DRAMA; 1hr 50min
STARRING: Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel
Primal screen: Hathaway
Fabulously outfitted pop star Mother Mary (Hathaway) is as incandescent on stadium stages in her signature range of halos as she is diminished and depressive off them. It’s as if everything Mary has to give is funnelled into the epic theatre of her performances, at a long-term cost that includes the loss of her former costumer and best friend, fashion designer Sam Anselm (I May Destroy You’s Coel). Now, 10 years after Mary “went somewhere I couldn’t follow,” leaving Sam and their relationship in pieces, the star has fallen on disconnected times and finds herself in need of her soul buddy once more — specifically, Sam’s services in the crafting of a hopefully spectacular comeback dress.
Betrayal of trust leaves an indelible wound. Having done her utmost to excise Mary from her life, when she shows up unannounced at Sam’s rustic HQ, a coolly restrained Sam is disinclined to readmit her. Better that she hadn’t! Puddled in unhinged tears, the (literally) haunted Mary is damaged goods that writer-director David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints) gets busy unpacking with exhaustive, genre-blending zeal.
The Taylor Swift–inspired concert sequences are a phenomenal look. Hathaway is dazzling and the cameras are all over her. Back in the UK, as Mary and Sam get cracking on Mary’s resident ghost, Coel’s penetrative intelligence elevates what cynics would dismiss as a mystical schemozzle into a relatable tracery of pain. And while I for one could watch them do their angsty thing all day, a blitzkrieg of woo-woo is the ultimate acquired taste.
