Bristol Ozturgut

DWD leaned heavily into a trope of a bygone era to examine the alarming return to misogyny in our culture today. The unfortunate truth is that we, collectively, have had so many mental break downs rendered for us in so many films, books, and other media - not to mention real life - that any work attempting to motivate a modern audience by these means has to commit to a truly extraordinary delivery. Sadly, this film falls quite flat in that regard. The illusion in which the protagonist is trapped has no stakes, so its ultimate unveiling is of little concern or interest. Because the film gives the protagonist such a typical rendering of insanity, the tragedy of her circumstance feels boring and tired. Instead of feeling terrified in playing bystander to an imprisoned main character, the viewer feels trapped in a tired trope relying on a fetishism of vintage aesthetic and values. Unfortunately for the feminist subtext of the film, the tragedy of the protagonist is unremarkable. The brief display of the antagonist's motivations were the most interesting of the entire film. Why does he need this illusion? To what real end? Ultimately, however, the antagonist's goals are not served by his actions, leaving both of the unreliable main characters to flounder in their unresolvable conflict. Obviously the settings were decadent and the cinematography was lush -- there were a handful of gripping scenes. Otherwise, the film simply fell short of its mark. Or overshot -- it's entirely too long with repeated, boring setting shots and pans that needn't have made it past the cutting room floor.