I feel like we were just wondering whatever happened to the erotic thriller. I mean, we always are in this sanitized sexless film culture of the 2020s. It was the conversation in the lead-up to Adrian Lyne’s Deep Water, the only example of the genre in recent years, and which turned out not to be particularly good nor erotic. Sanctuary, a film by Zachary Wigon, is much better, if structurally and thematically uninspired in its own way. This is a movie that at least knows how to make itself look good, knows how to draw its tension and give its actors meaty material to work with.
For all of these it takes the minimalist approach: but for a couple scenes in an elevator, the movie is entirely set in a hotel suite, albeit a large, chromatically gorgeous one of sharp gold and red. Christopher Abbott plays Hal, a millionaire heir to a large company, about to become CEO due to the death of his father. While it initially appears he is being interviewed for the position by a professional corporate manager Rebecca (Margaret Qualley), she is actually a sex worker -a dominatrix in fact, working off a script of sexual humiliation he prepared for her. They have been having these sessions regularly, but as Hal indicates at its end, he can’t continue due to the prestige of his new reputation. Rebecca however is offended by this, and feels entitled in a certain way, to the fruits of his success -figuring he learned the power tactics he would incorporate into his leadership from their trysts together.
But the details aren’t so important as the shifting power play itself that courses through the rest of the movie, as Rebecca threatens to blackmail Hal while he attempts to assert control, and the dynamic gets more impassioned and complex as the stakes rise in their own way for each of them. The gravity of the situation evolves, the battle of personalities takes chameleon shapes, and it’s a major driver of tension. In slyly hiding the context of this relationship at the start whilst establishing a direct cruelty on the part of Rebecca, Wigon sets up a guessing game as to how much what we see is an act, even in the places where the act seemingly ends. Remember that BDSM and sexual roleplay relies on a ‘safe word’ to break the illusion. While Hal and Rebecca’s contracted game seems to end early on, consider that the safe word -revealed later in the film to be “Sanctuary”- is not uttered.
I don’t necessarily believe Wigon’s intent is to obfuscate the stakes within the context of the “game”, but it also doesn’t completely rule itself out in the nature of how this largely real-time episode progresses, with Hal’s insecurities and Rebecca’s assertions of power playing into their ultimate conclusion rather well. The situation is also perhaps a bit too full of grandiloquence to be taken at face value. The scope of Rebbecca’s demands, the ostentatious screeds about power, her intense glee at Hal’s frustrations as he desperately searches for the camera she claims to have been using to record their trysts. At one point he accidentally electrocutes himself and she forces him to have sex at knifepoint while taunting him about the chances of her getting pregnant. The overwrought details of the situation fit the mould of an elaborate game better than they do an apparent reality.
Either way it’s beleaguered, especially where it feels the need to play cat-and-mouse for a bit with regards to the power differential. Certainly, it seems the rationales for escalation are pretty arbitrary, from both Hal and Rebecca. And yet, though verisimilitude isn’t achieved, there is still power to these scenes, to the interactions -most of it stemming from the commanding performance of Margaret Qualley. She’s been a strikingly confident screen presence for years now, going back to The Nice Guys and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but Sanctuary may be the first movie to fully take advantage of her strengths. There are several instances where Qualley goes big, enthusiastically chewing scenery, delighting in the intellectual, psychological exercise of the “game”. Her body language exudes domination in that classical gendered fashion -consider her posture as she watches Hal clean the bathroom in his underwear, or even when she drops a couple bombshells when he has her handcuffed to the bed -her expression remaining focused and severe, controlled, any vulnerability a mere act. She maintains the vestiges of that all throughout and it’s a thrilling display, both for her and the audience. It dwarfs Abbott’s performance a touch, though he puts up a solid effort -ever in the submissive role, whether in meek fear or panicked anger. And in these latter moments the crippling insecurity comes across. His choices compliment hers very well, which is as best as can be hoped for given the dichotomous nature of these two roles. He is the sub -of course he’s overshadowed.
All this time they are sparring, the movie is saturated in its ambient glow, casting a sensual heat over the proceedings and making the sexual and structural aspects of power intertwined. Wigon and cinematographer Ludovica Isidori are very smart in their use of colour and lighting to accentuate a mood of both dramatic and erotic tension –honing in on the red frames of a scene for instance when the subtext requires a distinct tinge of lust; or in choosing a blue overcast for the one scene of the movie that dwells in real vulnerability, at the same time a power low-point for one of the protagonists. The visual language matches the changing circumstances quite effectively, compliments the tone. It’s pretty clear how this is a movie not directed by the same person who wrote it –Wigon’s eye for rich imagery is much more engaging than the plot orientation or dialogue. However, through the performances, the two do find a balance, even as it leaves some sectors of the film underdeveloped or unconvincing.
Sanctuary isn’t particularly innovative or surprising as far as stories of this type are concerned –even the single-setting real-time conceit only goes so far unless you do or say something radically different with it. And this movie doesn’t. But it does achieve some distinction of craft and manages to be a breath of fresh air for the genre and subject matter it plays its game in. I appreciate how bluntly unapologetic the movie is, how wild its stakes are, and how its pair of actors, Qualley especially, meet these with panache. If you’re looking for something sexy and dangerous, curious and fun and even mildly provocative, Sanctuary is probably the best movie of the past year for it.
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JordanBosch
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jordan_D_Bosch
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/jbosch
Comments
Post a Comment