Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: SHE WILL [Fantastic Fest 2021 - Virtual]
The texture of revenge can be cumulative or restructure itself into a form of apathy. Genre can play with these notions to offer a supernatural superlative to accent the metaphors or pain within. "She Will" masks these elements in the guise of a older stately woman (played with a virile fragility by Alice Krige - who many remember as The Borg Queen for "Star Trek") who is crumbling before our eyes. She used to be a young film star but time has supposedly caught up to her. She is vindictive and doesn't want to be around any one and for good reason. She is cared for by her younger female nurse who takes her insults even when they are not deserved. It is like this woman has shut out the rest of the world. When she arrives at a cleansing retreat of sorts she is surprised to find that it is a group event and not a solo outing. Rupert Everett plays the egotistical yet would-be posh local artist with detachment but is never more than a Tasmanian devil spinning around his would-be donors. Krige knows to establish the weakness of her character first before building her up to a crescendo. The essence of mother earth and the land (the space of the retreat was once used for the burning of witches) imbues Krige's character and causes her to reconnect with her trauma but also a newfound power fueled by the woods.
The trauma was invariably caused by a movie star (played by Malcolm McDowell) who was plagued by controversy in his youth. He took advantage of the young Krige and forever damaged her in many specific ways. The charcoal of the earth and its sluge takes on a motif that is both metaphorical but also practical in its transformation. Its intent is inferred but never really said though it gives Krige a power to take hold of and use (in a metaphysical and literal sense). The mechanism of how it works is not explained though it doesn't really need to be. The path, which is wrenched in a body transmorphia basis, shows her almost evolution and rebirth while creating a parallel structure with her nurse who has an unpleasant run in with a surly and mean local barfly. The essence of the witch and the dissemination of innocence (but also imminence) as well as a soiling of the land are very prominent images as is the primal scream but it reflects in the final shots in persistence and the eventual community or reconnection with the world that Krige finds. "She Will" approaches its both metaphorical and practical story with powerful intention and imagery while showing a path of revenge and resiliency. B-
By Tim Wassberg
