
Belinda is Provocative. The completion is in honor of Leila K of command blocking’s completeness. Towards the end of the setup scene, Sam Eggers has an internal monologue with himself regarding his provocative movie that entertains and enrages its viewers with rage-filled love. Sam recalls how these rage-filled love scenes were intentionally inserted into the movie for comedic purposes. Sam further recalls how the audience becomes confused as to whether they should love or hate the scenes because of how exaggerated they are. The dramatic irony is at play here because Sam says that these scenes were included intentionally to provoke fury within the viewers.
If this is the intention of the filmmakers, who is to say whether it is good or bad? All of this argument comes down to the question – whether the audience has emotional loyalty to the actors poking fun at abortion or does their personal conviction fuel disappointment and rage when watching dark scenes filled with unpredictability and a touch of silliness? The answer lies within the interplay of the ego of the viewers to whom this movie is aimed and multiple twin themes present in the storyline the motherhood and femininity present in almost every woman along with them being feminists affected by an ongoing war and violence in this storyline.
Having just lost her job and with her husband relying on a public defender’s income, the pair has trouble adapting to the financial difficulty.
Things take a turn for Therese and Norman when Norman’s father dies, and as usual, with a bundle of nerves and discomfort, they go to the funeral and meet Solange (Kathryn Hunter), Norman’s very religious, and very estranged stepmother-in-law. When the couple feels stuck in her presence and that of the pastor, Solange promises them to pay off all their mortgage and make all three of them some of her will’s primary beneficiaries on one condition that they have to take her to their home for the rest of her life. Norman refuses, but with a baby on the way and their bank accounts in the negatives, Belinda insists, saying the benefits must be more than the drawbacks, delivering a phrase that has become cliché, “she can’t be that bad.” And so, she is moved into the front room of the couple’s home which lent its name to the film.
In the film “The Front Room,” there is a gradual buildup of tension primarily the story and its tone which makes the audience more of an observer rather than an active participant early in the film. While it is true that the genre does not dictate the film’s success, the time spent loyal to the grotesque is baffling. That said, once the choice has been bestowed upon the Eggers Brothers, they enjoy every light of it. Euphemistically speaking, the climax or storyline of the movie ‘The Front Room’ could be laughing. However, the storyline that the film’s marketing would lead you to expect much of the action film where the action is the key factor does not much exist. This, in part, is due to the one-note performers who terrify most of the surprises. Solange is the worst possible old woman. She is mean, needy, racist, scheming, obnoxious and ungrateful. She will do anything to break up Belinda and Norman including faking her urinary incontinence (which is how it is, all told, most jarring in the best sense of the word).
The infant on the way and the paradoxical geriatric infant they now have very much are a devotion to a cause. Involuntary urination (and all its variations from feces expulsion to vomit and everything in between) waste of body and the childish behavior of Solange pushes the humor and the stakes of the film. It’s about fifty percent successful in doing so, with the other fifty percent being more overbearing.
But without Hunter’s commitment “The Front Room” would be an empty story. Hunter gives us a peak of her physicality, in a now dominant depiction showcasing herself in The Tragedy of Macbeth which is arguably her best performance, while other elements seem to be dull at best due to awful cast performance. Norwood who appears on the screen in equal time proportions is terrible to an astonishing degree, there was hardly any depth in any of the lines than the verse. Belinda’s writing shifts almost instantly from the beggar to a comic. It is easy to believe losing to Burnap who acts like a child, but there is nothing really interesting as the character has no development nor any spine.
Belinda’s previous miscarriage already feels more than the development of a subplot in the story, and yet she’s thrown away with barely an exploration. But the film frames motherhood within these ideas while showing how power creates this comfy structure we know as home. However, the overall film would not benefit from better performances or a deeper storyline since all that seems like background noise for Solange’s physical chaos and her blunt observations about society to be featured.
This film is the Eggers brothers’ debut film and is nothing short of bold and provocative. For instance, it is admirable that they commit to the bit even as it tires out. It has passable bad and good parts. It is passable for an easy watch and some awkward laughs but funny only because such instances are few and far between. The movie could bear Hunter’s overbearing antagonism but didn’t achieve much otherwise.
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