A film review by Craig J. Koban August 31, 2022

RESURRECTION   

2022, R, 103 mins.

Rebecca Hall as Margaret  /  Tim Roth as David  /  Grace Kaufman as Abbie  /  Michael Esper as Peter  /  Angela Wong Carbone as Gwyn

RESURRECTION - out of all of the films that I've seen thus far in 2022 - was easily the most difficult to sit through.  

I mean that mostly as a compliment.  

What begins as an engrossing psychological thriller about a woman slowly losing her grasp on her reality with the re-appearance of a toxic ex-boyfriend in her life becomes...well...something wholly more sinister and haunting.  

Written and directed with a cold, calculating and observant eye by Andrew Semans, RESURRECTION is an ultra slow-burn affair as far as these kind of genre efforts go, and as a chronicle of the psychological warfare that erupts between the man and woman in question the film undeniably gets under your skin in ways that so few modern thrillers do.  That, and it highlights the great Rebecca Hall giving what has to be the performance of her career as a deeply damaged soul that's teetering towards physical and mental collapse.  Semans' film can be exhausting to sit through and its eleventh hour plot machinations (which I'll cover later) may be too distractingly out-there for most audience members, but he scores huge points for making a thoroughly disturbing examination of the unraveling of one's mental health.   

When we're first introduced to Margaret (Hall) she seemingly has it all in life: A powerful job as an executive, a business-savvy confidence, a lush home, and the respect of those that work under her.  On the home front she lives with her 17-year-old daughter in Abbie (Grace Kaufman), who too is an independent minded spirit.   When not at work. Margaret is having an affair with Peter (Michael Esper), a colleague of hers that happens to be married.  Things begin to spiral slowly out of control for the power suit wearing and tough talking Margaret when she makes a shocking discovery while attending a local bio-tech conference.  A few seated rows in front of her sits David (Tim Roth), and she's so alarmed by spotting him that she frantically runs out of the conference like someone fleeing a burning building.  Without going into too much detail (and to avoid obvious spoilers), David is not only her ex, but has also committed an act against her so unforgivably heinous that the mere sight of the man engages her panic reflex.  Even though David appears outwardly congenial and non-threatening (even after having one encounter with him in a park), Margaret is convinced that he's out to destroy her and Abbie.  As a result, Margaret goes into protection mode with her teen daughter...and by that I mean insanely obsessive protective mode, so much so that her kid flees from her in her own form of panic.  As the days progress, Margaret grows more and more unstable, leading to an unavoidable confrontation with David that will not end well. 

The first half of RESURRECTION is its most sensationally effective for the way that Semans immerses us in Margaret's work and personal life, which allows for her mental freefall to come off as all the more painful to endure.  At the office she's an authoritative leader that's revered so much that even her lowly interns come to her for personal advice.  At home, Margaret tries to give Abbie some semblance of personal space, but remains concerned with empty nest syndrome to come with her moving away to college.  And her love affair with Peter seems one of sexual need and convenience and doesn't seem to be evolving into a full fledged romance.  For the most part, Margaret seems in meticulous control of everything and everyone around her, but David showing up causes this typically composed and assured woman to hopelessly fold like a deck of cards.  This man popping up has almost instantly uprooted this woman's whole sense of security in the world, and she's immediately paranoid that this perceived psychopath is going to stalk both her and Abbie.  This unfortunately builds towards her once harmonious relationship with Abbie severely cracking at the seams.  Where Margaret was once concerned about losing her daughter to college, she's now fanatical when it comes to monitoring her kid's every move and action.  Ultimately, she doesn't even allow Abbie to leave the house, and this intense smothering - alongside a whole host of other actions - makes the daughter feel that her mom is going insane.   

But, this begs larger questions: Who on earth is David?  What did her do to Margaret that hurt her so badly?  Why does just looking at him make her terrified?  And most compellingly, is David really a monster that committed an unthinkable atrocity against Margaret or is he a decent, misunderstood guy and it's all in her deranged HEAD?  The best aspect of RESURRECTION is that Semans doesn't go for quick and easy answers and instead teases (or some would say torments) viewers about the inherent mysteries surrounding this couple's past relationship.  We do learn early on - without much in the way of specifics being dished out - that Margaret ended things fast with David, and after he did something that ruined her forever she abruptly left him and has been on the run ever since.  Yet, when they do have that aforementioned meeting in a park he seems calm, polite, and in control of himself.  He has also apparently moved on from whatever transpired between them.  Despite this, Margaret is just sure that David is a madman, so she begins a ruthlessly stalking campaign of him, notating his every daily move.  RESURRECTION is on incredibly enthralling ground in its navigation through the history of these two.  Even throughout the first half of the film when we don't have all of the answers, Semans hones in on the paralyzing fear and paranoia that's gaining a stranglehold on poor Margaret.   

However, is Margaret nuttier than a fruitcake or is she justified in her beliefs in David's true nature?  One of the most distressing scenes in the whole film occurs when Margaret gives a chilling monologue - to the intern that she was once counseling - that lasts for over seven minutes that details in shockingly graphic detail precisely what David did to her all of those decades ago, and it's so monstrous that maybe - just maybe - Margaret is justified in ensuring that this man doesn't come within a hundred feet of herself and Abbie.  All of this comes to a head in the film's jaw-dropping climax that - again, no spoilers - becomes too scandalously gory, violent, and takes a weird deep dive into supernatural body disturbance horror that it almost causes a whiplash effect on the rest of the film building up to this point.  When I finished my screening of RESURRECTION I was thoroughly convinced that this ending will consume and stay with me for an awfully long time, but mostly for its primal shock value.  The cerebral chess game of wills that Semans weaves into his narrative - at least in its first two thirds - is so hypnotizing for all of the limitless possibilities it poses.  We simply don't know whether or not David or Margaret is the true insane party of the picture.  The payoff - if one could even call it that - in this climax certainly will linger, but it doesn't seem organically tied to what's come beforehand.  Like the very recent MEN - another psychological thriller featuring a female character that teeters between sanity and lunacy - RESURRECTION opens strong, but then hurtles towards a gruesome final act of bewildering unreality that simply doesn't work as effectively as the maker thinks it does.   

RESURRECTION may simply be too much for most people to endure; it's a very hard watch.  Having said that - and even though its final sections kind of lost me - Semans has crafted a disturbingly absorbing tale of one woman's implosion that's triggered by a man from her hellish past.  RESURRECTION also deserves credit for not playing into revenge thriller troupes either; you may think that the narrative is heading towards Margaret seeking out some comeuppance on David, but Semans has none of that here.  Plus, the astounding performances by both Hall and Roth anchors this film securely in place.  Hall has to convincingly portray her character's descent from poise and security to outright fear and alarm; she's so believable here that I became squeamish the more time I spent with Margaret in the film.  Rounding off her tour de force work is the more quietly effective presence of Roth, who perhaps has the trickier role of the pair in terms of not tipping off his character's true motivations to audiences and making this role unnerving in unexpected ways.  RESURRECTION may ultimately be a somewhat uneven affair - yeah, that ending will either simply work for you or not - and it never fully finds a manner of satisfyingly capitalizing on its premise, but Semans' film is undoubtedly nerve-jangling has a simmering intensity that builds and builds in ways I couldn't have predicted.