Gaslight

I had a number of reasons to want to see this; a love of psychological thrillers, a love of the film noir aesthetic, Ingrid Bergman (who could not put in a bad performance), Joseph Cotton (always a joy to see), and a curiosity to see the movie where the term came from, even if it has been over- and misused by people to the point of being meaningless. But moreover, I was curious to see how it would handle the topic at all. After all, this is well into the rule of the Hays Code, a Draconian set of guidelines for movies that went overboard protecting the audience in the name of morality. It was also released in a time when women definitely didn't have social equality, and a lot of movies of the era, when tackling heavy topics, did so with kid gloves. I love The Best Years Of Our Lives, but it treats PTSD as if it were no more than waking up on the wrong side of the bed. To my surprise, Gaslight pulls no punches in telling the story of Paula Anton, a young woman still recovering from seeing her guardian aunt murdered as a child, swept off her feet by Gregory and rushed into a whirlwind marriage, only to be manipulated and abused to the point of near insanity. Gregory is a master manipulator, almost always keeping his cool. His manipulations come in the form of gentle comments and jokes; "oh, you're always so forgetful" and "you're always losing things, silly". Paula is so desperate to put her trauma behind her, she's willing to believe anything he says, because she believes he loves her wholly and truly. Gaslight is a master class in abuse and psychological torment, to the point of almost being a blueprint. The performances by Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman are out of this world (they were both nominated for Oscars, and Bergman won); Boyer starts off charming and romantic, slowly revealing his true nature. He is a fundamentally loathsome human being, one of cinema's greatest villains, casually urging his bride to the brink of insanity, withering her with a glare, or frightening her into submission on the rare occasions when his temper explodes. And if Boyer hits a home run, Bergman clears the bases with a performance for the ages. She has to take Paula from mourning to trusting to lovestruck to frightened, and dancing on a razor's edge of madness all the time. There is true heartbreak in the moments where she tries to fight back against the abuse that has eroded her so, only for it to push back against her. And the final moments, when she finally finds her strength, are a real fist-pumping moment that feels a long time coming. Whenever there is talk about strong female characters in movies, this performance, especially the last five minutes or so, should be an example. Paula not only draws a firm line and tells her abuser he will not dare cross, she flips the abuse back on him, weaponizing what he's done to her and shows him that he will affect her no longer. Gaslight is not without fault, though. At two hours, it's a little too long, as so much of it reiterates the abuse. Yes, there is a huge cathartic payoff at the end, but this is a plane that could've landed 15 minutes sooner. The script also plants a few seeds that it frustratingly never brings to fruition, specifically if the house staff are in on it. And then there's the obviousness of the script. Gaslight takes the idea of a movie like Suspicion -- where a woman marries a man with secrets and begins to suspect him of everything up to and including murderous intent -- and flips it on its head; instead of slowly revealing what the husband is up to, we know almost right off the bat, and it's just a matter of watching and waiting for his plan to fall apart. But that strips away any sense of mystery Gaslight might have. The psychological thriller aspect is there, and it is done exceedingly well, but if the intent were to also have an element of mystery, Gaslight's twists and turns could only fool a small child. By no means does any of this make Gaslight a bad movie. But it does mean some parts of the story and character portrayals are more tended to than others, and you might grow a bit annoyed being ahead of the script. But these are flaws that easily get papered over by the performances and how uncomfortably authentic the abuse is portrayed. Gaslight is a psychological thriller in the truest sense of the term. It will make you squirm in your seat, it will break your heart, and in those final minutes, your heart will explode with pride when Paula finds her strength. There's a reason the two leads got nominated for Oscars and Bergman won, and if you like thrillers like this, you owe it to yourself to check out this one.