I guess we can't criticize Tate Taylor for trying something new, but there's nothing new about Ma for audiences.
A small group of high schoolers bond over their desire to illegally drink, and wait outside the liquor store asking passerby to purchase the goods for them. One finally does, one Sue Ann Ellington, a veterinary technician, and she seems to recognize a connection with one of the kids. After she anonymously reports them, the kids are let free because of an officer's friendship with one of their fathers (played by Luke Evans). Not long after, Sue Ann again buys their alcohol and offers her basement as a safe place for them to party. Her generosity makes her very popular with the high schoolers, who invite all their friends and begin to call their benefactress "Ma".
The disturbing moments increase in frequency and violence. Ma begins harassing the kids, who suspect she's stealing from them and getting too clingy. Luke Evans knows she's up to no good and confronts Ma about it, and then things go downhill quickly. We learn their history, in which Sue Ann was publicly shamed by Luke Evans -- her high school crush -- and has never forgiven the golden boy and his privileged friends. It would seem her intentions toward his child and his friends are motivated by cold-blooded revenge.
And that's where the movie flounders. We've seen the psycho biddy movies with the vengeful old woman and her supposedly handicapped daughter. We've seen the unhinged outsider plotting for the day when she can make those who wronged her know how it feels to be on the outside looking in, as Ma ominously declares. We've seen the deranged killer torturing kids and killing them (or attempting to), and often in similar ways. This movie never really makes us care for Ma; we know going in she's bonkers, and even in the flashback meant to help us sympathize with her, she comes across as a guillible romantic who maybe didn't deserve her ill treatment but certainly wasn't smart enough to avoid it. The point of the film was marketed to be -- and, arguably, is -- watching Octavia Spencer as the crazy bad guy.
So why didn't they let her go whole hog? Her performance is solid, of course, and all the better because we've never seen her do this before. But the marketing made this movie seem as if we'd be more in her head, getting crazy along with her, losing all our conventions and expectations along the way. We don't. In fact, the rest of the film is almost banal in comparison: endlessly predictable, dripping with sentiment, and barely coherent between shock scenes. And by "shock" I mean chilling, effectively spooky, sometimes squirm-inducing, but nothing we haven't seen before. The filmmakers also (to me, their greatest sin) squander the rest of the cast, which includes Juliette Lewis, Missi Pyle, and Allison Janney.
It's tough to swallow something that promised so much and delivered so little. Then again, I'd happily watch more movies with Octavia Spencer going crazy and with Luke Evans tied to a bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment