![]() ![]() Sometimes slow burn is a perfect tool for a throwback thriller such as this. Hart and Horowitz sought to make a movie about the woman being the man, but that woman is too plain-Jane and unremarkable to sustain this drama. It’s a bit “too little, too late,” and even a glamorous, beautifully textured nightclub scene can’t take away from the fact that Jean isn’t enough of a strong protagonist to carry her own film. ![]() However, she also holds the curse of exposition, something I’m Your Woman needed long before. At least we are finally introduced to the film’s best character, Teri (Blake), who is an active woman where Jean is a passive one. Only when Jean finally reaches the second safe house do we start to get some answers, but not enough to keep the intrigue up. Instead of character-based plot developments, there are shoehorned scenes, like where Cal is harassed by a police officer, and the first genuine moment clocks in almost an hour into the story as Cal and Jean flee their first safe house. Hart and co-writer Jordan Horowitz use people as roadblocks and props rather than fleshing them out, which is one of the many issues with their screenplay. The first hour of the film spotlights Jean and Cal on the move. Shortly after Jean (Brosnahan) is gifted a baby by her husband, he disappears on a work trip, leaving her scrambling to pack up and run away with a man named Cal (Kene), who Jean had never heard of before this very moment. I’m Your Woman is still worth the ride but it’s one that you might want to jump out of midway.What happens to the women that are too often tossed aside in the crime dramas built around men? In I’m Your Woman, director and co-writer Hart ( Fast Color) explores what it’s like to be the wife on the run. It’s a frustrating, untethering experience, watching a film lose a star it worked so hard to get in the outset, something buried underneath the bad choices it then makes. But as the minutes dwindled, I felt as distant as Jean feels at the beginning, ironically finding less as she’s finding herself despite Brosnahan’s committed performance. Hart’s deft ability to mix brain and brawn simultaneously fades, the film struggling to even do either with enough panache as it careers toward an emotionally empty finale.Įven when it’s coasting, the cast still works hard to sell what they’re given and it remains visually handsome until the very end, an immersive and slickly captured last-act car chase proving a standout. The rote details of the crime plot and the soapy nature of Jean’s connection to Cal and those he introduces to her, including his wife, Teri (Marsha Stephanie Blake), and father, Art (Frankie Faison), don’t grab us by the throat in the way they should. The more we find out, the more we’re dragged into the light with Jean, the less interesting the whole thing becomes. It’s then such a disappointment that the film falls a few rungs in the second half, not exactly crashing to the ground but loosening its grip on us, a great film slowly morphing into an OK one. ![]() It’s an incredibly stylish, at times gorgeously composed, film with the sort of specific, vibrant period re-creation that makes you want to step inside, or at least nab some of Kene’s dapper outfits. There’s such confidence behind the camera, too: Hart and the cinematographer Bryce Fortner find art within the genre without indulgence. There’s a brisk, functional chemistry between her and a commanding Kene that grows warmer by the minute, culminating in a charming diner scene where she tells him how she makes her baby laugh. ![]() Even when the film dulls, she remains sharp. Brosnahan, a dynamic actor unfairly tainted by what’s become a rather safe and tiresome comedy series, is allowed to work with a far richer set of tools here. There’s fire beneath the surface but it’s been dampened by a lopsided marriage and there’s a thrill to seeing her come of age while also trying to stay alive. Jean is not an easy character to decipher, a woman who might have empty days to fill but who hasn’t found the time or space to figure out who she really is without a man attached. In deciding whether to make a pacy crime thriller or a thoughtful character-driven drama, Hart bravely decides to do both and, for a while, neatly juggles smarts and suspense. For the first half of I’m Your Woman, Hart and her enthralling actors barely put a foot wrong. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |