For some odd reason, early summer seems to be the time that sneaky good foreign films hit the US market. Maybe it’s because the sheer deluge of American summer blockbusters that creates something of an intellectual vacuum and foreign distributors are looking to offer an alternative, or maybe it’s just coincidence. Either way, it’s refreshing to see indie foreign fare like Beast etch its name in the domestic box office picture.
The plot revolves around a young lady who becomes romantically involved with a young man suspected of the rape and murder of several girls in their small coastal community, but that’s not entirely what the film is about. Thematically, it’s a tale about how we deal with the things we hate about ourselves, how that influences our relationships with other people and, ultimately, what we can do about it.
While this is a well made film on a number of levels, several wonderful acting performances set the tone and lead the way. At the vanguard of them, Jessie Buckley’s remarkable rendition absolutely stole the show. She played Moll, the young woman who’s falling in love while battling her own inner demons and trying desperately to escape the constraints of her family…namely her overbearing mother. The Irish actress may be unknown to the American audience, but she has been steadily making the rounds on British television and theatre. Her ability to convey a wide and complex array of emotions utilizing body language and facial cues melded wonderfully with this character who is internalizing so much tumult. There’s a ferver of love and wickedness behind her eyes. Buckley delivered one of the most powerful and commanding performances in recent memory that should easily catapult her to the lead when it comes to Best Actress consideration. It’s still relatively early, but at the very least Buckley should be able to parlay this performance into a wealth of future roles. She currently has two films in post production and is currently filming another and a television show.
It takes two to tango and Johnny Flynn was an excellent dance partner for Buckley. They had a natural chemistry that encouraged you to cheer them on even though, in the back of your mind, you knew something wasn’t quite right. Flynn probably isn’t very recognizable to the US audience either (his most prominent role opposite Anne Hathaway in Song One) but he’s quietly earned his stripes on the international stage for over a decade. He has a soft air of confidence surrounding him that fits his character, Pascal, like a glove. The perennial outsider, he has no family and spits in the face of local authority by poaching illegally. After rescuing Moll from impending sexual assault, their mutual infatuation rapidly grew from embers to inferno. In the process, Flynn displayed several moments of surprising vulnerability but still maintained enough mystery to make the story work. His performance was both raw and measured, balanced in all the right places.
If the relationship between them is the vehicle that drives the film, it’s Geraldine James that fuels it. Remember that overbearing mother I mentioned earlier? Yeah, that’s her…Hilary Huntington. Her portrayal of Moll’s mother paints a frightening picture. James’ veteran leadership and sharp delivery crack like a whip, digging at the spirit more than the flesh. With never a kind thing to say, she constantly chides Moll for every decision and then expertly switches gears to the “caring” mother. Their relationship is one of the first we are introduced to and, whether or not it’s justified behavior, it plays a big role in crafting audience perception about good and bad. It paints Moll in a much more sympathetic light and James’ heavy handed performance drives that point home with authority. Despite a long successful career, she’s never been nominated for an Academy Award before but I would have to imagine she’s on the shortlist for Best Supporting Actress as of right now.
The cast certainly has Writer/Director Michael Pearce to thank for their complex characters and excellent screenplay but he may be even less recognizable, having made only a handful of short films over the last decade. For a first full-length feature, this was quite a strong debut. The script was bizarrely romantic and the love story functioned remarkably well despite the sinister undercoat. That, in and of itself, was quite the achievement considering the nature of the crimes in question. Although the film has moments of levity, it’s unquestionably dark. Pearce clearly has some intimate understanding of these characters which lent itself to some deeper and more nuanced portrayals from his cast. For what seems to be a contemporary film, there is the noticeable absence of cell phones and it quietly cultivates a more reverent atmosphere. On the downside, the pace is a bit on the sluggish side at times, relying too heavily on the strength of the actors rather than pushing the narrative forward. Pearce had a clear vision for where his story was going and how it would get there, but got bogged down a little in between. This is a great original screenplay that has gotten some recognition on the international festival circuit, but will likely not hold up down the stretch as the heavy hitters begin to drop in the fall. That being said, Pearce should have earned enough good faith to get his hands dirty in the not too distant future.
This film reminded me a lot of Lady Macbeth from last summer. Both British films, dominated by powerful female leads utilizing strong cinematography to capture the mostly rural backdrop. In this instance, Benjamin Kracun served as director of photography. His landscape shots brought the quaint community to life and reinforced a small town vibe. Setting the scene was crucial in establishing the nature of the crimes and the picturesque coastal views juxtaposed against the woodlands mirrored the elements of light and dark at play in the script.
Helping to set those scenes was Jim Williams. The British composer scored one of my favorite films from last year, Raw, another story about the awakening and liberation of female desire. Many of the subtle emotions at play throughout Beast are subtly guided by his music. There is a charged energy there…something guttural. It’s unsettling at times, piercing, but an essential component in the evolution of Moll. As a composer, Williams seems to have found a niche scoring creepy psychological thrillers.
For all the things it does well, the film struggles with genre ambiguity. Not quite crime thriller, not quite psychological horror, the lack of true identity results in a lack of moral culpability. As the audience follows along, Moll serves as a compass for relative morality. But by the time the film’s climax rolls around, that compass isn’t pointing true north…so to speak. In the end, there is a certain kind of beauty that is quickly exchanged. This wasn’t the best film I’ve seen this year, but it was quite good and much better than I anticipated.
Recommendation: If you like indie cinema, or British cinema, or both…then this is a good choice. The performances alone are worth the investment, even if the end leaves you feeling kinda meh. It’s still another couple weeks until the blockbuster cycle renews, so now is as good a time as any to give something different a chance.