Jemima Rooper plays a troubled woman reconciling with her mother in this murky horror film set in Britain.
“Matriarch” opens by watching a nude figure descend into a pond of black muck, but the slog that follows in this derivative, tar-flow-paced thriller from Britain is strictly for the viewer.
After a title card, the movie introduces its protagonist, Laura (Jemima Rooper), who works in advertising. The director, Ben Steiner, spends nearly a quarter of the running time cataloging ways she is troubled. Laura struggles with drug and alcohol abuse, with apparent bulimia and with staying out of others’ parenting. She chastises a stranger for not feeding a baby quickly enough and tells off her concerned boss (Franc Ashman) by invoking the boss’s dead daughter.
All of these issues seem to stem from Laura’s relationship with the woman who raised her, Celia (Kate Dickie), who abruptly calls after two decades of estrangement. Celia says she sensed that Laura must be in pain — a mother knows. She invites Laura to return home for what promises to be a barbed reconciliation.
But when Laura arrives, something is off. Celia has aged so little that Laura suspects she’s had plastic surgery. Most others in the village, except a former girlfriend of Laura’s (Sarah Paul), appear not to have grown old either, and they might be sharing some sort of secret. (A sensible visitor’s “Wicker Man” meter would be going wild.) In a departure from Laura’s perspective, Steiner shows Celia repeatedly trying to lace Laura’s food with crushed pills. Laura and Celia both suffer from black-mud nosebleeds.
But none of how “Matriarch” resolves is particularly scary or surprising. The finale — filled with dark, barely legible imagery — is a letdown both visually and dramatically.
Matriarch
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. Watch on Hulu.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
