Plot
Having recently lost her husband via suicide, Harper Marlowe heads to a small countryside to be a live in house sitter, for a beautiful estate.
While in the town, she starts to experience oddities around the town, and the men in particular treat her strangely.
What exactly is going on???
And where are all the women?
Direction
Directed by Alex Garland, who’s work behind the camera I don’t mind. He uses colours very well, with attentions to yellows and oranges during the intense flashbacks, and greens in the present time – especially during the many many out door shots within the environment.
Cast
Jessie Buckley, who was then “just” an Oscar nominee, and not yet the Oscar winner gives a solid performance as Harper. I did enjoy what she brings to the table, and she portrays someone experiencing her own type of grief well, as well as the barrage of misogyny around her.
It is however Rory Kinnear who gets the MVP playing… well pretty much every other character on the screen. Each man she encounters within the town is Kinnear, either under heavy prosthetics, different wigs, full body paint (with everything showing) – or some incredibly creepy CGI – where his face is superimposed over a 10 year old boy….
Breakdown
Through a series of flashbacks, we get to know about the protagonist Harper – that she has recently lost her husband via suicide.
Their marriage was tumultuous, and when she threatened divorce, he threatened to kill himself, physically assaulted her, and then took his own life.
She is still struggling obviously, and heads to a small town to house sit for the owner Geoffrey.
While the town is picturesque, it is the people who live in the town who are seemingly similar to one another.
As the days pass, her ???? around the town become increasingly more bizarre, from the naked man she sees on her walk (who comes into the garden of the house she is staying at – and is promptly arrested, and then released). There is the young boy, who is angered at Harper’s unwillingness to play hide and seek, and the town’s vicar – who seemingly blames Harper for not ‘forgiving’ her husband’s physical assault, essentially blaming her for his death.
The blatant misogyny, and that “all men are the same” is an obvious theme, especially given that all the men in the town are played by Rory Kinnear (or have his face superimposed onto their body).
This is never explained or mentioned, and as a viewer, I don’t think all the men in the town did actually have the same features. Otherwise, Harper surely would have mentioned this to her friend on their many phone conversations. I thought an early conversation between them (where the phone froze and we saw said friend almost in a scream pose), was going to ‘go somewhere’ but it did not.
The first two acts, had some great performances, as well as stunning visuals (the greens in the present, and around the towns forests are beautiful, and the oranges and yellows during all of the Harper/James scenes are visually stunning!)
The third act is a misfire, and complete disaster! Here, Harper is attacked by one of the ‘men’ and in self defense, slices their left arm from the elbow to the hand… then all the men have the same injury (cementing that all men are the same after all).
Then there is a completely bizzare moment where a “green man” gives birth.. over and over and over and over and over and over again… which ends with James being born and returned…
Overall
Some amazing visuals from Garland behind the camera, plus brilliant performances from Buckley and Kinnear… are not complemented by an odd premise – and a completely fumbled third act.
With no explanation of why exactly things happen… over and over again in one sequence, the audience is left to wonder what they just witnessed.
I gave this too high on my pod, so I retract my 3.5 rating there…
Had the direction not been as good, or the acting either it would have scored way less than this.
3/5
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