Alice, Darling Review

Making a reliable shift into thrillers and mysteries, Anna Kendrick has become a firm face for more than a few interesting features over the last half-decade. The Accountant provided a firm supporting role, her featuring qualities in The Day Shall Come was interesting and A Simple Favour proved engaging, if a little shaky. Much the same for Alice, Darling, then. This Mary Nighy piece depends more on the conviction of the horrors of abuse than it does on the shift it takes. As long as the foundations are there and the pay-off is a believable evaluation of real trouble and fear then Alice, Darling can consider itself a success. That literal sinking feeling in the opening, the extreme close-ups that chart the fear, is as good a start as any.

All of that depends on the solid work Kendrick offers up here though. She is the key to making this, at most, watchable. Nighy’s debut behind the camera is not as exciting as it could have been but it certainly offers up the right style and pace for a haunting little thriller. Simon (Charlie Carrick) appears to be a controlling freak show from the start. Nighy is smart in showing how sly that is. Alice, Darling works when it is submerging its characters in uncomfortable situations, namely Alice (Kendrick). Nighy appears to work on the idea that the more of that, the better the payoff will be. In effect, it works, but Alice, Darling fails to provide an initial intimacy between Alice and Simon.

Cold and shallow the pay-off may need to be, for the sake of some believability, there needs to be some reason for the two characters to have an attraction, to stay together. Part of that lacking togetherness comes from Nighy hoping that the immediacy of the premise will be enough to hook an audience, rather than build toward it. Kaniehtio Horn and Wunmi Mosaku are both solid staples for this piece and do little else but provide the obvious that Kendrick’s performance seems blind to. Kendrick and company are the real reason this story works, which lacks that effective gut punch in the latter stages. Little moments give flickers of some quality and much of it comes from Kendrick and the self-doubt deployed in strong but confusing moments that feel like a rush to the finish line but also a slow drag in getting there.

Key to Alice, Darling though is of course a feeling of respect for the story and a move for the characters to come together in the face of a problem. That is latched onto and exposed well. It just depends on the performances entirely. There is no major shift, no striking remorse or delicacy in the subtext. It is a little obvious, clear and lacking in confidence at times, but Alice, Darling is at least, at its core, extremely solid. Having Kendrick offered tougher and tougher material for her performances is great, her talents on-screen elevate this as much as it does for the rest of these fairly solid but ever-so-slightly lacking experiences. Gaslighting bits and pieces throughout, but it is hard to feel anything but the obvious contempt Alice, Darling is gunning for when showing the New York artist that is so clearly, almost too clearly, a nasty piece of work.