Shudder Saturday: Attachment (2022)

Some people are fortunate enough to go through their lives in a state of blissful harmony. They have a great relationship with their family members, and there's a smooth transition later in life when they forge a strong connection with someone they fall in love with. Those people are very rare though. You can call me cynical if you like, but I would estimate that those people are actually so rare that you should buy yourself a lottery ticket on the day you meet any one of them. Attachment looks at someone in a more common situation, struggling to maintain a close, sometimes claustrophobic, relation with their mother as they develop a relationship with someone they have quickly developed a strong bond with.

Ellie Kendrick is the woman at the heart of this triangle. She plays Leah, a Jewish academic living in London, her own home situated one floor above the home of her mother (Chana, played by Sofie Gråbøl). Josephine Park is Maja, a Danish woman who inadvertently comes between the two. Having started a relationship with Leah without knowing too much about her, Maja quickly tries to learn more after Leah hurts herself during a seizure. Trying to navigate the mother-daughter relationship she has walked in on, as well as learning enough about Judaism to avoid any embarrassing errors, Maja soon starts to suspect that there's more for her to be worried about than the usual pitfalls of meeting your partner's family.

Writer-director Gabriel Bier Gislason is actually both Danish and Jewish himself (from what I could glean while seeking out some more information about him online anyway), which makes his feature debut a fairly logical move after his work elsewhere, working as either a translator or helming a couple of his own short films. Attachment feels both familiar and a step removed from the everyday, which proves how well Gislason does at conveying that sense of someone wandering into a world they are unfamiliar with, be it another country or the trappings of another religion. It would be easy to assume that Gislason has crafted this from his own experiences, but maybe he just has a good empathy for people who end up trying to understand something nuanced and complex from a position of relative distance and ignorance.

Although Kendrick is very good in her role, she has arguably the lightest workload. It's Park and Gråbøl carrying most of the weight, showing their own struggles and their strain as they try to find a way to get along with one another. Park is easy to root for, and Gråbøl plays her character in a way that allows viewers to know that her cold and harsh behaviour seems to stem from a place of good intentions. David Dencik plays Lev, someone who can both deliver the required exposition and also play a prominent part in the third act, when things start to become clearer for the two women trying to maintain a steady orbit around Leah.

There are some familiar elements used here, and those familiar with any Jewish mythology should know where it's all heading from very early on, but Gislason doesn't bother trying to fool viewers, nor does he add too much to distract from the tension that keeps moving between Maja and Chana like static electricity. You don't get a load of bells and whistles, but you do get a consistently clear and pleasing visual flow from cinematographer Valdemar Winge Leisner, a very good score from Johan Carøe, and the strength of the lead performances from people who know that the layered material will satisfy those who are happy to be patient with something enjoyably different from numerous other riffs on this kind of thing.

7/10

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Mubi Monday: The Levelling (2016)

I've seen quite a few movies and TV shows recently that seem to be focused on families and pain. Maybe you can't have one without the other. You certainly can't have a strong connection to someone without an increased worry about losing them, that much is for sure. The Levelling is about loss, but it's about someone losing their life in a way that creates a sudden void in the lives of others, perhaps urging them to rethink whether or not they want to stay disconnected from other people who share their worries and hurt.

Ellie Kendrick plays Clover, a young woman who has to return to the family farm after receiving the news that her younger brother, Harry, has shot himself. This means that Clover has to deal with her father, Aubrey (David Troughton), a man who doesn't seem to view her as the capable and intelligent young woman she is. There's also a few lads ready to help work on getting the farm back into shape, including James (Jack Holden), who was a friend to Harry. The more that Clover discovers about the way her brother was running the farm, the more questions start to arise. 

A slow-moving film, The Levelling shows just how suddenly drops of grief and resentment can build up to create a raging river. The title of the film can be taken a number of different ways, but I think it mainly refers to the accusatory tone that Clover and her father aim at one another, as well as a reminder that death itself IS the great leveller. Bearing that in mind, many scenes work as well as they do because of the layers of what is said, what is unsaid, and what is being twisted up in the pained minds of characters who aren't necessarily the best communicators in the best of circumstances.

Writer-director Hope Dickson Leach does well with her feature debut, keeping everything nicely tight and focused, thematically, and allowing for many moments that show characters working around one another, whether that is trying to run the farm or trying to get answers to probing questions. Although it’s a very small central cast, basically just a two-hander for many scenes, Leach is also helped by having the right people onscreen.

Kendrick and Troughton are both equally excellent, the former trying to keep her hurt and confusion contained while keeping herself busy on the farm, the latter realising just how his life has suffered from the loss of his children, even before the sudden death of his son. Holden does very well in his one or two main scenes, and Joe Blakemore appears in flashback to give us the very briefest glimpse of the deceased Harry.

Not necessarily an easy watch, it is cold and slightly awkward at times, but that is how it should be. That is how it can feel when grief forces people to reunite, to reconsider the past, present, and future, and to keep everything moving along when all you really want to do is hide under a duvet and cry your heart out.

8/10

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