The Ones Below (2015)
Rosemary's Baby (1968) isn't my favorite Polanski. Hell, it's not even my favorite of the so-called
Apartment Trilogy. Maybe that's why I found myself so open to David Farr re-imagining the story nearly half a century later. Do I feel like I placed my trust in the wrong hands? Not particularly.
Justin and Kate are the romanticized university sweethearts. He's a promising campaign manager who can afford a new flat for his expecting a wife, herself maintaining a career in fashion at some compacity. Our understanding of their relationship deepens with Kate venting about her withholding mother, Justin expressing concern over her mental health especially considering her family history, the revelation that conceiving a child was a topic they debated long before the act. For an 80 minute picture, we really get a three dimensional picture of their dynamic without ever feeling like a clump of backstory is being stuffed down our throats.
An offer of herbal tea is as close as the neighbors come to the eccentric Mr. and Mrs. Casevete. Instead of occult conspiracy, their veneer conceals the tacit agreement that they love each other as a means to bear a child as opposed to any more intimate connection. For Jon, it's an extension of business that already pushed him to leave a previous spouse found to be infertile. For Theresa, it's a high pressure responsibility, especially in Jon's presence. Even after piecing together what we can, the brunt of their identity is still hidden away from the viewer. We never get to see how they interact when they're alone. It's a very effective decision that the film thankfully never doubles back on.
Though explicitly inspired by a younger Polanski,
The Ones Below also reminds me of his 2011 effort,
Carnage which followed two groups of parents stuck together in an apartment for an uncomfortable afternoon. The couples really grate against each other even before a tragic event sets them at odds. Theresa and Jon's dinnertime charade is a cringe inducing affair. The courtesy Justin extends to Jon is met with icy reception. When everything boils over, they're at each other's throats abandoning any guise of civility. Theresa demands they both see the child she blames them for losing, its premature corpse too meager to leave behind ashes. The rest of the film is unnerving in a different way, though rooted in this devastating exchange that occurs early on.
The Ones Below is an exercise in tension, riding that familiar line between paranoia and conspiracy. It's a more grounded experience, resolving itself in the vein of a procedural as opposed to a fever dream. It never travels too far outside the realm of possibility to torture its audience, relying on awkward conversations and a frenzied depiction of anxiety. For everything it does right, it still feels like a very minor story perhaps too constrained by its runtime and likely its budget. Perhaps the most disappointing shortcoming lies in it spoiling any interpretation by cheaply explaining the ending in the most blunt manner possible. For a film that thrives on withholding certainty from the audience, it really shoots itself in the foot for some misguided sense of resolution.
/sleep deprivation fueled word vomit
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. As well as the dialogue and interactions, that's what i think was done best the portrayal of paranoia. Also loved the ending it was just so cruel what Keanus character was subjected to.
