Just a week ago while reviewing the Deborah Levy adaptation Swimming Home I noted how so many recent movies were following the template set down by Jean Renoir in his 1932 satire Boudu Saved from Drowning, that of a wealthy family being shaken up by the arrival of an outsider. First time writer/director Nadia Conners is the latest filmmaker to channel Renoir with her Hollywood satire The Uninvited.
I suspect this format has become popular because it requires no more than a single location, and as these movies tend to be of the talky variety, they hold appeal for actors. Conners' film is strikingly verbose, and she's assembled an impressive cast. Along with her husband Walton Goggins she's snared that other man of the moment, Pedro Pascal, a revived Rufus Sewell, the veteran Lois Smith and the under-appreciated Elisabeth Reaser.
Reaser plays an actress who is herself under-appreciated. Once a popular star of stage and screen, Rose is now struggling to land roles in her forties. In the movie's opening scene we watch as Rose receives the news that she has been turned down for a role because the producers consider her too old to play the mother of a six-year-old; the irony is that Rose actually has a son who is even younger. Rose's husband, talent agent Sammy (Goggins), is similarly worried about his future. He's plotting to leave his agency and set up one of his own. His three top client targets are British blockbuster director Gerald (Sewell), modern day matinee idol Lucian (Pascal) and rising starlet Delia (Eva De Dominici), employing a clunky Star Wars analogy to compare the trio to Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia respectively. Hoping to pull off this coup, Sammy and Rose throw an intimate party in their lavish home in the Hollywood Hills.
The Boudu-like spanner in the works here is Helen (Smith), an elderly woman who arrives at Sammy and Rose's home, claiming it's her own. Sammy suggests calling the police or an ambulance to get rid of this unwanted intruder, but Rose indulges the old lady. Going through Helen's phone, Rose calls a friend who agrees to collect her but won't be able to arrive for a few hours. Thus, Helen remains at the party and spends her time making observations about the hosts and guests, and everyone learns a little about themselves along the way.
Helen is deployed here in somewhat patronising fashion. Much like all those movies where white people discover their humanity by spending time in the presence of a "magic negro" or adopting a dog, The Uninvited similarly uses the doting Helen as a cheap narrative prop. She exists solely for the purpose of making these wealthy people realise that their lives aren't so bad after all.
The drama of The Uninvited might hold more weight if it wasn't so unrelatable to a general audience. It's very much a satire of Hollywood from the inside, one that critiques the game rather than the players. Helen, cast aside and almost friendless in her old age, is supposed to draw comparisons with Rose's career, the actress now considered washed up because she's the wrong side of 40. But it's a dated idea that targets an issue that doesn't really exist anymore. Far from being cast aside, middle-aged actresses are thriving in modern Hollywood, and the biggest stars of the '90s, both male and female, are still our biggest stars today. If modern Hollywood has an ageism problem it's the other way around, with the studios seemingly reluctant to promote new talent. A more honest version of The Uninvited would posit Delia as the one facing a series of closed doors.
Conners' script boasts its share of witty lines, but none of her characters feel three-dimensional. They're as archetypical as the victims of a Hollywood-set game of Cluedo. Reaser and Smith are both excellent here, finding some humanity in these broadly drawn women, but everyone else acts as though they're this week's guest on SNL and just received their lines a day before the cameras began rolling. With visual storytelling practically absent, The Uninvited resembles a filmed play, and many of the performances verge on the theatrical. Cinema is an art form that rewards subtlety like no other, and there's nothing subtle about this sledgehammer satire.
Directed by: Nadia Conners
Starring: Elizabeth Reaser, Lois Smith, Walton Goggins, Pedro Pascal, Rufus Sewell, Eva De Dominici
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