Kindred
“Kindred” has a lot going on in it. It’s an anxiety thriller about pregnancy, a black woman’s nightmare about being held hostage by white people, and a film about loss and the frustrating dynamics that sometime exist in families. It succeeds in all of these, and is a strong continuation of such movies by IFC Films in a year where all of these issues feel like they are relevant in the time of COVID, not that writer-director Joe Marcantonio had any sense of that, or the film would be less topical in any other year. That’s why “Kindred” succeeds.
Charlotte (Tamara Lawrance) and Ben (Edward Holcroft) are in love, happy together, and visiting Ben’s mother, Margaret (Fiona Shaw) and Ben’s brother, Thomas (Jack Lowden), in the family home in England. They are having as pleasant a chat as one could expect given that Charlotte and Ben are trying to tell Margaret of their intention to move to Australia; she wants to keep them close, especially after Charlotte realizes that she is pregnant. One day, they are visiting Margaret when Ben has an accident in the horse stables, and dies. From that point forward, Charlotte is moved in to the house by Margaret and Ben, but Charlotte feels trapped after a certain point. Does she have a right to feel that way?
The screenplay by Marcantonio and Jason McColgan takes just what it needs to from “Rosemary’s Baby” to open up the premise before moving to more real-world anxieties, and a grounded reality, which leads to a battle of wills between Charlotte and Margaret that gives Lawrance and Shaw plenty of material to gnaw at as we see things unfold. Family secrets and dynamics are pushed to the brink, and Charlotte is put in a position of not being able to make choices on her own, and when she does, she is perceived as crazy. This is a taut thriller about gaslighting that, up until the very end, puts us in a position of not being able to get out, and empathizing with the main character every step of the way.
There are some interesting personal dynamics at play in this film. Family is always a tricky situation, especially when you don’t see things the same way. And it is complicated. Thomas, Ben’s brother, seems like a smart and insightful young man who should be doing more in life, and could easily be on his own. Now, there are physical reasons he is living at home with Margaret (she walks with a cane), but when we learn about his emotional reasons for doing so, it gives shade to the character we don’t necessarily get prior to that moment, and points to him, possibly, being a more caring force than Margaret. Where that goes is tender, but also shows just how far gone someone can get when family is concerned. The final moments of this film are unnerving in where they leave the characters, and they would not have the impact they do were it not for this complexity in Thomas. He is always there, in the middle of things, and when he finally has his moment, it’s as quietly powerful as any horror movie has delivered this year for what it means for the future of these characters. After all, he’s doing what he needs to for his family.
