Geoffrey Rush stars a Stefan Mortensen, a New Zealand judge who suffers a stroke while on the bench, and ends up partially paralyzed and in a nursing home he feels is below his stature. Also at this facility is the much more mobile Dave Crealy (a creepily blue eyed John Lithgow), a looming patient whose constant companion is an eyeless doll head he's fashioned into a hand puppet he calls Jenny Pen. Together "Jenny" and Dave torture and bully their fellow residents, with the staff never seeming to believe reports of this abuse.
So, yes, that's horrible. And it's depiction of aging, and the accompanying loss of autonomy that comes hand in hand with aging, is horrible. But does that make it a horror movie? I just don't think so! I kept waiting for there to be some kind of supernatural reveal behind it all, and while the puppet head does appear in some nightmares, there's really not much more to it than that, which just makes this a movie about elder abuse, which, yes, is horrible, and ultimately, pretty horrible to watch.
1 comment:
I felt like Dave could have been a serial killer, and it was set up like a slasher. But overall I agree, it’s more like a thriller.
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