- Amy Adams, Scoot, McNairy, Mary Holland
- December 6th 2024
- 99
- Marielle Heller
Amy Adams plays a mother who believes she might be turning into a dog in Marielle Heller’s dark comedy.
Nightbitch may win the award for the weirdest film concept of the year.
This film, based on the book of the same name by Rachel Yoder, tells the story of a mum who starts to think she’s turning into a dog. Yes, really!
Adams plays a lonely, depressed and frustrated mother who is mourning her former life as an artist. She gave up work to raise her son (played by twins Arleigh and Emmett Snowden) full-time but can’t stand the isolation, the exhaustion, the monotony and the lack of intelligent adult conversation as a stay-at-home mum.
The mother, who remains unnamed, is resentful of her husband (Scoot McNairy) because his life has barely changed since becoming a parent and he is still able to come and go as he pleases. He doesn’t realise how hard being a mum is and therefore doesn’t help as much as he should.
Nightbitch, written and directed by Marielle Heller, presents one of the most honest and realistic screen depictions of motherhood.
The downsides of motherhood are a taboo subject – something mums aren’t supposed to say out loud – and Heller confronts this head-on from the get-go, with Adams’s character delivering a brutally honest monologue about her feelings to an acquaintance in a shop.
The character also talks to herself about the trials and tribulations of motherhood via voiceovers, so we get a very good idea about her internal thoughts.
Occasionally, the mother will interact with others and you don’t know if she’s said her blunt thoughts aloud or in her head – you have to wait for their reaction to find out!
There are possibly too many voiceovers and the story does feel repetitive but this mirrors the character’s lifestyle – she only has herself to talk to most of the time and her days are very monotonous.
While the film nails the depiction of motherhood – with more humour than expected – the “turning into a dog” aspect isn’t so effective.
Adams grounds the light body horror in reality as much as possible but this magic realism element doesn’t gel well with the domestic drama.
Nightbitch is geared towards women, especially mothers, who will feel very seen with this film. Regardless of your verdict on the feature as a whole, you cannot deny that Adams does fantastic work channelling her character’s pent-up rage.
In cinemas from Friday 6th December.
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