Monday, 1 October 2012

The Baby

A social worker is transferred to her newest case - Baby Wadsworth (Yes, "Baby" is actually his name).
Baby lives with his Mother and two adult sisters, and does all the things a healthy baby does - He sleeps in his cot, plays with his teddy, soils his nappy, drinks up his milk, he gurgles and giggles and cried and scream; He'd be just like any other baby... if he weren't a man in his 30s!

It becomes quickly apparent to the viewer that there is probably nothing wrong with Baby at all; that his mother and sisters are keeping him this way on purpose  - something that his social worker seems to clock onto quite quickly too, although its a while before she starts to say so, and she's determined to help him.

The social-workers professional anguish as her attempts to help baby, are inter-cut with her personal anguish as she, much to the concern of her mother-in-law, watches and re-watches home movies of the husband she lost in an accident

The whole thing is very strange and quite unlike anything else I've seen - The closest I think I've come are John Waters Divine staring movies; In fact, you can almost see this as a Waters Movie with Divine as the mother - save the very ending nothing would need to be changed but the directorial style. As it is though, it lacks the wink-at-the-camera that waters would have brought to the table, and a story he could have made funny (albeit in an unnerving way) is, in the hands of Ted Post simply unnerving (if not a more than a little fascinating).

It's not for everyone, but if you enjoy strange cutish movies, you should give it a look-see.

And if you firgure out where the hell it's going you're a better movie-predicting-person than I.


SPOILER FILLED (yet still misleading) TRAILER FOLLOWS:

2 comments:

  1. Bloody hell. I'm not sure what to make of this from the trailer. I can see why you say its unnerving. I think I would watch this all with a strange, disgusted sort of quizzical look on my face.

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    Replies
    1. It's not nearly as exploitative as the trailer makes out.

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