Film Review — "She Will"
Lemme tell ya… Nerds love Alice Krige.
Don’t get me wrong, that’s not derogatory—I count myself among “nerds,” as someone who’s been a fan of Krige since watching Star Trek: First Contact as a kid. (And I was delighted when she popped up earlier this year in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 9.) I wrote the cheeky statement above because I still bear the scars of having once been the punching bag of the day for a very specific corner of fandom twitter.
After watching Oz Perkins’ Gretel & Hansel, I somewhat sarcastically tweeted something to the effect of wow, the witch in gretel & hansel and the borg queen in star trek are the same person, that’s neat. And boy oh boy… rancorous fans of Krige found my silly, innocuous little tweet and had a wee field day defending (?) an actress who would never see their futile onslaught—all because, it would seem, I neglected to credit their goddess by name (?) in my frivolous, wasn’t-meant-to-be-taken-seriously tweet.
Isn’t actress fanaticism grand?! I mean, not that I, Brandon Stanwyck, would know anything about that…
Funny enough, Alice Krige plays an actress in She Will. But not just any actress—an actress of high stature, with a name that surely rings bells in the world of this story. Veronica Ghent. The film opens on her and her full-time nurse Desi, played by Kota Eberhardt, traveling by train through Europe, which immediately made me think of Clouds of Sils Maria, another fabulous film that opens on an actress of a certain age journeying via train with an assistant. This comparison never really left my mind, although what She Will ultimately becomes is far more horrific.
Genre queen Alice Krige is perfect for this part. Through her exquisite beauty and sharp features that could cut diamonds, Krige can exude a steely coldness or melt into a tender vulnerability, depending upon how she wishes her intricately constructed character to be perceived from moment to moment. Or, perhaps it has more to do with how Veronica, consciously and deliberately, wishes herself to be seen… Veronica Ghent is a woman who has been through it, to put it mildly. She has recently undergone a double mastectomy and is continuously in immense physical pain. She is also, for reasons we gather as the film unfolds, masking decades-old emotional pain as well.
Veronica has been in the public eye virtually her entire life. She made her film debut at age 14, when she starred in a movie whose director targeted and violated her. Coming up in a misogynistic industry, literally being lensed through male gazes every day since puberty, Veronica likely became accustomed to “acting” anytime others were around. Now, she seeks solitude as she convalesces in the Scottish Highlands. In addition to recovering from major surgery, Veronica wants to avoid the media hubbub surrounding a potential remake of the controversial film that launched her career so many years ago.
The incomparable Malcolm McDowell plays Eric Hathbourne, the culpable yet lauded director who traumatized Veronica in her youth. McDowell is one of my favorite actors of all time, and She Will reminded me of why. He is a force of nature who doesn’t radiate the slightest bit of pretention while making absolute meals of his parts, in films big and small—and he’s definitely no stranger to genre pictures. Plus, to play the condemnable Hathbourne, McDowell has a robust list of peculiar and/or contentious directors from his own past to draw upon for inspiration: Stanley Kubrick, Paul Schrader, Rob Zombie… So, he, too, is a flawless casting choice.
And here’s to hoping he collaborates with the not-detestable Charlotte Colbert again!
She Will is a remarkable feature film debut. In addition to the incredible talent on display on screen, the prowess behind the camera is equally adept. This is a movie heavy on the visuals. Between Veronica’s hallucinatory dreams and her visions of epiphany, Colbert demonstrates that she is fully capable of conceiving macabre, bewitching portraits. Then there’s the “real” world, where the misty atmosphere and mushy terrain that Colbert conjures had me feeling like my rug was squishing beneath my feet, which is a great thing for a story so linked to the land it’s set on.
As Veronica gathers her strength, she becomes intimately acquainted with the grounds upon which her and Desi’s cabin was built: a mass murder site where innocent women, suspected of witchcraft, were burned alive long ago. Veronica feels herself drawn to the echoes of these women set aflame by a patriarchal culture akin to ours. Their embers may have stopped smoldering generations ago, but Veronica’s unburied pain reignites them. She becomes their vessel—their phoenix—and they provide her fuel to transcend.
Hathbourne got away with violating teenage Veronica and then went on to have a flourishing, blemish-free career because a male-dominated industry (and audience) let him. But now a supernaturally empowered Veronica wants him to answer for it.
Alice Krige is so fuckin’ fierce that you have to wonder why she hasn’t had more starring vehicles. Krige demonstrates the crystalline might of a Sissy Spacek, the finespun complications of a Vanessa Redgrave, and the unbridled severity of a Piper Laurie. With this multifaceted performance, she masterfully marries Charlotte Colbert’s spectacular vision. So, I understand why Dario Argento thoroughly endorses this film, all things considered. When his name popped up in the opening credits as “presenting” the film, I thought I’d selected his new film on Shudder by mistake. But nope. He just loves this. And if that’s not an endorsement, then what the hell is?!
