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Alice, Darling

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Alice, Darling
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMary Nighy
Written byAlanna Francis
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyMike McLaughlin
Edited byGareth C. Scales
Music byOwen Pallett
Production
companies
Distributed by
  • Lionsgate (United States and United Kingdom)
  • Elevation Pictures (Canada)
Release dates
  • September 11, 2022 (2022-09-11) (TIFF)
  • December 30, 2022 (2022-12-30) (United States)
Running time
89 minutes[1]
Countries
  • United States
  • Canada
LanguageEnglish
Box office$165,264[2]

Alice, Darling is a 2022 psychological thriller film directed by Mary Nighy, in her directorial debut, from a screenplay by Alanna Francis. The film stars Anna Kendrick, Kaniehtiio Horn, Charlie Carrick, and Wunmi Mosaku.

Alice, Darling had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2022, and was released in select cinemas on December 30, 2022, in Los Angeles at the AMC Sunset 5, before a wide release later in the United States on January 20, 2023, in AMC Theatres.

Plot

Alice is in a psychologically abusive relationship with her boyfriend, Simon. After taking a vacation with friends, she decides to reassess her relationship with Simon and attempts to break her codependency.

Simon allows Alice out for a rare evening at a bar with her two best friends Tess and Sophie. The women notice that she is distracted and flinches at each ping from her phone, and throughout the evening she constantly touches her hair. It is implied that Alice met Simon in Tess' circle. However, despite Simon's connection to Tess, he seems to be removing her from her friends. Sophie proposes that they should celebrate Tess' birthday at her parents' house up north, which Alice readily agrees to. Rather than tell Simon the truth, she informs him it is a work trip to Minneapolis.

On the trip to the cottage, the trio makes a quick stop at a convenience store, where Alice spots a flyer for a missing girl, Andrea. The missing person case seems to consume Alice.

The three women spend time together at the cottage, the rural town and a lake near the cottage. Simon discovers where they are from reading Alice's emails and calls her, demanding she leave and return to him. Alice packs up but Tess hides her phone and wallet, while Sophie goes to the store as an excuse for Tess and Alice to spend time together. Tess tries to teach Alice to paddle board on the lake. She jokingly rocks the board thus Alice falls off and loses her earring, a gift from Simon. Alice in a panic dives down to find the earring. Unsuccessful, she returns to the shore where she suffers further panic attacks muttering the phrase that she "can't do another thing wrong". When pressed by Tess they have an argument and Alice confesses that she hid their vacation retreat from Simon. Tess questions Alice's well-being. Alice cancels her plan to leave and the next morning she joins the search party for Andrea. Somewhere near an abandoned cottage she finds lipstick and thinks it belongs to Andrea.

Back in the cottage, the women repair their friendship and have a good time. Alice starts opening up to her friends, even at one point telling them that Simon never hurt her physically but eventually admitting Simon subjected her to emotional abuse. Alice stops responding to Simon's messages, leading him to show up unannounced with grocery bags in hand. That evening at a very tense dinner, Simon pulls out a newspaper showing the news that the body of the missing girl was found. Alice takes out the lipstick and says what she thinks about it. Simon condescendingly attempts to shut her down.

The next morning, Alice packs and leaves the cottage, surprising her friends. On the way to the main road, Simon stops his car at a junction allowing a long line of cyclists to pass. Sophie catches up with the car and breaks the back windshield using a maul. Alice gets out and locks eyes with Sophie, signalling to her friend that she does not want to go with Simon. Simon meanwhile demands for Alice to get back into the car, but she firmly declines. Tess steps in between Simon and Alice forcing Simon to give up. He walks back to the car and aggressively throws Alice's possessions out before driving away.

The film concludes with Alice riding the paddle board and taking a dive into the lake.

Cast

Production

In July 2021, it was announced Anna Kendrick, Charlie Carrick, Wunmi Mosaku, and Kaniehtiio Horn would star in the film, with Mary Nighy directing from a screenplay by Alanna Francis, with Elevation Pictures set to distribute domestically in Canada and Lionsgate internationally.[3][4]

Principal photography took place from June 21 to July 20, 2021, in Toronto.[5] The film doesn't hide the fact that the story is set in Toronto and surrounding areas, with location names and landmarks appearing clearly throughout the film.

Release

The film was released in a limited capacity on December 30, 2022, in Los Angeles at the AMC Sunset 5, before having a wide release on January 20, 2023, in AMC Theatres.[6] It had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2022.

The film was released for VOD on February 3, 2023. It was released for Blu-ray and DVD on March 14, 2023.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 84% of 122 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Alice, Darling offers a haunting look at how difficult it can be to leave an abusive relationship -- and the value of a solid support network." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 65 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Accolades

Award Date of Ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
Canadian Screen Awards April 16, 2023 Best Art Direction/Production Design Jennifer Morden Nominated [7]
Golden Trailer Awards June 29, 2023 Best Independent Trailer "Beautiful Girl" Nominated [8]
CMPA IndieScreen Awards September 7, 2023 Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award Katie Bird Nolan and Lindsay Tapscott Nominated [9]

References

  1. ^ "'Alice, Darling' Review: Anna Kendrick Transfixes in a Chilling Portrait of Abuse". The Hollywood Reporter. September 14, 2022. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  2. ^ "Alice, Darling (2022)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved January 22, 2023.
  3. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (July 12, 2021). "Anna Kendrick To Star In Lionsgate's All Femme Thriller 'Alice, Darling'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  4. ^ Vlessing, Etan (July 12, 2021). "Anna Kendrick to Star in 'Alice, Darling' Thriller for Lionsgate". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  5. ^ "Ontario Creates Media List" (PDF). Ontario Creates. July 2, 2021. p. 1. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
  6. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (October 20, 2022). "'Alice, Darling': Anna Kendrick Thriller Getting Oscar-Qualifying Run Before 2023 Theatrical Release".
  7. ^ "2023 Canadian Screen Awards Nominees". Academy.ca. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  8. ^ Tinoco, Armando (June 5, 2023). "Golden Trailer Awards Nominations List: 'Stranger Things,' 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,' 'Ted Lasso' & 'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery' Among Most Nominated". Deadline. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
  9. ^ Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA). "Nancy Grant named 2023 CMPA Indiescreen Award winner". www.newswire.ca. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
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