Saoirse Ronan leads in new dramedy. Credit: The Playlist.
Verdict: 5/10
Genre: Dark-Comedy
Runtime: 100 minutes
Rating: 15A
A student is on a warpath with his classmates and teacher, Maria (Saoirse Ronan); risking his classmates’ grades and jeopardising Maria’s teaching career. The troublemaker, known as Danny (Eddie Waller), sends a fellow student to the emergency room and ends up suspended.
The problem? Danny’s dad is out of touch. Maria confronts her student’s father but is too late. Danny starts damaging Maria’s car. Maria defends her car – but in doing so – knocks Danny out. Afraid of Danny going to the police, Maria decides to lock the child in her basement. Wacky antics ensue from here.
The performances in this are stellar. Saoirse Ronan has taken the material given and turns in a nuanced range of emotions. You believe her character feels for her students.
Overshadowing Saoirse Ronan are two of the child performers, Eddie Waller and Nia Brown as Pauline. Pauline is someone who both reveres Maria and also torments her in her own twisted way. At times, I am unsure whether to be endeared to Pauline or frightened of her.
The film struggles in finding a balance tonally. Does this want to be a thriller, a comedy, or a horror? The answer is neither and all of the above – the comedic attempts fall flat most of the time. The horror has no real stakes in the film at play. The audience is left cringing throughout.
Whereas other attempts at cringe humour have succeeded in the past in films like Friendship (2024) or Meet the Parents (2000), this film is painful to get through as there is no anchor to keep the audience grounded. The audience is left disliking most of the people they meet.
Casting someone as charismatic as Ronan in the lead, there should be some way that you would end up on her side. Unfortunately, the film does very little to rationalise her decisions. This doesn’t take away from Ronan’s performance – but there is something to be said for the fact that the film does very little to make you like her. Or anyone, for that matter.
This makes the film feel especially hollow throughout. With a one-hour-and-forty-minute runtime, you would expect this film to at least get through the pain quickly. However, the pacing makes the film feel twice as long – leaving the audience to bury their heads in their laps.
What is even more frustrating is that there does seem to be a great movie underneath. There just seems to be an identity crisis that needs to be solved in order to get this film across the finish line.
