Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Virginia Gilbert
Starring: Jared Harris, Juliet Stevenson, Erin Doherty
Why is it that we burden movies with such heavy expectations of
originality? We don't hold other mediums to the same standard. You never
see complaints that Bob Dylan hasn't made a jazz album and nobody expects
Iron Maiden to branch out from heavy metal, and yet a common complaint
directed towards a filmmaker is that they keep making "the same movie."
Theatre fans don't moan when yet another production of 'Hamlet' is
announced; they become immediately excited at the prospect of seeing a new
set of performers take on a classic. But as movie lovers we instantly roll
our eyes at the idea of a remake.
Those who insist on originality will likely be turned away from
writer/director Virginia Gilbert's Reawakening by a brief glance at its premise: a young woman claims to be a girl
who went missing as a 14-year-old a decade earlier. We've seen this story
before, and we all know how it plays out, right? It's an idea that has
fuelled several TV movies (the best of the bunch is Tom Holland's The Stranger Within), not one but two recent movies starring Andrea Riseborough (Nancy, Here Before), and even an acclaimed documentary (The Imposter).
But Gilbert takes this well-worn idea in an unexpected direction. Our
familiarity with its ostensible narrative may cause us to second-guess the
plot, to form ideas in our mind about its various characters, but Gilbert
is aware of this and uses it to her film's advantage. This is a far more
humanist take on this concept than we've seen before. It's initially
presented as a mystery (Gilbert acknowledges our obsession with solving
crimes from the couch by making her film's central couple a pair of
detective show buffs), but at a certain point solving the puzzle becomes
irrelevant. It's a psychological thriller that places far more emphasis on
its psychology than its thrills.
Middle-aged Londoners John (Jared Harris) and Mary (Juliet Stevenson) have spent the past decade attempting to solve the mystery of the
disappearance of their 14-year-old daughter Clare. John follows random
young women in the streets if they bear any remote resemblance to Clare,
while Mary sits in her daughter's darkened bedroom and speaks to an
imaginary child. They've both found their ways of dealing with their
burden, but you get the sense they're unable to share it.
On the 10-year anniversary of Clare's disappearance, the police launch a
fresh public appeal for information, releasing a computer-generated image
of how a now 24-year-old Clare might look. A couple of days later John
thinks he sees a young woman who fits that very description, but he loses
her in the winding streets. On returning home, he's shocked to find that
Clare (Erin Doherty) has returned home.
Is this young woman really Clare? She certainly bears a physical
resemblance, and she seems privy to intimate details of Clare's childhood.
Mary accepts without question that this young woman is indeed her
daughter, but John isn't convinced. He probes "Clare" with questions and
demands that she take a DNA test. Clare agrees in principal, but finds
ways to dodge actually doing so. Their differing responses to the "return"
of their daughter drives a wedge between John and Mary. Desperate for
answers, John begins investigating this mysterious young woman's
claim.
Having seen movies of this ilk before, we find ourselves questioning the
motivations of all three central protagonists. Is Clare for real or an
imposter, and if the latter, what are her motivations? Why is John so
disturbed at the idea of Clare finally showing up? Why does Mary accept it
so readily? Do they have something to hide? What made Clare leave her home
in the first place? Gilbert deploys brief flashbacks that serve to raise
more questions rather than provide answers, but our main takeaway is that
John wouldn't need to search for answers now had he asked more questions
of his daughter as a child.
As such questions swarm through our minds, we begin to resemble John in
his obsession to get to the bottom of this turn of fate. John is driven to
the point of madness, his marriage falling apart and his career as an
electrician threatened by his inability to think clearly on the job. At a
certain point both the film and the audience begin to pose the question of
whether it really matters whether Clare is genuine or not.
Harris and Stevenson are as great as you'd expect from such established
veterans of the British screen, but it's Doherty who proves the film's
revelation. She plays Clare in a manner that keeps us guessing, all
nervous tics that might suggest guilt over leaving her parents or a fear
of being caught out. She carries herself with a self-conscious stiffness,
her long hair hanging in front of her face like a defensive shield. She
gives Clare the appearance of a flag at half-mast the morning after a
national tragedy. She's sinister but also sympathetic. We simultaneously
understand why Mary accepts her and John recoils. Doherty has established
herself as something of a rising star in British TV and on stage in recent
years, and her gripping turn here suggests she's now set for an exciting
future on the big screen.
Reawakening is in UK/ROI cinemas
from September 13th.
