I wanted to like this movie. Honest, I did. But about midway through I had to admit defeat. I remember a writing teacher once telling me that one could write about any subject at all “a waterfall or a leaf, so long as it wants something.” Distant characters can only take you so far. Also — for a story as preposterous as this, it wasn’t shot in a “weird” enough way. A secret government bunker that hires out for a Mexican immigrant cleaning woman? Too stupid to take literally, but no attempt made to present this as some sort of symbol (I interpreted it that way anyhow. I had to to keep going.) Atom Egoyan made a film called Speaking Parts which is kinda similar but a million times better. Rent that one instead.
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Jordan Hoffman is a New York-based writer and film critic working for The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Thrillist, Times of Israel, NY Daily News and elsewhere.
He is the host of ENGAGE: The Official Star Trek Podcast, a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and challenges you to a game of backgammon.