At this point, you could do a film festival of Rebecca Hall psychological thrillers. After the likes of “The Gift” and “The Night House,” we now have “Resurrection” (2022), the weirdest and most minimalist of that trio.
Trauma and paranoia
It’s slightly superior to a similar traumatized/paranoid woman film from last year, Maika Monroe’s “The Watcher.” Keeping her English accent, Hall plays a New York pharma-industry success, Maggie, who gets increasingly paranoid about a mysterious man from her past. Tim Roth plays David with an effective mix of smarm and charm, calling to mind David Tennant from “Jessica Jones” Season 1.
Giving it a layer beyond “The Watcher,” “Resurrection” eschews a marriage story (Maggie doesn’t even know who her daughter’s father is) and instead is an unusual study of unintended psychological child abuse. Maggie cares so much about protecting Abbie (Grace Kaufman) that the teen feels less and less safe around her helicopter parent.
“Resurrection” (2022)
Director: Andrew Semans
Writer: Andrew Semans
Stars: Rebecca Hall, Tim Roth, Grace Kaufman
Writer-director Andrew Semans does a lot with a little, both in style (Maggie furiously jogs through the park to burn off her fears) and substance. But the substance isn’t plot-based. It’s psychology-based, with each tidbit of information about the Maggie-David backstory dramatically delivered.
The centerpiece is a monolog Maggie delivers to an intern (Angela Wong Carbone’s Gwen), who ends up appropriately off-balance. Maggie reveals why she’s terrified of David, and it’s a legit reason – if the story is to be believed.
Weird, but not weird enough to stand out
Movies that create a mysterious vibe (here, partly due to a foreboding score by Jim Williams) but don’t back it up with a plot have to deliver when they finally get to the revelations. “Resurrection” nearly pulls it off with that speech, and then with a final act that’s almost as weird as Darren Aronofsky’s “Mother!”
Semans crafts a more accessible film than that – partway between Seventies weird-horror and modern psych-drama. Hall can carry anything in this subgenre, and “Resurrection” is aggressive proof, as the actress crafts a trauma-ridden woman without much help from the screenplay.
I would’ve liked even more weirdness and twists to cap off a slow-burn mood piece that purposely toes the line between real and surreal. Even with Hall and Roth killing it, “Resurrection” doesn’t transcend its tidy artfulness to become more permanently chilling.