The Keeping Room (2014)

7/10

Near the end of the Civil War three women fight for their lives

Wuchakk31 May 2020

During the Carolinas Campaign near the bitter end of the Civil War in spring, 1865, two sisters & a former slave (Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld & Muna Otaru) have been waiting out the war at their rural homestead. A couple of Yankee cutthroats enter the picture and they have to use their wits to survive.

A slowburn Western that takes place in the East, "The Keeping Room" (2014) has sparse settings, but a competent cast, proficient filmmaking and a realistic, grim tone. Similar movies include "Pharaoh's Army" (1995) and "Echoes of War" (2015). "War Flowers" (2012) is another one but, unlike that flick, "The Keeping Room" features top-of-the-line filmmaking for a modest-budget picture.

The film runs 1 hour, 35 minutes, and was shot in Poienari, Arges County, Romania.

GRADE: B+

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5/10

A finely acted although agonizingly slow home invasion in wild west

quincytheodore10 December 2015

There's a merit on doing all female leads drama thriller set on volatile era of Civil War, especially when there's social prejudice involved. However, aside from some admittedly fine performance, the movie feels clunky and slow. It doesn't have the intricacy or characterization beyond the basic formula of "there are bad men coming", and even that takes the film about half its runtime to get the pace going.

This is the story of three women, one of whom is colored, as they defend their home from outsiders. Each woman might not be easily relatable at first, but the acting as well as decent investment time to them manage to deliver a few heavy thought provoking and intimate scenes. Brit Marling as the oldest one keeps a strong presence even though her character may be lacking in term of actual strength.

Muna Otaru as Mad, the colored housekeeper or technical maid, has a unique personality as the caretaker of the girls and also her own woman. As for the antagonist Sam Worthington makes do, he's decent but his motivation doesn't have the same focus as the girls', which means less connection to the character as he basically stumbles on the predicament he himself creates. The cinematography works by keeping an intentionally bleak and less stylish version of Wild West.

This is a deliberate pace for drama, not action or thriller. It does feel terribly slow at times, not in a good Tarantino build up style. Furthermore, there's not much cat-and-mouse cerebral standoff, which feels like a missed opportunity, especially when it could've used the setting as intense backdrop. Panic Room with Jodie Foster had trade of wit between protagonist and antagonist that created depth and utilized its premise, while here it's more of random gunslinging action.

The Keeping Room has a couple of good performances, especially geared towards heavy themes such as race prejudice and violence towards women. However, instead of putting more focus on home invasion to elevate the drama, its slow pace removes any thrill to what could've been a powerful commentary of an era and its lingering issues.

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6/10

Come Back From The Dead Stew

danielharden29 October 2016

Warning: Spoilers

From the director of the Michael Caine vigilante justice movie Harry Brown, comes the story of three girls, two sisters and their slave, living off their land and their wits in order to survive the advances by two rogue union soldiers. The film aims to deliver a handful of intriguing messages and representations but just falls short in its effort to express them impactfully.

However, I must say that the films take on race relations and the representation of the character Mad was fantastic. Wonderfully brought to the screen by Muna Otaru, Mad is the family slave and is therefore an outsider to the family unit of the sisters. But as the film progresses we begin to learn more about Mad's past as a slave, in fact we learn more about her character than anyone else and so she is the character you warm to and root for the most, especially when having the balls to retaliate and slap Augusta back. Being the family slave, Mad becomes the film's vessel on race relations in the 1800's and her journey throughout the film successfully foreshadows the abolishment of slavery as well as the black movements in the 100+ years to come.

As well as race representation, the film also offers a rather positive and interesting representation of gender. The film is a female lead western which already subverts the genre, the fact that these women are strong and fight back when pushed further reinforces this genre subversion and positive representation of women, away from the weak hookers of almost every other western film ever. This of course is down to the writing of Julia Hart's script and the performances of the three leads, especially Brit Marling and Muna Otaru and so I applaud their efforts.

Although representations were good, narratively I felt the film was weak. The film's pace was off as the film moves slowly but the home invasion moved very quickly. The film doesn't really get started properly until it's about 40 minutes in, I know that relationships need to be established and the film is set on race and gender representations but the films story becomes almost dormant as this happens and also I do feel more should have happened after seeing what the film actually achieves in 40 minutes.

