Resurrection
**Seen at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
It’s hard to know what to say about “Resurrection,” so I’ll start by saying this much- Rebecca Hall is tremendous, Tim Roth is unsettling and this is the most anxious I’ve been watching a film since “Uncut Gems.” That’s the most certainty I can approach this film with in the immediate moments after it ended, and it’s the easiest I can discuss it without running into spoiler territory. I will try to tread lightly, however.
Andrew Semans as a writer-director clearly knows what he’s wanting to do, but how much of it is successful I’m not quite sure. The film begins with a premise about surviving trauma and an abusive and manipulative relationship that is tight before it goes off the rails into the most surreal direction a film has taken since Darren Aronofsky’s “mother!”. As much as I love Aronofsky’s film, and want to love “Resurrection,” I just don’t know if the latter has as direct a through-line towards the surreal as “mother!” did. When the film starts to enter body horror territory, it loses sight of its original ideas, and I’m not even sure what it’s trying to say anymore.
Rebecca Hall in this film is playing a woman who listens to a co-workers concerns, and is a “steel trap” when it comes to what they share. She’s successful at her job, and she’s doing what she can to raise her daughter Abbie (Grace Kaufman) by herself. She also has a friends-with-benefits relationship with Peter (Michael Esper), a co-worker, that seems to be a good de-stresser for her. One day, she starts to see someone she thinks she knows from her past, David (Tim Roth), and her anxiety spikes. Soon, she is being aggressively protective of Abbie and stalking this individual in hopes of protecting her. When she confronts David, however, his tactics reveal themselves, and he tries to lure her back.
That is about all I can say without going too deep into spoilers. What I can say is that there’s a monologue in the middle of this movie by Hall that might be one of the best pieces of acting we see all year from any actor. She’s bearing her soul, and her past, in this moment and if nothing else, people will be talking about this performance all year. Roth is positively despicable in this movie, and it’s a riveting performance. Initially, he tries to gaslight her, but that façade drops quickly, and he just gets creepier and creepier, especially in what he’s trying to tempt her with. As Abbie, I think Kaufman does fine work here, as a daughter who, as her mother gets more and more unhinged, feels more and more alone. Seeing the way this dynamic plays out throughout the film is one of the pleasures of the film.
Ultimately, however, “Resurrection” loses sight of its strongest thematic material for the sake of shocks both big (a late scene in a hotel room) and small (just how over-the-top Hall is asked to go at times). What connects with the film, though- and even some that doesn’t- is unforgettable cinema. The problem is, it doesn’t feel like it builds to anything genuine.
