{"id":183134,"date":"2020-03-04T10:00:28","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T17:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/?p=183134"},"modified":"2020-03-04T14:10:43","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T21:10:43","slug":"swallow-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/2020\/03\/04\/swallow-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Swallow Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swallow<\/em><\/strong>
\nIFC Films<\/strong>
\nReviewed by: Tami Smith, Film Reviewer for Shockya<\/strong>
\nGrade: C+<\/strong>
\nDirector: Carlo Mirabell-Davis<\/strong>
\nScreenwriter: Carlo Mirabell-Davis<\/strong>
\nCast: Haley Bennett, Austin Stowell, Elizabeth Marvel, David Rasche, Laith Makli, Denis O\u2019Hare<\/strong>
\nRelease Date: March 6th, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

The protagonist of Swallow<\/em> has an unusual eating habit. Nothing gives her more satisfaction than being curled up in bed with a good book, and eating the printed page or vacuuming the living room rug, finding a small sharp object and swallowing it. She has a Pica<\/em> disorder, a condition which may lead to surgical intervention.<\/p>\n

This lucky gal is Hunter (Haley Bennett), a suburban homemaker, married to Richie (Austin Stowell), a good looking man who works at his father\u2019s firm. Hunter\u2019s aim is to make Richie happy while Richie\u2019s is to give the family business an heir. During Act I Hunter keeps asking Richie: \u201cAre you happy?<\/em>\u201d while he keeps replying \u201cI am the happiest man in the whole world.\u201d; \u201cI just want to make sure I am not doing anything wrong\u201d <\/em>she says, to which he replies: \u201cYou could not do anything wrong even if you tried\u201d. <\/em>At one point, during this Stepfordian <\/em>dialog, spectators may want to shout: \u201cHey Hunter, this is the twenty-first century not the nineteen-fifties; Wake up\u201d. <\/em>But, alas, she does not wake up until Act III, after being pestered and looked down upon by her Father-in-Law Michael (David Rasche) and his wife Katherine (Elizabeth Marvel).<\/p>\n

Director and screenwriter Mirabell-Davis gives Swallow<\/em>\u2019s plot a d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu feeling of centuries past when women were happy to \u201cmarry-well\u201d, do housework and take care of the children. \u201cSo what did you do before you met my son<\/em>?\u201d asks Katherine. \u201cRetail mostly\u201d<\/em> replies Hunter\u201d. \u201cAre you happy or are you pretending to be happy\u201d? <\/em>continues Mother-in-Law, thus letting Hunter know that she is aware of the latter\u2019s gold-digging intentions.<\/p>\n

After Hunter becomes pregnant and takes a sonogram, the results show the content of her stomach with an unborn child and a bunch of small objects, curtesy of Pica.<\/em> She is rushed to the operating room, provided with a therapist, Alice (Zabryna Guevara), who does not recognize patient\/doctor confidentiality, and gets a male-nurse\/body guard, Luay (Laith Nakli), who never leaves her sight.<\/p>\n

I found Swallow\u2019<\/em>s plot dated and unconvincing. Act III shows a change in Hunter which is not believable and is premature. Her meeting with Erwin (Denis O\u2019Hare), her biological father, does not make logical sense and the pay-back is in the single digits.<\/p>\n

Acting in Swallow<\/em> exceeded my expectation, since performers had to work with one-dimensional roles. Haley Bennet excels in the dated role of Hunter, portraying a shy, soft-spoken suburban wife whose functions in the marriage are ornamental and biological. Austin Stowell presents husband Richie as an average conformist eager to please his parents. The roles of Hunter\u2019s in-laws are written in a cookie-cutter format with Elizabeth Marvel, as Mother-In-Law Katherine, giving a silly speech about the mind-body connection. David Rasche, in the role of Father-In-Law Michael, presents a profit oriented character who wants to see tangible results even when talking about psychiatric treatment. Laith Makli stands out in the role of Luay, Hunter\u2019s body guard, who came from war ravaged Syria. He plays a person out of place among the suburban elite. Denis O\u2019Hare delivers a supporting performance as Erwin, Hunter\u2019s biological father. His calm demeanor and speech do not match the circumstances or make sense.<\/p>\n

Katelin Arizmendi\u2019s cinematography shows a beautiful suburban house, in upstate New York, with a large pool and blue\/gray furniture accentuating the spiritual emptiness of its inhabitants.<\/p>\n

Some of the plot\u2019s aspects may be personal for director Mirabell-Davis but I found its content hard to swallow!<\/p>\n

94 minutes Rated: R \u00a9 Tami Smith, Film Reviewer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Story: C
\nActing: B
\nTechnical: B+
\nOverall: C+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swallow IFC Films Reviewed by: Tami Smith, Film Reviewer for Shockya Grade: C+ Director: Carlo Mirabell-Davis Screenwriter: Carlo Mirabell-Davis Cast: Haley Bennett, Austin Stowell, Elizabeth Marvel, David Rasche, Laith Makli, Denis O\u2019Hare Release Date: March 6th, 2020 The protagonist of Swallow has an unusual eating habit. Nothing gives her more satisfaction than being curled up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2020-03-04T17:00:31Z","apple_news_api_id":"a199122e-c2d5-4986-b43d-61928aea2656","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2020-03-04T17:00:31Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AoZkSLsLVSYa0PWGSiuomVg","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"middle","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":["https:\/\/news-api.apple.com\/sections\/a256d957-d5f8-3bec-b93f-7f862cadbf92"],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies","category-reviews"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nSwallow 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