I also fail to see the purpose of the mysterious black man, his character amounts to very little even though the film attempts to give him some purpose in terms of race relations and connections to Mad, but I can't help but feel that this character was rather pointless in the grand scheme of things. The films ending also falls flat of any real impact, in my opinion, as it feels rushed. I do appreciate the message of the ending but I just feel the execution was a little weak.

Overall, The Keeping Room is a moderate film that doesn't quite match the effectiveness it's messages hold. With a strong cast and representations it's a good representation piece, but the overall film itself is a moderate western. It's a slow and, at times, suspenseful film that aptly follows the opening quote, "The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."

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6/10

Slow but sure

DowntonR124 July 2018

A thinly plotted , mainly slow but often tense Civil War piece with three fine lead performances and a good rather different one from Sam Worthington. An interesting take on what happens when law breaks down in a soon to be defeated land.

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7/10

Quite dark, engaging, brutal in places

thekarmicnomad5 March 2017

During the American Civil war two sisters and their black slave find themselves on the path of Sherman's March to the Sea. Two Union troops sent ahead of the main force, taking much relish in their task, target the women.

This was in the dark section of Netflix, they really should create a bleak section for movies like this. Saying that, it is well made and acted.

Although brutal there is no gore or nudity.

The women have all kinds of hardships to contend with that are hard to totally comprehend today. Despite the obvious second and third class citizen status they have a more tangible lack of food, medicine and fuel. Not to mention the imminent arrival of a vengeful army operating a scorched earth policy.

The characters are interesting and challengingly honest.

The younger sister, not knowing any different, cannot grasp she is not superior to a black woman. The slave in turn seems overly phlegmatic; but then to survive as a slave you would have to be.

Don't expect too many rainbows here, but a very good watch.

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Sounds familiar to me

searchanddestroy-130 September 2016

Three women left alone in the South of the United States by the end of the Civil War, doesn't it sound familiar to you? For me, certainly yes. I thought of Don Siegel's THE BEGUILED, shot in 1970 and starring Clint Eastwood. For the rest, except this setting, the story is a little different and also the acting and directing. This movie has not been released in France and I understand why, although it is unfair, because more obscure films are shown in theatres in Paris. But this feature is not for wide audiences, especially with unknown actors and actresses. And the story so rough and brutal too. Anyway, I was Lucky enough to find the DVD, and I don't regret it. We can also class this film as a Home Invading one, a scheme so common since a decade now. A very good independent movie which I highly recommend.

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7/10

War is cruelty

solojere15 June 2021

The Keeping Room follows three women who are left alone on a plantation in the south near the end of the American Civil War. While these women are just trying to survive, they are put to the test when two rouge union soldiers. The result is an eerie, heartbreaking, and thought-provoking film about a group of people that we don't think about in history, women of the south. The film also does a good job of showing the dark side of the Union Army. Near the end of the war the union army had the attitude, "War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over. - William Tecumseh Sherman, Union Army General. Thus the burning and looting of southern plantations. While at the same time, this film doesn't glorify the confederacy. Instead, this film is about a small group of characters caught in a bad situation. Also, this film has some amazing performances from Hailee Steinfeld and Sam Worthington. I've always thought Sam Worthington is an underrated actor, and he is amazing as this film's villain. Hailee Steinfeld's performance simply fantasist. Even though she is only a kid, she is by far the best actor in this film, which goes to show just how talented she is. I wasn't as impressed with Brit Marling, but this could be because I found her character underwhelming. This movie isn't for everyone as there are some dark scenes. However, if you have the stomach for it, I'd recommend seeking it out.

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6/10

Keeping safe

kosmasp26 March 2016

I'm not familiar with the source material, but it seems to be very important to some people and it seems to have made an impact on those who read it. As the filmmaker says herself (accompanied by the lead actress), this is a western unlike the ones we are used to see. It's not a showoff and it has female leads, who are strong yet fragile too.

Some might call it feminist, with the a bad stigma, but that would not be a fair assessment. It has female leads as our heroes and there a lot of bad men in this too. But it has the quality to surpass that. And if you don't mind the slow pace this is a really gripping watch. It has it's moments/spikes of violence too, because it's all about survival ...

