The latest round of film festival entries seem to often focus on a reoccurring theme of women struggling with mental illness. Perhaps it is a metaphor for our times since women are frequently the bearers of the emotional responsibility to support and comfort others. The year 2020 has been emotionally overwhelming so it is no surprise that the lives depicted on screen are frequently unraveling.
Holly (Azura Skye) is an English teacher, an attractive mother of two boys and has an ambitious husband who receives a promotion. They have a lovely home and seem to be the perfect middle-class family. The cracks in this perfection soon become apparent as her husband is revealed to be only a grocery store manager and the family needs his promotion to keep up the appearances of their lifestyle.
When Holly shops at that same grocery she charges her purchases to her husband’s account, no doubt getting a significant discount. The family is revealed to be more dysfunctional than their neighbors and coworkers would imagine as the film progresses.
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Holly’s sons are openly hostile to her, her husband is cheating on her and her little sister is home from her latest treatment at a rehab, which was not successful. He sister, Claudia (Ashley Bell) is a spoiled and narcissistic monster who still knows how to trigger Holly’s resentment and anxiety. After an emotionally draining family get together, Holly decides to drive home alone.
This is the set up to the incident that gives the film its title but it is strangely muted in its impact on the main character. She sees that a car accident has been reported in her local paper, she has flashbacks of being the cause for another car to veer off a shoulder and yet it is like it never happened at all. Her husband dismisses her confession as a bad dream due to her needing her medication recalibrated and that is the last time the film explores the implications of her actions.
The viewer is ultimately left confused as to whether the accident happened at all but there is also ambiguity as to if the incident really had any emotional impact on Holly. She is already overwhelmed but there is never a clear indication that the accident pushes her to take the actions she does in the last third of the story.
The unfortunate effect of this is that the plot implies that those suffering from mental illness are “ticking timebombs.” Claudia has attempted rehab more than once and Holly only gets a scolding and more pills from her physician. While it may be true that many people don’t receive adequate care, that does not mean that a person with a mental illness is an inevitable danger to themselves and others.
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Having said that, Azura Skye is absolutely stunning as Holly. She conveys so much with just her face and her hands, whether its peeling an apple of how she grips her car’s steering wheel. The hurt in her eyes when her sons reject her is like she is absorbing a punch to her stomach. There is only so many punches she has the strength to endure, however, leading to a horrific plot twist at the end.
Director Dean Kapsalis should be congratulated on his first full length feature that is wonderfully atmospheric and moody. The backroads of Virginia are seen as both treacherous at night and innocently full of furry creatures during the day, which nicely echoes Holly’s struggle to continue in her daily life versus her dark emotional turmoil that threatens her. ‘The Swerve” is a creepy and insidious thriller that stays with you after its last scene.
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