Fantastic Fest 2021: "She Will" Is A Wonky Witches Brew
Franco-British photographer, artist, and filmmaker Charlotte Colbert makes her feature film debut with She Will, which recently had its North American premiere this past Sunday at Fantastic Fest. Starring genre icons Alice Krige and Malcolm McDowell, Colbert cooks up a moody witches brew full of #MeToo revenge that’s largely held up by the strength of its performances.
After a double mastectomy, actress Veronica Ghent travels to a remote place in Scotland in order to recuperate. However, the land around the retreat radiates with a dark power that will ultimately help liberate her from a traumatic past.
She Will suffers from the same affliction that plagues a lot of first films: it’s a scattershot of ideas and style that never fully gels. It’s got something to say, but it’s far too doughy and disjointed to cut as deeply as it ought to. It feels like Charlotte Colbert and co-screenwriter Kitty Percy (who also makes her debut here) were just throwing anything that they could think of at the wall — important topics like sexual abuse, female solidarity, and men who abuse their power amongst the litter — to see what would stick. Unfortunately, not very much does, and all of it found its way into the screenplay. Everything coalesces into a soupy mess that’s neither compelling, coherent, or cathartic enough to fully resonate.
The film centers around a famous, yet faded starlet named Veronica Ghent (Alice Krige), who was groomed into a star at the tender age of 13 by a film director (played by Malcolm McDowell) that abused his power over her, and it’s a heavy psychological weight Veronica stoically carries around with her. When we first encounter her, she’s heading toward an isolated retreat in rural Scotland with her young nurse Desi (Kota Eberhardt) to recuperate from a recent double mastectomy. Both the surgery and her past trauma as a child star have caused the aging starlet to become closed off and frigid, but a reconnection to nature via the retreat’s witch-infused soil grants her strange power that helps to warm her icy ways. When it’s announced that the filmmaker who wronged Veronica all those years ago is going to remake the film that garnered her success (in addition to being knighted), the wounds of the past that Veronica have silently carried are suddenly reopened, leading her on a peculiar and meditative journey where she learns to embrace her scars, literally and figuratively.
The film is notable for uniting genre heavyweights Alice Krige (who famously played the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact) and Malcolm McDowell for the first time. While each of them deliver strong performances (particularly Krige who brings a palpable vulnerability to her role), the film doesn’t give these veteran actors enough scenes together. Krige and Eberhardt’s relationship makes up a bulk of the film’s short runtime, and it’s the heart of the film. McDowell’s role is small But crucial and brings the most interesting layer to the film. He famously worked with one of cinema’s most notorious control freaks, Stanley Kubrick, on A Clockwork Orange, and there’s some interesting visual nods that Colbert applies from The Shining to McDowell’s character; there’s a red bathroom and a bar sequence that harks back to Kubrick’s iconic horror film.
This seems to slyly implicate Kubrick for the psychological torment he inflicted on Shelley Duvall (and even McDowell himself, who has suffered permanent eye damage from Clockwork’s Ludovico Technique). This plays into the film’s statement about men who abuse power and manipulate those around them, men who are showered with praise and revered as a genius despite the questionable things they’ve done or the atrocities they may have committed. The burgeoning relationship between Krige and Eberhardt also makes statements over the importance of talking about past traumas and the ability to transcend them via generational solidarity.
You can feel all these statements in the film, yet it’s as cold and distanced to us as Veronica when we first meet her. Ultimately, it’s a slow-burning mudslide that’s narratively and stylistically uneven. It creates a decent sense of atmosphere, but it’s utterly lacking in momentum or stakes. The film grapples with some topical themes and contains some cool moments (wielding the earth as a weapon is admittedly dope), but it was never enough to really maintain interest. It’s lacking in fright and evokes a folkloric atmosphere that apes Robert Eggers’ The VVitch in a way that doesn’t do it any favors.
Overall, we were let down by this slog of a mood piece. With quality acting talent, Dario Argento Executive Producing, and Clint Mansell composing the score, we expected a bit more. Aside from its performance and occasionally striking visuals, this one left us feeling cold and confused. There’s definitely something worthwhile here, but it’s all muddied by its messy script and wobbly execution, which whips everything up into a forgettable jumble.
Recommendation: She Will contains some interesting ideas and visuals, but it’s all over the place and leaves more to be desired. It’s held up by its committed performances, but drink this witches brew at your own risk.
Rating: 2 witchy visions outta 5.
Craving more?! Check out the links below:
Five Fun Facts About Stanley Kubrick
Five Fun Facts About A Clockwork Orange
Five Fun Facts About The Shinning
Top 10 Stanley Kubrick Films
The Lost Projects Of Stanley Kubrick: Part 1
The Lost Projects Of Stanley Kubrick: Part 2
Variant Poster Art Of Kubrick Films
Our Favorite Stanley Kubrick Photographs
The Historical Accuracies Of The Witch Part 1 (Character)
The Historical Accuracies Of The Witch Part 2 (Costume & Set)
The Historical Accuracies of The Witch Part 3 (Dialogue)
The Historical Accuracies of The Witch Part 4 (Mythos)
What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!