Anna Kendrick is an actress I tend to forget exists. Not due to any particular reason regarding her performances, but due to the fact that it seems she chooses very specific films and often enough they just slip through the seams, completely failing to be captured by my radar. Though in the occasional time I do manage to come across something with her in, I haven't had much to complain about. Well, the other day I came across Alice, Darling. A film that I briefly read about and assumed it would be quite bad in this current heavily politicised climate. But I was willing to give it a chance, mostly curious of how Anna Kendrick would serve as a lead in 2023.
I was surprised by the performance, and the film! I'm glad I gave it a chance, and I feel it handled its themes in a very reasonable manner that gave some weight to them and avoiding the modern climate that makes blaming and coming up with relatable ideas all too easy; instead, the film took a very realistic look at what it wanted to display. In a way that was very effective, and certainly led to much emotion being felt as the film progressed, both handled well by some good writing and attention to its themes, but also with a very good performance by Anna Kendrick, who definitely carried the film. While the co-stars were certainly not up to the same level, but I feel in a way it worked in ensuring the light was always placed on the character of Alice, our protagonist.
Alice, Darling ended up being a film I very much enjoyed watching. An unexpected surprise that resulted in a story that I'm sure many will be able to understand, unfortunately.
With a rather short runtime Alice, Darling is a film that at its core explored the life and struggles of Alice, an average woman seemingly in a happy relationship with a struggling artist. Though rather quickly we start to witness some red flags popping up, issues within the relationship that don't quite explain what's going on, but tell us that something isn't quite right. Perhaps for some at this early stage things might be more obvious, but I feel that the film intentionally keeps things a bit vague as to display the ways in which these issues can go undetected at first. That is to state that Alice, Darling is a film that explores emotional abuse. Manipulation that takes place and slowly eats away at a person, leading to them becoming oblivious to the issues they now face daily, ultimately resulting in their own minds believing that things are well, and that any issues that appear within the relationship are in fact their own mistakes.
At first the film takes a look at the relationship and the ways that Alice hides the issues she faces. How she often just accepts the abuse and never sticks up for herself. Doing what she's told and when she is told, how to feel and how to act. But we don't quite see the psychological impact this has on her, and for the most part things don't seem as bad as they are. I liked the way it did this, because not only did it serve as pacing to the film, but served as a realistic manner of depicting that these issues can take place in any location and to any person, without it really being clear that something is wrong with them without a greater observation. From there the film slowly introduces the more psychological impacts this all has on Alice.
And this is where Anna Kendrick offers an incredibly impactful performance as Alice: a small, very brittle seeming woman. One that doesn't seem to have a violent side to her in the slightest, incapable of defending herself. She seems sweet, very gentle, and sadly incredibly easy to control out of her fears of others. Much of this is very much down to Anna Kendrick's appearance. I can't think of many actresses that would have been able to pull off her character as Alice just due to her size and younger looking appearance. She ends up being a very believable victim of psychological abuse, and her range as the emotions behind the scenes start to become apparent. Her time spent in the bathroom, quietly crying and pulling out her hair, small snaps at her friends as she defends herself and the relationship as her friends slowly start to notice something is off.
As a contrast to Anna Kendrick's build are Alice's extroverted friends of a totally opposite nature. They're larger, louder, and certainly more free. While their characters aren't all that interesting, they serve well as the counter to Alice through this, only amplifying the innocent and fragile nature of Alice. What was interesting was how much of the runtime had gone by before this part of the story unfolded. Showing how much time had been spent with the abuse going completely unknown. Hidden from view even from her closest friends.
Outside of the story is a gentle use of music, rarely used but used effectively. The lack of music made things seem more real, more connected to the audience as we feel directly from the performances rather than the music telling us what to feel. Connected with some beautiful cinematography that is simple but often has a very handheld style too it. We see slight movements in the shots, making us feel as if we are present in the location, watching all of this unfold. It definitely worked well over more static cinematography which would have given us less of an observer feeling. Instead we feel part of everything, but equally hopeless in our ability to do much regarding the situation. Adding to the complex and very troubled nature of psychologically abusive relationships; something that is even addressed via dialogue as Alice's friends point out observations of theirs only to get shut down by Alice as she finds excuses for his prior actions and odd reasoning.
I really liked the film for its realistic look at this issue. It felt real, void of tropes. From the heart without resorting to anything too dramatic and dark. Knowing how to handle the problem and show a realistic depiction of how a victim of psychological abuse may hide the issue and go about life believing that they are in fact the problem, or that there is no problem at all, that this abuse might even be normal to them and others. It's a tragic look at this sort of thing and I definitely believe Mary Nighy handled it with empathy. With Anna Kendricks absolutely being the perfect pick for Alice and carrying the film.
I really didn't expect to enjoy watching this film, I expected nothing from it. Somewhat even expected to turn it off early, but that was not the case. Instead, the film was far more impactful than I had imagined it would be. With so many things working well for it, and given just enough of a runtime to say everything it needed to.
