She Will
Composer Clint Mansell seems to have an affinity towards stories of characters and their deep connection to nature. Last year, he created a masterful soundscape for “In the Earth,” and for Darren Aronofsky, he explored man’s challenging of nature in “The Fountain” and “Noah.” In “She Will,” we get another complicated story about humanity and nature, through the language and ideas of folk horror. Mansell’s score is as striking and singular as you would expect.
Over the past few years, we’ve started to see a public outcry for accountability towards those in filmmaking who abused and took advantage of their station to prey on actresses. How does one handle that in a film without cheapening the subject, or exploiting the victims? I think screenwriters Kitty Percy and Charlotte Colbert (Colbert also directs) has found a way to do so, and it’s because their way in is not from that subject at all. In “She Will,” the main character of Veronica (Alice Krige) will be reminded of it, but only confront it after a connection with the natural world that will change her life moving forward. What does that mean, however? At the very least, it means that she will not be haunted by one particular part of her past moving forward.
Veronica Ghent is an actress who has just had a double mastectomy. As part of her recovery, she is going on a healing retreat in rural Scotland; her nurse, Desi (Kota Eberhardt), is going with her. When they arrive, and Veronica sees that it is not just for women only, she wants to leave, but the weather prevents them from going. Veronica tries to make the best of it, but her past- specifically, a famous movie getting a follow-up from the same director (Malcolm McDowell)- is coming back to haunt her; there have long been questions about the nature of their relationship- she was a teenager when the film was made. That, plus some unexpected side effects from her surgery, might make this retreat more therapeutic than she initially thought.
Colbert isn’t afraid of going dark and surreal when it comes to this film’s imagery; in fact, there are very few moments where light shines through, even during the daytime scenes. The way she visualizes the supernatural as something that comes from the natural is one of this film’s strongest aspects; normally, subtle would be better, but the way some of these scenes unfold, you need to go bigger, and that’s where the musical landscape from Mansell comes into play. His work feels more akin to sound design than it is traditional musical composition at times, which is why “In the Earth” came to mind earlier. “She Will” definitely has a lot of shock factor going for it, but I’m not sure if it lands the emotional beats it wants to, which is why- ultimately- it’s more of an intriguing curiosity as a genre exercise than a great entry into the genre. It’s well worth being curious about, however.