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4/10

Slow and ponderous doesn't win the race

eddie_baggins25 October 2016

Lots of films attest to the fact that slow and ponderous doesn't ruin a movie's chance of success but as Daniel (Michael Caine starrer Harry Brown's director) Barber's slow and steady The Keeping Room also attest's to, slow and ponderous certainly doesn't make a movie and while The Keeping Room has moments of brilliance and sprinklings of sound shattering violence, this Civil War set drama fails to properly engage.

The Keeping Room does offer a refreshing female orientated look at the American landscape of the Civil War war-torn country with Brit Marling's Augusta featuring alongside her sister Louise played by an increasingly grown up Hailee Steinfeld and house keep Mad played somewhat underwhelming by Muna Otaru and while Barber and his screenwriter Julia Hart should be commended for offering up a different take on the usual tropes of similar such films, The Keeping Room's overbearing sense of coldness and underdeveloped characters unhinges most of the films solid ground work.

For a film with such a confined setting and small field of participants, The Keeping Room needed to make better use of its recognisable faces and while the always good Marling does well with limited scope and Steinfeld and the increasingly obscure like Sam Worthington as a hard drinking soldier have some nice moments, this won't be a film fans of any of these actors will be recalling in years to come thanks to a blunted message; it's hard to know exactly what the film is trying to say or what it is, a lacking home invasion thriller or commentary on females trapped in the Civil War landscape and at the end of the day not even an ending out of a more rounded film can up the film to another level.

There's glimmers of a fairly astounding film here but they're only that, mere glimmers and when a low budgeted film such a this has such a talented cast and potential, The Keeping Room feels like a rather forgettable missed opportunity and despite its originality, Barber's film is not equal to the sum of its parts.

2 raccoon bites out of 5

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7/10

It was okay

Aidan_Healy1 January 2018

This movie was for the most part historically accurate, however lacked a main plot or story. The acting was good and the actors portrayed the time period well enough. Very dramatic and dreary, which adds to the historical accuracy. I overall enjoyed the movie and would recommend it to someone who has some knowledge in the Civil War era.

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4/10

Failed Attempt To Showcase Strong Women

gregsrants9 September 2014

The setting is the South Carolina in the final days of the American Civil War. Three southern women (Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld and Muna Otaru) learn to survive by farming, hunting and other daily chores they are thrust to complete due to the absence of men who are off fighting. Their farm is isolated, so help is not readily available. They must struggle and work to survive.

Their tedious and repetitive days are brought into turmoil when two Yankee scouts (Sam Worthington and Kyle Soller) cross paths with the mother patriarch of the trio with expressed devious intentions. With only their home as shelter, the three women must find a way to survive against the two armed soldiers who have already left a murderous path in their wake.

Julia Hart's screenplay for The Keeping Room made the Hollywood Black List back in 2012. But director Daniel Barber (Harry Brown) was resilient in his attempts to bring the strong female story to the screen. Barber wastes no time in garnishing his viewer's attention. The opening scene has a local colored girl being brutally murdered by the two scouts. The shots fired from their rifles and pistols echoed throughout the theatre and caught everyone's attention as the evil of the two antagonists was on quick display. Things take a dramatic turn immediately after as we get introduced to our three female leads and their life alone from rural civilization is dull and uninteresting unable to leverage from its strong lead-in.

All three women put on admirable acting displays, but their motions are of general non-interest to the average movie-goer. Watching them plow, eat, cook, chop wood. The Fireplace Channel is more interesting and involving than their daily life. Unfortunately, this Little House on the South Carolina Prairie goes on far too long and with little dialogue of single sentence deliveries, the film drags until the tension mounts again with the return of the two soldiers at the home.

We welcomed the piercing gun blasts that echoed the theatre to wake us up from our self-induced coma in the film's final third, but by then it was too late to get us back interested in the characters or their plights.

