Canadian production Alice, darling (Alice, Darling), comes to focus on relationships that become violent without physical blows between the aggressor and victim. It seeks to put us in the latter’s place to see to what extent her personality can be disfigured by a controlling figure who seeks her constant self-satisfaction.
It joins the bunch of films that have addressed this subject, among which stand out Sleeping with His Enemy or The Invisible Man, although physical violence ended up emerging in those.
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Trailer of Alice, darling in Spanish HD
Alice, darling, introduces us to a woman who hides a huge secret. She takes its toll on her in many ways, because she has begun to somatize the stress she suffers from when she is with her fiancé, a renowned local artist whom she unconditionally supports.
When her two best friends propose to spend a little vacation in a family cabin to celebrate the birthday of one of them, Alice decides to lie to Simon: she tells him that she has to attend a labor convention.
However, he does not escape his strict surveillance and emotional dependence: soon he begins to receive messages asking him to return earlier. Alice initially has difficulties fitting in with Tess and Sophie: the former complains that she is so uptight and the latter, although she is more understanding of her, does not quite understand the changes she sees in her.
As the days go by, Alice will realize to what extent she needs to get her life back and make her own decisions.
Better the “what” than the “how”
if we analyzed Alice, honey from the perspective of strictly audiovisual quality, we would soon realize that it does not have a great value derived from its shape. It is nothing more than a correct film, very simple, without great fanfare and with a tight footage for what it wants to tell: 89 minutes that do not seek to stretch the story too much.
What is very substantial is what counts. When we meet Alice, we don’t know anything about Simon. All we know is through her: how she relates to him, to what extent she gives in to her insistence, the fear she provokes in him and how he behaves at the mere fact of being named after her, putting himself in guard.
What makes this film different, unique and remarkable is that it allows us to understand the warning signs that occur in a person who is immersed in an abusive relationship: the way in which their personality blurs to the point of completely changing their way of combing, dressing, makeup, walking and behaving.
Alice, honey – Image gallery (4 images)
Alice, honey It is very fine to leave it up to the audience to interpret if, by gaslighting a couple, despising them, humiliating them, trying to change them and distance them from the people who love them, we can add or not forced sexual relations or, in other words, the rape.
The focus is not only on sexual relations but on all aspects of the relationship, compromised by the abuse.
But the good thing about the script is that it doesn’t stay with the darkest part and recreates the morbidity, but also provides some solutions. Sorority is one of the ingredients that will help Alice to get out of the well, but this is only possible due to the prior awareness of the victim who comes to not recognize herself in front of the mirror, reproducing behaviors with which she does not identify.
So, in a nutshell, even though Alice, honey It may seem like a small film, which will probably have a very modest collection compared to the blockbusters with which it competes, it has a very appreciable intrinsic value: Anna Kendrick reproduces the vital suffocation of her character marvelously and the film is a masterful compendium of the red lines that it is better not to cross.
Love is not allowing your partner to control your intimacy, shape your body or control your schedule. Whoever loves you accepts you as you are and supports you to improve without crushing your self-esteem. At best it should be Mandatory viewing in high schools to make it clear that not all forms of violence leave bruises and that there are scars that do not require stitches.
