“… a heartfelt gem”
Con Nats
4 Kittens
Sorry, Baby
This is yet another film where the lead actor has written and/or directed themselves. With Sorry, Baby my earlier misgivings are now dispelled. Eva Victor is a real talent.
Agnes (Eva Victor) and Lydie (Naomi Ackie) are very close friends, who went to university together. They’re separated by distance. Lydie has moved to New York, married and visits Agnes to announce she’s expecting a baby. It reopens old wounds, as Agnes is stuck in her old town, teaching at their old school. She also hasn’t recovered from the ‘thing’ that happened to her when she was at university.
Trigger warning: That ‘thing’ that happened is a rape. The word is never used but the reality and impact isn’t hidden.
The film is broken into titles chapters (which has become a common trick itself recently) as we follow Agnes through her past and present as a budding writer. The one where it happens is cleverly shot. We see Agnes enter her tutor’s house (Louis Cancelmi) from a still camera. We watch the light fall, as it turns to night and then as she leaves. Not a word is spoken, no music used but the impact is no less powerful.
A lot of the camera work in this film is clever without showing off. Many of the shots are long, drawn and silent. And Eva Victor’s face is worth a close-up. She is able to convey a mixed emotion and a repressed emotion with just her face, very simply. Her acting in this is so exceptional, I felt she must have experienced it herself.
She is well supported by Naomi Ackie and Lucas Hedges as Gavin, the friendly neighbour. Ackie is lead-actress material. Even the small roles of Gavin and Pete (John Carroll Lynch) as the truck stop owner are worthy and funny. They humanise the males. Only Natasha (Kelly McCormack) as her nasty former schoolmate doesn’t ring true.
They call this the trauma’ genre and it’s a shame it has become one but needs to be. The sexual misconduct of teachers is real and consistently swept under the principal’s carpet in schools. This story takes a gentle and caring look at the impact on Agnes rather than the drama of capturing a criminal. She doesn’t play a martyr or a victim. She’s a lovely human making her way in a world that doesn’t care. (We only have to look at the news from the US to see how the system has lost its empathy for the victims.)
As a debut as an auteur, Eva Victor has produced a heartfelt gem. I hope she continues to shine with more scripts as meaningful as this.
4 Kittens
Con Nats, On The Screen