I would assume that Hart's screenplay and Barber's intentions were to bring a story of strong resilient women to the screen. But we are so bored by their daily routine that we were less inclined to think that these were stout and hardy women but rather three women that finally had something interesting to do. Even is that 'something' was to fight for their lives.

www.killerreviews.com

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9/10

Seek This One Out

movie-op19 September 2014

The American Civil War is a time period that's been told almost exclusively from the male perspective and has most often centered on Northerners (winners do write history), so to see a story about southern women enduring the brutality of the war's end is rather surprising. What makes it satisfying, and a truly excellent film, is how sharp the storytelling is. Writer Julia Hart uses the small story of three women, two sisters (Brit Marling and Hailee Steinfeld) and their young slave (Muna Otaru), to capture the massive effects the war had on the southern way of life, but never hits you over the head with its larger themes. Instead, it tells its story almost as a home- invasion thriller, with a slow-burning sense of dread filling every ounce of the runtime. Bleak, tense, and at times difficult to watch, The Keeping Room isn't fun, but you'll be happy you saw it.

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6/10

Tense and well made US Civil War era thriller

t-dooley-69-38691617 December 2016

Set in 1865 at the tail end of the American Civil War we meet two sisters and their former black slave who have been left to fend for themselves on the farm since the war has taken away all the men folk. The new way of life sits uneasy on the younger sister baulking at her new lowly status as a mere field hand.

Then a chance occurrence means her elder sister – has to go to town and in so doing crosses paths with two Yankee soldiers who are part of an advance foraging party. They are no lovers of the rule of law and as William Tecumseh Sherman has said 'War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it; the crueller it is, the sooner it will be over'. These guys seem to want the war to end much quicker than most would countenance and bring their own brand of 'cruel'. Thus is set in motion a plight and fight for survival as the soldiers set about getting what they really want.

Now this is part of the new clutch of westerns that bring gritty realism with modern sensibilities, and I am a fan. It is done really well with god attention to period detail and a keening authenticity that makes the characters mire believable. Couple this with a string cast and a good story and you have nigh on all the ingredients for a very well made film.

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1/10

In A Word - Awful

denis8889 April 2017

Mind you, I love US Civil War movies, I guess I have seen them all and devoured tons of books, so each new entry is a welcoming sign to me, but this one flopped most miserably and made me yawn, scratch my head in utter disbelief and question myself - what the heck have I just seen and why on earth have I wasted so much time perusing this awful, slow, mind-numbing, thoughts-killing, time-wasting monster of a lowest and slowest tempo ever conceived by a filmmaker. Wait, isn't that about Civil War? Nope, in fact, more of a gloomy thriller about women survival in their fight against evil Union pillagers. It is well shot, the nature is hauntingly mesmerizing in the Deep South, but sulk, slow tempo and shockingly predictable plot kills all the good things in the bud, covering all with the utmost pathos and familiar twists. The dialogs? Ah, almost none, more of weeping, stairs screeching, gun shooting and faces pulling. Dud, duh, pass it by

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6/10

sparse intensity

SnoopyStyle8 September 2017

It's the last days of the American Civil War. Sisters Augusta (Brit Marling) and Louise (Hailee Steinfeld) live on a farm with their only slave Mad. Two marauding Union soldiers arrive ahead of the main Army.

This is a sparse small production. The writing is sparing. The subject matter lends itself for a tougher intensity but it opts for a weary atmosphere. It doesn't flinch from the violence but it doesn't revel in action. It is an indie film overall.

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6/10

Good but slow

kbaxws27 November 2021

Warning: Spoilers

I did like this film because of the 3 strong lead actresses. They made the story watchable if not exactly believable.

It definitely has flaws such as trying to attribute humanity at the end to one of the villains with the oft used reasons such as what if we had met under different circumstances etc etc. But the villains are just too evil to warrant our sympathy and the attempt falls flat.

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4/10

Very slow and very boring

deloudelouvain13 January 2016

Well this was a waste of my time. I don't know why The Keeping Room gets good ratings because this is just a dumb movie. It's extremely slow, with not much going on. It's full of inconsistencies that I won't mention here because it's just not worth of it. The actors are mediocre. I won't cry if I never see them acting again. The story is really boring, i even fell asleep for a couple minutes. Would I watch this one again? Certainly not. I even wrote it down to make sure that I won't make the same mistake again. Don't waste your time on this one because there are plenty of better movies in the same style then this one.

