June (Watts) was a celebrated counter culture author (apparently from a well-to-do family) that wrote a well received novel that was more or less a biography of her father. That biography exposed illicit activities of her fathers company which resulted in legal issues and significant strife within her family. The movie opens with June in self-enforced isolation in a Bronx apartment circa 1977 during a summer heat wave, and if you know your history when there was a large power blackout and subsequent fires and looting.
Watts gives and outstanding performance, but there is little she can do to resolve terrible story writing from writer/director Alistair Banks Griffin.
The first full hour of the movie portrays June as paranoid, depressed, and in obvious self imposed isolation. Suspense build as the viewer assumes that the backstory for June must include some terrible event that shaped her life and made her so fearful. The setting of a bad part of the Bronx during a summer heat wave where she can see crime outside her apartment window reinforced the suspense. There are even radio news snippets that the audience overhears of a serial murderer that is targeting long haired brunettes (you guessed it, Watts' character matches that description). There is also the recurring ringing (and annoying) of her intercom at random hours of the night to make you think somebody is stalking her.
We find out that the horrifying event that has so traumatized June was the impact her book had on her family, and her fear of leaving her apartment has nothing to do with her personal safety, but her fear that she will do more damage to the world at large. We also discover that her ordeal and self imposed isolation has lasted 4 years.
The writer takes 2 full acts of suspense, scene setting, and character building relying on the incredible talents of Watt to keep the viewer engaged to spectacularly let them down with a petty problem that has only a paper thin relationship to the established paranoia.
The third act continues the disappointment as miraculously, a few minor interactions with people (a grocery store delivery guy, her sister, a male prostitute, and a phone call to her publisher) beings a rapid transformation in the character the defies belief. There isn't a clear "thing" that triggers June's transformation. There is an odd conversation with the male prostitute that could have been intended by the writer as the turning point, but it comes off as a non-important moment.
Regardless, the character resolves her writers block and suspends a great deal of her paranoia to allow her to dust of her typewriter and finish her book that was 4 years in the making - all in 1 month.
The final scenes have June leaving her apartment and watching the sunrise while surrounded by the destruction of the nights riots.
This is a really basic story that follows a common hero quest motif (aka The Hero Journey) that most of us learn in grade school English. The only thing that holds the first 2 acts together is Watts' performance and the contrived suspense. The plot device around her paranoia falls flat, and the 3rd act wraps up so rapidly that the lead character just comes off as petty.
Watts gives and outstanding performance, but there is little she can do to resolve terrible story writing from writer/director Alistair Banks Griffin.
The first full hour of the movie portrays June as paranoid, depressed, and in obvious self imposed isolation. Suspense build as the viewer assumes that the backstory for June must include some terrible event that shaped her life and made her so fearful. The setting of a bad part of the Bronx during a summer heat wave where she can see crime outside her apartment window reinforced the suspense. There are even radio news snippets that the audience overhears of a serial murderer that is targeting long haired brunettes (you guessed it, Watts' character matches that description). There is also the recurring ringing (and annoying) of her intercom at random hours of the night to make you think somebody is stalking her.
We find out that the horrifying event that has so traumatized June was the impact her book had on her family, and her fear of leaving her apartment has nothing to do with her personal safety, but her fear that she will do more damage to the world at large. We also discover that her ordeal and self imposed isolation has lasted 4 years.
The writer takes 2 full acts of suspense, scene setting, and character building relying on the incredible talents of Watt to keep the viewer engaged to spectacularly let them down with a petty problem that has only a paper thin relationship to the established paranoia.
The third act continues the disappointment as miraculously, a few minor interactions with people (a grocery store delivery guy, her sister, a male prostitute, and a phone call to her publisher) beings a rapid transformation in the character the defies belief. There isn't a clear "thing" that triggers June's transformation. There is an odd conversation with the male prostitute that could have been intended by the writer as the turning point, but it comes off as a non-important moment.
Regardless, the character resolves her writers block and suspends a great deal of her paranoia to allow her to dust of her typewriter and finish her book that was 4 years in the making - all in 1 month.
The final scenes have June leaving her apartment and watching the sunrise while surrounded by the destruction of the nights riots.
This is a really basic story that follows a common hero quest motif (aka The Hero Journey) that most of us learn in grade school English. The only thing that holds the first 2 acts together is Watts' performance and the contrived suspense. The plot device around her paranoia falls flat, and the 3rd act wraps up so rapidly that the lead character just comes off as petty.