Happy Halloween, my ghoulings and ghosties! We've reached the end of our Horrorthon and I think it was a rousing success. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.Our last entry is really only a horror movie if you are a bad person forced to face the consequences of your shitty life. Otherwise, it's a fun, spiteful little affair before we head into the relentless good cheer of the Christmas season.
Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robin (Rebecca Hall) have moved to California to start a new life. Simon's career is on the up and the couple is desperately trying to move forward and start a family of their own. A chance meeting with one of Simon's school fellows neatly derails all their pretty white-bread dreams. Gordon (Joel Edgerton) seems nice at first, if a little awkward, but Simon has zero interest in reconnecting. Robin begins to feel the pressure of this one-way relationship bearing down on her like a constant presence even as Simon assures her it's nothing.
If there's one thing we've learned over the past month of horror movies it's that actions have consequences. It might be days, years, sometimes even to the next generation. Your parents burn a guy alive? He's coming after your dreams. You accidentally let a kid drown? Enjoy your last summer camp, motherfuckers. Gordon doesn't have a knife glove or a hockey mask but he's just as relentless in his pursuit of what could loosely be called justice. The real beauty here is Robin's journey from unwitting and happy to possible victim to angry and knowledgable. She feels the emotional dissonance of her husband's shunning of Gordon much more strongly and this reflected guilt leads to a lot of her anxiety and paranoia. Simon's instinct is to gaslight his wife in order to "protect" her from the sins of his youth, which backfires horribly.
Jason Bateman has always excelled at playing barely likable characters and he is pitch perfect here. Edgerton seems a little wiped out, but he was also writing and directing so maybe he was just tired. Hall is channeling some Mia Farrow fragility and it looks good on her. This isn't one I would buy but I'm happy to have seen it.
Pumpkin rating: 3.4/5
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