Synopsis: Margaret’s life is in order. She is capable, disciplined and successful. Everything is under control until David returns — carrying with him the horrors of Margaret’s past.
Editing: Ron Dulin
Music: Jim Williams
Cast: Rebecca Hall, Tim Roth, Grace Kaufman, Michael Esper, Angela Wong Carbone
Director: Andrew Semans
Writer: Andrew Semans
Cinematography: Wyatt Garfield
The opening minutes of Resurrection present Margaret (Rebecca Hall) as a brilliant, all-together businesswoman. She’s helping a young intern with life advice and a TL;DR to stay away from abusive men, and although she is keen to explore the world and her nearly 18-year-old daughter at home, everything in her life seems fantastic. Everything changes in one moment, however, when Margaret spots David (Tim Roth) at a work conference; everything melts away. Margaret runs from the room as if spotting a ghost, and as the audience, you’re left to wonder if it was this man, David, or if she’s seeing something.
What you learn by piecing together how Margaret acts and what little she is willing to divulge and state is that David is a man whom she had a relationship with at one stage and one that she doesn’t have any fond memories of. The glass-shattering and triggering moment of just spotting him metres ahead of her, even if he’s unbeknownst to her being in the room, shows this is a man who’s done true damage to Margaret. Resurrection isn’t in a rush to explain their relationship or what exactly David did, but you don’t need to know to understand, thanks to the fantastic performance from Rebecca Hall.
In a role that surely wasn’t easy to inhabit, Hall shows at every stage the fear building within Margaret and the growing sense of dread around what David could do to tear her life apart. She becomes irrational, and when she eventually confronts David, Hall’s performance is met with an equally brilliant yet disgusting performance from Tim Roth. He doesn’t have to say much; a lot of it is subtle delivery of his lines as a man who thinks he’s got Margaret still wrapped around his finger.
I can’t praise Rebecca Hall’s performance in Resurrection enough. A several-minute monologue is the film’s highlight as Margaret finally lets loose and explains the history between herself and David. The camera slowly moves in on Hall’s face as the story becomes darker and darker, the light around her fading away until Margaret appears to be in a pitch-dark room. Writer/Director Andrew Semans works with his cinematographer Wyatt Garfield to craft a stage for Hall to shine upon.
Where Resurrection may lose some is in its final act as things take a metaphorical and literal dive into the deep end. Things get weird, to say the least, and the ending is left annoyingly open for interpretation. Of course, I have my own opinion of what the ending of Resurrection means, and I’m okay with what I’ve concluded — but you could come to something different, which may leave you annoyed with the film.
Resurrection is a tour-de-force performance from Rebecca Hall — a thrilling, at times insane, ride from start to finish, with an emotionally gripping, uncomfortable dive into psychological torment — making it a must-watch for genre fans in 2022.
(Resurrection screener provided for review)
