Alice, Darling - 2023
Alice, Darling may just be the first real hidden gem I’ve found in 2023. It’s a picture that scans like a taut psychological thriller a la 90’s era cable re-run fare (Sleeping With the Enemy) but is graciously presented with a distinct artistic veneer. For starters, the abuse here is rendered far more delicately and subtly - a glance here, the whiff of a flashback there. A line of dialogue from the mouth of Simon played over Alice’s emotive expression in the present. His words are never laced with curses, but nonetheless cut across all her would-be defenses. It adds up to a portrait of “abuse” but of the non-physical variety.
The power of Alice, Darling is in the spaces. It is not so much in what IS said, but in the quiet moments and shared looks of knowing between its three primary characters without sound. Much will be made of Anna Kendrick’s work here, and this is rightfully so. There are dark corners of the human heart, complicated internal recesses she has to plumb here which are about as far from the manic cheery girl next door of Pitch Perfect as one actress could get. Yet she’s equal to the task, with both her diminutive words and understated motions of physical hysteria carrying the film throughout its runtime. The simple act, for instance, of pulling out hair by the roots, played in repetition, stands in for entire wars of self-loathing and shame in the mind.
So the picture offers a haunting look at the ever-present danger of gaslighting and the kind of toxic co-dependency that can be formed when an individual is subjected to relentless negative messaging and brainwashing. Fortunately for us all, first-time director Mary Nighy is less interested with the typical tropes of victims getting even and more in tune with community. In fact, Alice’s REAL strength is in the power of feminine kinship and support.
Nowhere is this more clear than in a third act which turns cringe city. Reading the critics, it would seem Nighy and writer Alanna Francis have been taken to task for the lack of fullness in supporting actors Wunmi Mosaku and Tiiio Horn. An ungenerous reading would see them as two-dimensional standbys who mostly give worried looks and disgruntled sighs. But I think there is far more there. There is a power in “standing with,” in offering an ear, a shoulder. Sometimes it is just about forming a barrier in the way of this shame, and gently but firmly insisting on a counternarrative. To my mind, these woman do this emphatically well, and thus the trio is a winning one.
In sum, not without its flaws, but standing on its quieter convictions, Alice, Darling marks a worthwhile debut for director Mary Nighy and a glimpse at what the dramatic "other side” could look like for Miss Kendrick. Oh, and we can’t forget the begrudgingly winning reminder of how great a song Lisa Loeb’s "Stay" once was for us all.
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