Movie Review: ‘Men’ Is Creepy By Design

metroweekly.com:

Men (★★★☆☆) doesn’t aim for perfect clarity in its nightmarish vision of a woman alone in a country house being stalked by strangers.

The movie doesn’t demand to be concisely understood or interpreted. It’s a funhouse fright-fest designed to creep audiences the hell out, and at that it should succeed.Early on, Garland — whose Ex-Machina thrilled sci-fi fans, and whose Annihilation left many befuddled — lures us briefly into thinking Men might plot a familiar path down old terror road.Jessie Buckley, Oscar-nominated for her brutally honest performance in The Lost Daughter, is equally compelling here as Harper Marlowe, a Londoner who takes to the English countryside for a two-week solo retreat.Harper is grieving the death of her ex-husband, yet feeling hopeful that a peaceful sojourn in quaint village Cotson should be restorative, as she tells friend Riley (Gayle Rankin) over the phone.The film revels for a relaxed moment in soothing breezes, bathing in the quietude of nature.

A peaceful drive over winding, empty roads, a lazy walk in the woods interrupted by a sudden rain shower, Harper in her wool overcoat and chic collection of chunky sweaters… it all seems so simple.But Garland has more up his sleeve than meandering on the moors, or just exploring the stark vulnerability of a woman alone in a strange and unfamiliar village.

Flashbacks gradually reveal the true, tragic measure of Harper’s pain over the end of her marriage to James (Paapa Essiedu).In scenes from their sad, bitter parting, James is a troubled narcissist, a soul-sucking drain on any possible joy they might hold in their lives.Essiedu, heartbreakingly good and funny in I May Destroy You, is stuck here enacting only the character’s relentless negativity.