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5/10

The effects of War

myignisrules1 October 2016

This story focuses on the side of war most movies bypass. Not the before, or the after, but the last days of it. From one side we have three women, one a slave (or soon to be ex-slave) trying to survive and hold on to their land without men. One the other side, we have two men, who are raping and killing their way across the countryside. Different people will see this movie in different ways. For me, this was a tale of how war and devastation changes us. The best examples of this are portrayed by Brit Marling and Sam Worthington (Avatar), who play Augusta and Moses. The former grows strong and independent, the latter has left behind his humanity and is a shell of a man, living only to destroy. Not for everyone, the rest of the cast is underused and the movie never feels fully fleshed out but strong performances make for good viewing, at least once.

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8/10

Watch It

briannapino27 December 2016

I like this movie and i'm surprised some feel differently towards it. It was cool to see the war coming from a woman's perspective and show the horrors of the woman trying to defend their home and themselves.

It showed how at the end of the Civil War that it was violent and it also showed women didn't have much respect. We noticed that it showed not only the woman's perspective but the man's as well.

Many could say they view this movie differently but I viewed it as showing how strong women were in this time period and to show the destruction the Civil War caused.

I personally recommend this movie for learning purposes as well as to get an insight on the different perspectives of the Civil War.

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1/10

Horribly slow and fails to catch viewers attention

scoobys_soldier9 September 2021

This movie is by far the slowest paced movie I have watched in years. Not one point did it interest me however I cannot start a movie without finishing it.

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5/10

A great start, then ...

Andres-Camara28 March 2017

Warning: Spoilers

The truth is that the movie starts very hard. It can not be denied. It presents some characters very well in a moment. Then it starts to get worse. It starts to stop and at the end it becomes long.

The film is a defense of American values and self-defense, but then retracts to criticize it and later retracts again on the retracted. I do not know where I'm going. Nor do I understand why it is necessary to ignite that fire and destroy things.

I really like actors. They are all very well, those who are not yet known, will become so.

The photograph is typical independent, does not exist. It's white.

And its direction, although it does not bore, is not a special address either. Simple and simple It is very well set. So much in costume, makeup, art.

However I do not think it's a movie that goes down in history.

Spoiler: I do not understand the sequence when he kills Sam. Why is there such a dialogue? Would someone talk at that time?

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5/10

A familiar setting that does not add up to much.

jordondave-2808512 April 2023

(2014) The Keeping Room WESTERN

Plot less but consist of a similar tone to the 1971 film, "The Beguiled" since it does involve women taking in a wounded person. It opens with some African American slaves being senselessly slaughtered by two Confederate soldiers of Moses (Sam Worthington) and Caleb (Ned Dennehy). Next, we are then introduced to three women of Augusta (Brit Marling), Louise (Hailee Steinfeld) and Mad Muna Otaru as they continue to live their daily lives. Eventually both are going to cross paths as a result of saving that wounded person. The ending though does not add up to much.

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8/10

Survival of the fittest

hossein-dashtaki26 January 2016

I am surprised to see that some people do not like this movie. May be they did not get the message this movie is sending. First , this movie wants to give you the sense of the violence and rampage that some stray Union soldiers conducted during the U.S. civil war which has seldom been reported in history. Second , it wants to show you the hardship and misery of those days' women who were left alone , to live and survive by themselves , when their husbands left for war. Third , it wants to convey this message to women , based on movie's currents of events , that , if they are united, resilient and determine, they then can overcome and survive the worst threats. Fourth , it tells women that they must learn everything they need to learn to defend themselves , that is , how to fight , how to shoot , how to plan against intruders and how to rely on themselves to survive. It tells them how to believe in themselves in that they can overcome dangerous situations during the coarse of their lives. I believe the director and scenario writer have done a superb job in conveying this message to its viewers.

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8/10

Good Surprise

mbognar9 October 2018

Watched this without reading reviews and was pleasantly surprised. Acting is phenomenal, and the movie feels real to the 1865 era. All three lead female actresses were outstanding.

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8/10

Loved Everything About This

Foutainoflife4 July 2018

This is a woman's tale. It's not about some feminist women not wanting men around. This is about women who are forced into the position of having to learn to live without men while wishing they would come home. I love that it was a slow burn because it really pulled me into how they were feeling. My only disappointment was the ending but great movie, regardless.

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