The Woman
Polly McIntosh steals the show in the virtually mute title role – sullen, animalistic, growling and vicious.
The Woman comes with a lot of notoriety attached, and in some ways this is indeed the unsettling experience it is billed as, but in truth, for long stretches it is actually rather disappointing.
The story is this – respectable lawyer and family man Chris Cleek (Sean Bridgers), when hunting in the woods near his home, stumbles across a wild woman (PollyAnna McIntosh) bathing in a stream. She is clearly feral, and Cleek decides to attempt to catch and tame her. Securing her in his basement, he coerces his family into helping look after the woman, and attempts to civilise her. The presence of their wild new guest brings the families existing struggles to the surface, with the morally-dubious Cleek and his beaten-down wife also living with a psychologically disturbed son, and a teenage daughter with a secret.
The most arresting thing about The Woman is most certainly the atmosphere – it is a surreal, dreamlike affair, which we never for a second feel comfortable watching. There are brief moments of black humour to break the tension, but on the whole the film is an unusual viewing experience. We never quite get into the groove here, and in many ways that is to the films credit, it’s pleasantly unpredictable, never letting the viewer in on what may happen next.
As for that notoriety, however, it is a little difficult to see where exactly that came from. There are one or two nasty moments which may have you looking away, but experienced gorehounds will most likely find themselves longing for more and, dare we say it, a little bored in places. A couple of above – averagely violent incidents and one sequence which is disturbing in concept but perhaps the only obvious thing which happens in the script do cause a few shudders, but in truth they aren’t particularly memorable.
Perhaps the most memorable aspect of the whole film are the two lead performances. Bridgers always appears to be a man on the edge of psychosis, with an urbane exterior clearly hiding a much darker personality within, and on the occasions when he erupts he is a frightening character. McIntosh steals the show, though, in the virtually mute title role – sullen, animalistic, growling and vicious, it really is a remarkable transformation, and one which is disturbingly believeable.
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