Daisy Ridley shows her Hitchcockian side with Magpie, a nifty slow-burn domestic thriller based on a story she developed. Directed by Sam Yates and penned by Ridley’s husband, Tom Bateman, the film is Ridley’s latest challenging, intimate role, following her stellar performance in Young Woman and the Sea, and marks her as one of our best actresses whether she ever stars in another Star Wars film or not.
A neo-noir thriller, Magpie stars Ridley as Annette, and from the moment we meet her, we know she’s going through some deeply traumatic shit. Her hair cropped close like a defensive posture, Anette always seems to be walking on eggshells around her British Indian husband, Ben (Shazad Latif), an author who barely pays her any mind. He’s more concerned with their daughter, Matilda (Hiba Ahmed), a precocious child actress who has just scored her first major movie role. He leaves the dirty work of motherhood to Anette, the only one to watch over their newborn son, a child whose constant screams loom in the background of nearly every scene until they become like window dressing.
Magpie is about a lot of things, but it largely deals with the depression and loneliness felt by new mothers whose spouses are unaware of their needs. After the birth of their second child, Ben made the critical mistake of leaving Anette alone for months while he researched a book, and when he returned…well, the wife he knew wasn’t really there anymore. She already gave up her career to be a mom, and now feels unappreciated and unwanted. Things get more complicated when he starts to fall head over heels for Matilda’s co-star, Alicia (Matilda Lutz, fantastic as the warm, approachable, gorgeous celeb), who he sees every day while chaperoning his daughter.
Everything about Magpie is exaggerated for dramatic effect, but also to plant in our minds certain ideas about this domestic turmoil. Even before Ben meets Alicia he’s titillated by a sex tape of her and gets defensive when Anette talks about it. From the moment they meet, Ben and Alicia are shown to have at least a friendly connection, one that gets them both plastered on tabloid headlines…on just the second day of filming! This causes even more friction in the home, as Anette begins to suspect that something is going on. It isn’t long before she’s digging through his cell phone, breaking mirrors, and more. When she catches him masturbating in the shower, it feels like a checkpoint we knew had to be crossed.
Subtlety is not this movie’s goal, and there’s a charm to that. While Hitchcock does seem to be an inspiration, Yates’ direction and Bateman’s screenplay suggest a ’90s erotic thriller, something in the vein of Fatal Attraction or Basic Instinct. Men in those movies were always clueless to the needs of the women around them. We didn’t have the term back then, but they were gaslighters, and Ben is a master at it. He has likely spent a lifetime crafting an image of himself as a guy who is good to women. He would probably call himself a feminist if anyone asked. Ben is also selfish, and feels that his needs come before those of the women around him. What he wants, he feels he should get. Meanwhile, Anette is far from perfect herself. She snipes Ben for his writing and goads him with curt, sharp remarks. She’s a manipulator, too, and pretends to be more fragile than she actually is. Nothing Ben or Anette can do will make the other person happy, not anymore. It’s so bad, that even pancake breakfasts become a recurring battle. These games would grow tiresome in a longer movie but at 90 minutes, Magpie doesn’t overstay its welcome or pad out the drama any further.
Ridley’s penchant for quiet indie dramas informs our expectations, and for a lot of Magpie it plays out how we thought. Until it switches gears with soapy melodrama and tense exchanges, culminating in a deeply satisfying final act full of cheap thrills, crowd-pleasing twists, and a shocking moment of retribution. MAYBE it goes too far? Even if it does, so what? Sit back, enjoy the ride, and hope Ridley doesn’t stray far from this genre for too long.
Shout! Studios will release Magpie in theaters on October 25th.
