Smile
Smile was a nice surprise. Seeing the trailer in the theater I passed it off as a ridiculous b horror movie just for teens. It is an intelligent horror film with depth. Despite the issues I do have with it, is one of the better films released this year.
Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) is a psychiatrist in the psychiatric ward of a hospital. After witnessing the disturbing suicide of a high-risk patient, Laura (Caitlin Stasey), Rose’s controlled life begins to unravel as an evil entity starts haunting her. Categorized as mentally unstable from her family and colleagues’ forces Rose to rely on herself in order to confront the traumas of her past as a way to try to break the cycle and survive.
Genre wise this is a psychological horror film with supernatural elements. The role of Rose is very demanding mentally and physically to portray someone edging towards a complete mental breakdown consistently with resilience. It could have become a tired performance. But Sosie Bacon delivers a powerful nuanced performance and carries the film the whole way. I believe her the entire time, rooting for her character to survive and break the code so to speak.
Caitlin Stasey who plays the high-risk patient, Laura, did such a phenomenal job because she sets up the entire tone and rules of the film for what we can expect throughout. Due to her incredible performance allowed me to believe in the threat of the film and go on this journey. The cast in the hospital holds up, along with Rose’s ex-boyfriend, Joel (Kyle Gallner). But Rose’s sister, brother-in law, and fiancé were all weak points in the film playing stereotypes.
The cinematography is artistic and very much alive with the story in an organic way that didn’t allow for anything to be known ahead of time. This enhanced the impact of jump scares, but at the same time the jump scares ultimately do become annoying and feel cheap in certain scenes. What is refreshing is nothing is random or just solely to scare. Things do get under your skin and are creepy. Every visual is building upon the theme of mental illness, suicide, and how trauma can infect someone’s life and the impact of it, and the choices made to avoid confronting it. Ultimately in the end examining what happens when trauma is confronted.
The film has a climax that is dramatically satisfying and what we as an audience have been waiting for the entire film connecting the theme and the message of what the film is supposed to be about. But then it veers off into a typical horror movie ending allowing for a sequel. Smile would’ve been a stronger film if this commercial Hollywood ending didn’t happen.
This is just the beginning for director / writer Parker Finn. A talent to take note of. I can’t wait to see what he does next along with Sosie Bacon and Caitlin Stasey. But also, the crew that brought this haunting vision to life in such a memorable way Charlie Sarroff (DP), Lester Cohen (Production Designer), Elliot Greenberg (Editor), and Cristobal Tapia de Veer (Composer).
Smile is streaming now on Paramount+.