Swallow

I was weirdly taken with this movie. Reading the description, I was pretty hesitant about actually watching it but I'm so glad I did.

Swallow is a slow, ponderous, captivating and cringe-inducing story of a woman who's life is slowly unraveling when she finds that lap of luxury she's lovingly married into turns out to actually be a stifling gilded cage.

The psychological turmoil that Bennett portrays was really subtle and moving. We don't get a string of explanatory diatribes, we get her performance and it absolutely works.

This is hard to watch at times though. Our lead character does love up to the title. She swallows things. Things that shouldn't be swallowed and it's hard to watch but I found it incredibly effective.

Swallow is wonderful example of slowly building psychological distress and simultaneously a display of Bennett's skill. This is going to be a really unpleasant experience for a lot of people but if you can appreciate the exploration of the psyche then you may just enjoy the journey this takes you on.

On the plus side this is a well-made movie and the location on the Hudson River above NYC is very picturesque. For me the main reason to enjoy this movie is the performance of Haley Bennett as the afflicted young wife, Hunter. She is really good in the role.

There is a malady called "pica" and if you look it up you'll find all those things depicted in this story, eating ice, swallowing metallic objects, eating paper, eating dirt, etc. The story attempts to tie Hunter's behavior to aspects of her birth and upbringing, and includes some sessions with a therapist, but the sum of its parts is muddled. We see the story arc but it does not tie up neatly into a whole story.

Hunter's new husband is the son of a very wealthy family and he himself is head of a corporation. The whole family, son, dad, mom, treat Hunter as a curiosity, a mystery to be solved, dictating what she should do, even forcing her to have a male nurse follow her at home 24/7 to make sure she quits swallowing things that might yet again send her to the hospital.

Naturally she reaches a breaking point and has to get out of the situation, but where does she go from there?

A moderately interesting movie, I watched it at home on DVD from my public library, my wife skipped.

An extremely self-aware A-to-Z psychological thriller about taking back your life through rituals of control, complete with patriarchal caricatures and metaphors of intrusion left and right (think Aronofsky's "mother!"--but a dark comedy).

Approaches the level of Snakes on a Plane or Teeth on self-aware high-concept absurdity, yet manages to be taken seriously thanks to a great performance by lead actress Haley Bennett, lush cinematography, and a constant stream of creative ways to push the autonomy message over the top (the first frames of the film are close-ups of farm-to-plate preparation of lamb meat).

Swallow is destined to be a cult-classic. It's the quintessentially bold, fun, and unique indie film festival offering (Anna and the Apocalypse was that film for me last year).

Highly recommended, but not for the squeamish.

Tv was on and I happened to walk in the room after the film had just started. I adore the lead actress (she always kills it in her roles, girl on a train is a perfect example) and I found myself sitting down and watching it the whole way through because I couldn't believe what I was watching. Like others have said before, I found myself wanting this poor girl to get some real help, not what she was getting. My eyes would water up and I was even talking to the tv at her, trying to offer my own compassion for her. The ending wasn't all tied up in a happy little bow in some fairytale fashion. It was right for the story- in my opinion anyways. Gave me tremendous empathy for anyone suffering from what she was and why she most likely was. I was sad watching her story but I'm not sorry I watched it at all.

Originality within the bounds of reality is a rare achievement in film or cinema these days. Haley Bennett leaves us under no illusion of the psychological strain her past and present circumstances have had and are having on her. Tormented in so many ways as so many people are in these confusing, evolving and ever changing times - our hunter gatherer minds can find all that's thrown their way a little tricky to wash down, but there are ways to compensate.