Watching a gaslitRebecca Halldescend into psychological free fall would be a treat to watch in any case, given her impressive acting range, but in last year’s “The Night House” and now “Resurrection,” the fact that she’s supermodel tall — at nearly 6 feet, she could start in a WNBA backcourt — helps emphasize the power of her tormentors.
When she is literally brought to her knees by the creepy, 5-foot-6, two-decade-olderTim Rothin “Resurrection,” which opens in theaters on Friday, July 29, it is a mighty fall indeed.
“Resurrection,” which was filmed in Albany, N.Y., and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, stars Hall as Margaret, a single mother and decision maker at a pharma corporation. Employees come to her for advice — she dresses one down (played by Angela Wong Carbone) for being too submissive to her boyfriend.
Margaret is a helicopter mom to daughter Abbie (Grace Kaufman), who is in her final year in high school and can’t wait to leave for college. She’s also carrying on an affair with a married co-worker named Peter (Michael Esper).
But things aren’t as perfect as her modern, impersonal condo would lead you to believe.
One day at a biotech conference, she is stunned to see a familiar face. When Margaret sees him again in a park, she warns him: Stay away from her and her daughter. The man claims that she is mistaking him for someone else.
But, no: It is indeed David (Roth). Two decades earlier, Margaret was his Honey Bunny, trapped in an abusive relationship that clearly still affects her. While she has rebuilt her life and appears to have remade herself as a strong, independent woman, he chillingly tries to get in her head again.
Why has he shown up after all this time, and what does he want? Will his charismatic grooming skills still work?
That’s the setup for writer-director Andrew Semans’ slow-burn psychological horror thriller, which asks its actors to sell what increasingly becomes an outrageous tale (perhaps too outrageous).
Fortunately, Hall (whose mesmerizing psychological breakdown anchored the 2016 indie darling“Christine”) and Roth are up to the task. Hall was essentially left alone in “The Night House” and carried that film. Here, Roth provides an effectively twisted partner to play off of, with his sinister command phrase, “Do me a kindness.”
Still, it is Hall’s movie. The actress, who directed but did not appear in Netflix’s terrific racial drama“Passing,”commands the camera — especially during an eight-minute monologue, one take in close-up, in which she describes her years of abuse. With Margaret threatening to lose it at any moment, “Resurrection” is #MeToo horror at its cringiest.
M“Resurrection”:惊悚片。丽贝卡主演厅,蒂姆·罗斯恩典Kaufman and Michael Esper. Directed by Andrew Semans. (Not rated. 103 minutes.) In Bay Area theaters Friday, July 29.