Poor Anna Kendrick. The minute my friends and I saw Pitch Perfect, Kendrick became the girl everyone wanted to be with: charismatic, sweet, and cool as hell. And I mean everyone, including the abusive leeches. Alice, Darling sees Kendrick go for something more dramatic like her roles in Up in the Air and Happy Christmas, to show just how pervasive and suffocating emotional abuse can be on someone, even someone as cool as Anna Kendrick. I think I speak for everyone when I say to her ex, you can go straight to hell you piece of sh*t.
Kendrick plays darling Alice, so named by her boyfriend Simon (Charlie Carrick), constantly beckoning to be with her all hours of the day. Especially so when Alice is with her best friends Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku) and Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn). Simon’s neediness is so consuming that Alice lies to him about taking a work trip so she can be with Sophie and Tess at a lakehouse for Tess’s 30th birthday. But even though Simon isn’t there, all 3 of the girls feel his presence the whole weekend through Alice’s behavior, sensing something isn’t quite right.
It’s clear from the get go that Alice, Darling is culling from all sorts of previously shared experiences in emotionally abusive relationships between the women in front of and behind the camera. By the end I was completely in Alice’s headspace: exhausted, panicked, and completely stressed out because of her situation. Simon’s hold is so strong on Alice that during all quiet times, her thoughts inevitably go towards what HE would be thinking of her, making poor Alice hate herself more and raise the hairs on her neck and pull the hairs off her head slowly to just release some of that pent up energy. Text dings are like little mini jump scares, never providing a moment’s peace. Outwardly, Sophie and Tess see how Simon has changed Alice, transforming their meek friend into a warped mouthpiece for his vile thoughts; Alice lashes out at both of her oldest friends because she’s repeating stuff Simon doesn’t want her to do pushing the people she loves away and isolating Alice further, just what Simon wants. Alice, Darling gets you this tense without the male actor anywhere near the three women during the lakehouse trip, because of how insightful the script and direction is in freaking you, and Alice out.
It’s been a long time since Anna Kendrick has been challenged in a role. But she rises to the occasion in Alice, Darling, proving she’s lost none of that well of talent she has. It’s almost shocking to think this girl played Pitch Perfect’s Becca, because of how much confidence Simon has sucked out of her. Kendrick plays the scripts big moments for Alice perfectly, never overdoing the breakthroughs or Lifetime movieing the freak outs. Everyone else here is mostly playing types, ceding space so Kendrick can lead but doing their best. Wunmi Mosaku’s Sophie is the glue girl, perpetually optimistic and always lifting people up, and Kaniehtiio Horn’s Tess is the risk taker of the trio, calling out Simon’s bullsh*t to Alice. And props I guess to Charlie Carrick, forever to be known and the British Anna Kendrick abuser and destined to play the terrible boyfriend in romcoms for the next 20 years. Boy is he smarmy and evil.
If you’ve ever been in or had to witness someone in a bad relationship, Alice, Darling is going to strike some chords. Being more like a Sophie, I found myself tearing up a bit by the end, as the movie finds just the right note to end the movie on and release all the stress inside what will be one of the tenser movie experiences you’ll have. And for all the couples looking for a fun Anna Kendrick date night movie, maybe skip this one and just watch Trolls instead?