The Night House

I have wrestled with the rating for this for hours now. Four stars, four and a half, five ... How much do the flaws detract from the movie? How much do the positives paper over the cracks? I'm writing this and I'm still not sure. Here's what I do know. On the negative side, it's all about the ending. It's not a bad ending, mind you; it ties everything up in a bow (even if there is some room for interpretation about what it all means, and whether it was all real or in the main character's head), sufficiently tense and sad, and shot beautifully. The flaws come in because the ending is a massive exposition dump, the kind of dump you normally expect with Bond villains telling 007 of their secret plans as he's tied to a death machine. It's also, tonally speaking, chaotic compared to the movie's up-until-that-point quiet, ruminating tone. I know third acts, and the finale especially, are when the movie kicks into high gear; it's just such a shift in this movie's case, given what this movie was before. And what it is prior to the ending is BEAUTIFUL. Beth loses her husband to a sudden suicide, and as she's trying to push down the grief and wrestle with the anger and loneliness, she uncovers secrets about her husband. And her house seems to be haunted, possibly by him. The movie builds up these two intertwining situations in such a delicate and elegant way, it almost takes your breath away. Director David Bruckner deserved an Oscar for how he handled this movie. In the wrong hands, this could've been something clumsy and blunt, like Thirteen Ghosts (the remake). But Bruckner uses so many tools to illustrate the potential horror; the use of sound is impeccable, for instance. He doesn't overdo it with a lush score, instead choosing minimal tones like a single note on a piano played a few times over a long stretch, or even vast periods of silence, punctuated by house noises. Light, shadow, and perspective are absolutely key here; what you see from one angle becomes something else from another. This movie isn't about cats jumping across a room; it's a soft breath on the back of your neck in a quiet house. And at the center of it all is Rebecca Hall JUST. FUCKING. OWNING. IT. as the grieving widow Beth. Like, WOW, I did not know she was capable of this. Beth starts off holding it in, and little by little, different emotions creep out, making you worried about her well-being. She talks about the suicide to coworkers with almost a glib, dismissive tone, sharing way more details than is comfortable. Her foundations are rattled because she's fought depression and suicidal thoughts, and he was always her lighthouse, so she's angry. She only welcomes the comfort of friends half-heartedly, as if she is honoring an obligation. As the mystery of his secrets unfolds, her walls come tumbling down, and when she finally lets the grief hit her and weeps and wails, it will rip your heart out. How she didn't get an award too is beyond me, and it's a criminal oversight. The I have written about it, the more I think I've convinced myself this gets the full boat. Yes, it has a couple flaws, but it's a case where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I don't mind the somewhat klutzy ending, because Rebecca Hall's mesmerizing acting and David Bruckner's deft direction overshine any flaws. And with the way the movie portrays Beth's mental state, you could chalk up the ending as a woman trying to make order out of chaos anyway. It's up to you how to interpret it. All I know is, it's magnificent. Hooptober 2022 movie #17/31