Shallow - more shallow - Alice, Darling
Without a doubt, abusive relationships are an extremely important subject of our time. If sophisticated and served with the required depth, even movies might clear things up and maybe even change things for the better. Sadly, this is not the case here. This movie's main flaws are in it's shallowness and clearly one-sided view on a very sensitive topic:
(1) All we experience is Alice's suffering and incapability to break out of her relationship. There is a victim and a culprit -- that's how simple it is presented in a strictly subjective way. But monsters are made, not born. What about her boyfriend, why is he acting like this and how did he become who he is? This would have been one of the rare cases where flashbacks would have made sense. The film totally misses the opportunity to make the audience understand the mechanics and causes of this relationship by showing both sides of the story.
(2) We learn about Alice as a character who is suffering in an abusive relationship. That's it. But who and how was she before she met him, why did she fall in love with him and how did she change? It would have been a much more emotional impact, if the audience would have been able to compare her former self to the current situation.
(3) In an abusive relationship, there are only victims -- meaning the abuser is also suffering. Since her boyfriend suffers from personality disorder, he's a sick person. How does he suffer, what about his other relationships to friends etc.? Did he made some efforts to get healing? There's nothing like that in here, because that would not fit his awfully simplistic role: The evil torturer.
(4) Making a movie about mental health issues bears a great challenge: You have to explain it properly to the audience -- otherwise it will be misunderstood, with all the after effects. Not everyone, who criticizes his partner, likes a certain haircut on him or needs his confirmation from time to time, is a narcissist. This movie fails here completely and serves every wannabe psychologist very well.
Without a doubt, due to it's simplified and one-sided approach this movie will surely comfort a certain part of the audience. Anyone else, who is rally interested in this matter, will most likely be disgusted by it's shallowness. I don't think it was the intention of the creators but if you see it in the most negative way, this movie is sexistic even. A female abuser would have made it more interesting but here it's a white male in his 30s. Guess what.
Nevertheless and despite the several deep flaws in it's storyline etc., the movie is well shot. Acting is decent, especially Wunmi Mosaku and Charlie Carrick do a great job. I give 5/10 stars, because it's technically well done and picks up an important subject -- though it could tell it's shallow story in 30 minutes.
(1) All we experience is Alice's suffering and incapability to break out of her relationship. There is a victim and a culprit -- that's how simple it is presented in a strictly subjective way. But monsters are made, not born. What about her boyfriend, why is he acting like this and how did he become who he is? This would have been one of the rare cases where flashbacks would have made sense. The film totally misses the opportunity to make the audience understand the mechanics and causes of this relationship by showing both sides of the story.
(2) We learn about Alice as a character who is suffering in an abusive relationship. That's it. But who and how was she before she met him, why did she fall in love with him and how did she change? It would have been a much more emotional impact, if the audience would have been able to compare her former self to the current situation.
(3) In an abusive relationship, there are only victims -- meaning the abuser is also suffering. Since her boyfriend suffers from personality disorder, he's a sick person. How does he suffer, what about his other relationships to friends etc.? Did he made some efforts to get healing? There's nothing like that in here, because that would not fit his awfully simplistic role: The evil torturer.
(4) Making a movie about mental health issues bears a great challenge: You have to explain it properly to the audience -- otherwise it will be misunderstood, with all the after effects. Not everyone, who criticizes his partner, likes a certain haircut on him or needs his confirmation from time to time, is a narcissist. This movie fails here completely and serves every wannabe psychologist very well.
Without a doubt, due to it's simplified and one-sided approach this movie will surely comfort a certain part of the audience. Anyone else, who is rally interested in this matter, will most likely be disgusted by it's shallowness. I don't think it was the intention of the creators but if you see it in the most negative way, this movie is sexistic even. A female abuser would have made it more interesting but here it's a white male in his 30s. Guess what.
Nevertheless and despite the several deep flaws in it's storyline etc., the movie is well shot. Acting is decent, especially Wunmi Mosaku and Charlie Carrick do a great job. I give 5/10 stars, because it's technically well done and picks up an important subject -- though it could tell it's shallow story in 30 minutes.
- romanprv
- Feb 2, 2023