Resurrection: Film Review
Rebecca Hall blew me away with her performance in The Night House earlier this year and she did so once again with Resurrection. Horror/thrillers are where she gets to shine!
In Andrew Semans‘ psychological thriller, she plays Margaret, a British expat who has a high-powered respectable career and a good relationship with her 17-year-old daughter Abbie (Grace Kaufman) in Albany, New York. Her whole world falls apart when a blast from the past named David (Tim Roth) re-enters her life. Margaret becomes obsessed with him, convinced that he’s stalking her and gearing up to harm her and her daughter, and slowly spirals out of control.
The mystery of David and their history is the backbone of the story and it had me gripped. What did he do to make her react this way?! The not knowing was more effective because after everything was revealed, I wasn’t as hooked. This is probably because it gets really bizarre and I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
This movie is very dark and gets super weird, particularly in the bloody, violent climactic scene. It also ends quite ambiguously and I didn’t know what to make of it – but I guess that’s the point; it’s designed to leave you thinking about it. In another negative, there is a lengthy monologue which is basically one big exposition dump. It’s not the best in terms of writing but I could forgive it because the content was interesting and Hall nailed it with her gripping delivery.
Hall’s performance is absolutely sensational. I was constantly impressed by the depths of despair and paranoia she portrayed as Margaret. Is she losing her mind or does she have every reason to be freaking out? She’s in every scene in the movie and we watch as she mentally unravels, becomes scarily obsessed with protecting her daughter from David and tries to cope with the trauma that’s remerged in her life. She becomes a danger to herself and others and needs to get help.
Roth plays such an intriguing character – he is bad news but he plays David so straightforward, so normal and matter-of-fact. He doesn’t come across as sinister at all, which makes the revelations all the more chilling.
Resurrection boasts two fantastic performances and an intriguing idea but it was a bit too odd for my liking.
Available digitally from Monday 5th December