How distraught is Annette, the severely troubled British mother of two played by Daisy Ridley in “Magpie?” She has gotten a short angular haircut, one that might, in another context, be the height of chic (very Isabella Rossellini). Except that the movie uses it as a symbolic expression of her trauma, like Mia Farrow’s iconic Vidal Sassoon cut in “Rosemary’s Baby.” Annette, who’s on some serious medication, looks at a mirror until it breaks. Does she have telekinetic powers? No, she broke it with her hand (which bleeds into the sink), but the force of her repressed rage is palpable. Ben (Shazad Latif), her British Indian husband, is a noted author, and every comment she makes about his work is a sly dig. She speaks in brief, clipped “civilized” phrases. At one point a bird crashes into the window of her home. The whole atmosphere of the film...
- 3/10/2024
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Magpie revolves around a toxic heterosexual marriage dynamic you’ve certainly seen a thousand times before, if not in real life then at least in pop culture. Annette (Daisy Ridley) is the long-suffering wife, who’s sacrificed her career to cook and clean and raise children for an ungrateful man. Ben (Shazad Latif) is that ungrateful man, who seems to notice Annette only when he’s ticked off with her.
When a glamorous actress (Matilda Lutz’s Alicia) enters their lives via a movie role for their daughter (Hiba Ahmed’s Tilly), it’s practically a foregone conclusion that Ben will further neglect Annette in favor of this shiny new romance. The big question, then, is what Annette might do — what a woman already on the edge might prove capable of once she’s pushed. But despite a juicy hook built on heated emotions and drastic actions, Magpie proves too...
When a glamorous actress (Matilda Lutz’s Alicia) enters their lives via a movie role for their daughter (Hiba Ahmed’s Tilly), it’s practically a foregone conclusion that Ben will further neglect Annette in favor of this shiny new romance. The big question, then, is what Annette might do — what a woman already on the edge might prove capable of once she’s pushed. But despite a juicy hook built on heated emotions and drastic actions, Magpie proves too...
- 3/10/2024
- by Angie Han
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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