La Guêpe

In dark Bath-based British dramatic-thriller "The Wasp" middle-class Naomie Harris is stuck in a loveless marriage to douchey Dominic Allburn, so reaches out to pregnant old school-bully 'friend' Natalie Dormer with an indecent proposal... but as the two discuss details etc together, it becomes apparent that all ain't what it seems. For his debut screenplay Morgan Lloyd Malcolm adapted his own play (it has the clear feel of being based on a play) which Guillem Morales brings modestly home (with its various flaws) as his first English-language film as director. It's original, and decently engaging, though it lacks the strong stinging edge that woulda made it great.

The Wasp comes from a long line of multi-layer thrillers that have a better-than-average chance I think of becoming cult classics.

These influences from the likes of The Usual Suspects to Knives Out are worn prominently on The Wasp's sleeve, but this is certainly not a bad thing. The script is pretty tight, and the revealing of the layers to the story are surprising to say the least. At a tidy hour and half, the film never overstays its welcome, and makes for a generally enjoyable film. Dormer has a good performance throughout, she even had me convinced that she was some other actress for a while. The set designs were nice, certainly a lot of detail and thought went into the few settings the film takes place in.

However, somehow this film doesn't really live up to the greatness that it hopes to achieve. In the end, the ending did not bring as much energy as it should have, perhaps because this film wanted to be a little cleaner than it needed to be. Despite the darkness and grittiness alluded to, somehow I think more could have been done. Another huge black mark is that The Wasp falls prey to the oldest rookie mistake in the book: child actors. I probably don't need to say any more than that the child actors in the film are really bad. Finally, and perhaps the most damning thing against the film, is the ever present feeling I got that Naomi Harris was overacting very hard for the film. I don't want to put the whole thing on her though because certainly some blame can be put on the writers for her dialogue, but for a film (and genre) that typically relies on a superstar lead to carry the show, I regret to say that Harris was unable to give me a convincing performance.

Despite all this, the film is still enjoyable due to its tidy script and short runtime. Not a bad film, but no need to run to the theatres to watch it.

This movie is a remarkable testament to the power of a finely crafted screenplay and the intricate show of character interactions, both of which the writing executes with admirable skills.

The story may not be particularly resourceful, but those who appreciate conversation heavy drama enriched with well timed dialogues will find themselves pleasantly surprised.

Discourses are artfully crafted and delivered with impeccable timing and finesse, a credit to the outstanding performances of Naomie Harris and Natalie Dormer, who have brought their roles to life, kept me engaged from start to finish.

I'm pretty sure that if this was a stage play, let's say a theater experience could have been a 10.

It's one of those greatly written plays, that in the context of a movie it gets lost.

For a movie, so much dialogue turns boring... specially nowadays when everything seems to go faster or have the need to be resolved as soon as possible.

I don't know if this was a stage play or not, but as satisfaction goes I would have enjoyed it more if the experience involved an outing and a chat with a friend over coffee.

I'm one of the few who can relate to the bullying in school, and the fantasies of revenge... Not intense enough to make it a movie. Nobody is that messed up, unless you were always a total psycho.

No pun intended - the movie has some strong and stellar main performances! It also has some strong and not easy to watch scenes - for a thriller it does quite a lot right ... on the other hand it also relies heavily on chance, convenient timing and luck ... not to mention certain things that do not make sense at all .. or rather should void the plan in and of itself.

If you've seen the movie you understand what I mean - if not you may scratch your head while you are watching this. I reckon memory can be strange - we do forget things from our childhood ... on the other hand those things are touched upon ... and it doesn't seem to gel ... so it suspension of disbelief is quite high ... this really bets on the viewers not caring too much about logic ... and just being entertained by the story and the twists that come along the way ... what will it be for you then? Don't hold it in for too long.