She Will

I'm an old lady. I teethed on Brecht, MacLeish and Albee. I came of age on the smoky balconies of 'foreign film' theaters. My husband declares, "if it's weird, you'll watch it." Little annoys me more than watching a film by a director who gets in the way of their own art - like She Wills.

The film has a very good folk horror story, finely crafted performances and an intriguing point of view, but it's thin on characterization and director Colbert's repetitively obscure ( almost navel gazing) storytelling style often leaves the audience in the cold.

Like most people, I either like a film or I don't. I can't recall ever seeing a film that left me longing to be engaged.

Off putting title. But what else could it have been called? Twelve Sisters?

On paper this sounds pretty cool. The themes and the concept have a lot of potential. I must say, stylistically I have sort of always wanted to watch this kind of movie ever since I was a youth. You know, that kind of movie filled with distinctive imagery, in which it feels more like a very long music video and only grudgingly takes a break from that so it can get back to the script.

The problem with this movie is pretty simple. Everything about it is de trop. Every element of it on the micro and macro level is just kind of excessive. By all means, really go for it in terms of cinematic panache but like I said, execution is important and this movie does not walk that fine line between chilling and goofy. It fell off a long time ago.

I want to like the story that its telling. A story of womanhood, of two characters separated by so much finding a sense of sorority, of identifying with past people but it's poorly thought through.

I get that she's an ageing former movie idol, groomed to be a masculine person's vision of feminine beauty but has now outstayed her welcome. Beginning the movie with a double mastectomy is a symbolism we can all get.

That's the other problem: while nearly every moment in its script or its visualization is a bit too much, the one exception is the most important thing: the story. I feel like I don't really know this woman. I have guessed that she's some kind of famous actor that's now going through a dark place but that's all informed attributes. They leave stuff to the imagination only when it's stuff that might have fleshed out this walking cliche, this modern Baby Jane.

Maybe it's my fault for assuming this movie was a horror movie and not simply a piece of nuanced emotional storytelling but they do not hold their cards to their chest and let the mysteriousness build. It's more Harry Potter than Silent Hill. The dialogue and actions of the people around all fit so neatly into the prescribed themes (you know, misogyny) that this film felt over all quite mechanical.

They just did not invest in the elements that would have made this an enriching emotional journey.

At one point a character remarks "creepy" which no horror character should ever do. I was almost glad someone challenged her but I was not rooting against her.

Throughout watching this movie I kept thinking of the pretty swell Post-Rock group "Maybeshewill".

'She Will' does the basic revenge plot in the evil men setting that is popular these days.

It was only 95 minutes, with around 30 of those just being beautiful nature shots with good music, yet it still felt like slow motion finalized by an abrupt ending.

Only Krige's character was significant, with everyone else just being vague plot devices. There was barely any character essence besides purely evil men and a couple of victims to show how bad all men are.

I enjoyed the cinematography, the music, and some themes of harmony with nature. If not for Krige, this would've been a disaster since she was able to handle those vague thematic sequences.

The film had nothing else to offer: no character deep dives, barely any dialogue, and thus - no emotional connection.

All that matters is those evil men get what they deserve. Everything else (the more interesting parts) doesn't really matter. Why cultivate the relationship between the two heroines, add variety to the film, and create a ground for discussion and emotional engagement? We don't need that. Why not write a good story? I'd love to invest emotionally into a revenge story. They had grounds for an interesting dive into the lead's psyche but did nothing with that.

I don't think I can recommend this film since it never goes beyond prepackaged stereotypes. The tags are also messy: comedy, drama, horror? There was indeed no comedy and no horror.

First off, I must say that the cinematography is absolutely stunning and the acting was great. What made the film worth watching however, was Clint Mansell's score. A masterpiece.

There's basically no real dialogue in the film. It's 98% imagery, i didn't mind at first, but halfway through it became so redundant and exhausting to watch a film with no conversations. This uber-Indie, "i'm so alternative" avant-garde nonsense became unspeakably annoying. The whole film is just a collection of vivid dreams and paranoias, with one or two words thrown in.

Also, easily one of the most abrupt, "what just happened here?" kind of endings.

I only finished watching it because i loved the music. I'm quite disappointed. I really wanted to love it, but it was 100% just beautifully boring.

My recommendation? Skip the movie and just listen to the soundtrack.

As usual, a lot of the reviews here will tell more about the reviewers than they will about the movie...'slow...boring...all about evil men...seen this (too) many times in the last few years'.

It is slow if you want freddy kruger or jason. But it's not that kind of horror movie...in fact, i recently mentioned in a letter to a friend that there should be a 'supernatural' category, rather than 'horror' because that would warn the zombie lovers that it's not that kind of movie and save them the frustration of watching and me the frustration of reading their usual type of review... it's mostly a visually stimulating movie...producing just the right mood for the story which seems only to be brought out in a few places...but, for me, it was very satisfying...a feast for the eyes.

Krige, as usual, does well in this film...as do all the other players whom, mostly, seem peripheral to the small story at the core.

Not horror as much as supernatural and not for the red bull guzzling kids.