Film Review “The Woman”

Directed by: Lucky McKee
Starring: Pollyanna McIntosh, Angela Bettis, Sean Bridgers
Distributed by The Collective / Bloody Disgusting
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running time: 101 minutes

Our Score: 3 out of 5 stars

Jack Ketchum’s work is definitely not for the average person and specifically not for the faint of heart. This screener that I received even came in a vomit bag/case (smart marketing). Unfortunately it wasn’t even close to my built up expectations of have messed up this film was going to be. I thought it started off decent and showed potential but then it really lost me about half-way through and really dragged. The end was fantastic but it wasn’t enough to redeem the rest of the film.

The film follows Chris Cleek (Sean Bridgers), a successful lawyer, who captures and attempts to “civilize” woman (Pollyanna McIntosh). She has lives in the wild her whole life and is extremely violent. The family seems very normal at first but then things start to unravel and the secrets start to get revealed. It ends up showing if the woman needs the “saving” or does the family need it more.

Lucky McKee is definitely familiar with Jack Ketchum’s work have produced the film adapation of “The Lost” and directing “Red”. He is definitely a director who knows what he is doing and what he wants. If you are familiar with his work/films, this film is a sort of sequel to “Offspring” and Pollyana McIntosh reprises her role from that film. She is amazing and doesn’t speak at all (or at least not in English). Angela Bettis is deep and dark as usual, not a major stretch but definitely an intense role. Sean Bridgers is one fucked up son of a bitch in this film and really commits to this role and nails it. I would have to say acting wise this film scores high but overall doesn’t overcome the lacking story.