lose control of her daughter? These questions are floated as Margaret starts to become increasingly irrational. Her interactions with David plunge her back into the cycles of abuse she suffered under him, and she struggles not to pass those on down to Abbie. Is there any way for her to regain her freedom from David – if he indeed is real – and how much damage will she inflict until she does?
Semans’ script focuses heavily on this idea that Margaret may not be the most reliable narrator, and it’s not always entirely effective. The problem with these kinds of “Is it in their head” devices in horror is that often, it’s too obvious that it isn’t. There are times that you can easily question whether Margaret is just hallucinating David or seeing another person and thinking they’re him. Other times she has full-fledged conversations and finds hard evidence that make the idea that it’s all in her head extremely unlikely — but it then goes right back to questioning it.
It also needs to be noted that calling this a horror film isn’t quite accurate. There are absolutely elements of horror in here, particularly in the effective surreal dream sequences that Margaret experiences in the wake of David’s re-emergence (imagined or not) into her life. But this is firmly in thriller territory until it veers off course at the end.
Fortunately, there’s enough good stuff happening on the screen that this isn’t too much of a worry for the most part. Hall and Roth spark off each other, both in giving carefully constructed individual performances and in how they come together. Roth has always excelled at characters who can turn from playful to menacing at the drop of a hat, something he puts to effective use here.
That said, it’s Hall who truly shines here with what is arguably a career-best performance. She beautifully captures the nuances and contradictions of Margaret and goes into some dark places in the character’s reaction to her source of trauma popping back up. The centerpiece is a seven-minute monologue in which she recounts her past, a tale that gets progressively more horrific. Hall’s nuances in how Margaret speaks are on full display, in part because Semans never breaks away from it. We don’t see the listener’s reaction, and instead have to rely solely on Hall to sell it. It’s exceedingly uncomfortable and yet you can’t look away because of the look in Hall’s eyes, a performance that truly elevates the film as a whole.
Semans makes some other bold moves here as well: notably, he makes the film almost entirely camp-free despite the fact that some plot aspects would feel right at home in the likes of Malignant or a Cronenberg film. It generally works, at least until it doesn’t – by which I mean, a climax that goes entirely off the wall. The gore on display here is fine, but Semans leans toward the side of ambiguity. By wanting to have it both ways, the film feels suddenly uncertain of what it wants to say – and that’s a problem for a movie with such potent themes.
Even with those problems, it’s hard not to admire Resurrection for what it’s trying to do. Semans has a firm grasp on what his technique and style is, and it’s not necessarily a flaw if that’s not going to work for everyone. The transitions between genres is pretty seamless and the supporting cast is as on their game as the leads, particularly Kaufman as Abbie. If nothing else, it’s a film that makes me want to see what Semans is going to do next; he and his stars had me thinking about this one for a good long while.
Resurrection is in theaters on Friday and available on Digital and On Demand on August 5th
