BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING is a psychological thriller film as a puzzling mystery about a little girl who disappears without a trace in her first day in a nursery school. It was based on the novel of the same name by Merriam Modell. The idea about a child who is born out of wedlock, and too close relationship between brother and sister is intriguing enough without mysterious background.
Ann is a single mother who recently moved to London from New York. She wishes to drop off her daughter Bunny for the girl's first day at a new nursery school. However, Ann cannot locate any teachers or administrators, only the school's disgruntled cook. She is forced to leave Bunny unsupervised in the building's "first day" room, under the reassurance that the cook will be responsible for the child. When Ann returns in the afternoon, the cook has quit and Bunny Lake is missing. An administrator recalls meeting with Ann but claims never to have seen the missing child. Ann and her brother Steven, in desperation, call the police. However, some of the evidence pointing to the fact that the little girl actually never existed...
A striking pair of possibly incestuous siblings comes in an eccentric environment. It is difficult to draw a line between a perversion and objectivity in the case of a missing child. It's about secrets from childhood, or some sort of guilt? The story and direction are somewhat illogical and unclear. The plots blend from bizarre, expressionist to surreal moments. In the background of all this is a tantalizing mystery of a motherhood, kindness, disbelief, skepticism and madness. The characterization could have been better.
Carol Lynley as Ann Lake is scared and distraught mother, who has to quickly connect strings in her life. Keir Dullea as Steven Lake is her distressed brother who has managed to draw a thin line between madness and kindness. Their bizarre game at the end of the film is a sort of culmination of their trepidation.
Laurence Olivier as Superintendent Newhouse has stole the show as a somewhat cynical, but very detailed inspector.
Ann is a single mother who recently moved to London from New York. She wishes to drop off her daughter Bunny for the girl's first day at a new nursery school. However, Ann cannot locate any teachers or administrators, only the school's disgruntled cook. She is forced to leave Bunny unsupervised in the building's "first day" room, under the reassurance that the cook will be responsible for the child. When Ann returns in the afternoon, the cook has quit and Bunny Lake is missing. An administrator recalls meeting with Ann but claims never to have seen the missing child. Ann and her brother Steven, in desperation, call the police. However, some of the evidence pointing to the fact that the little girl actually never existed...
A striking pair of possibly incestuous siblings comes in an eccentric environment. It is difficult to draw a line between a perversion and objectivity in the case of a missing child. It's about secrets from childhood, or some sort of guilt? The story and direction are somewhat illogical and unclear. The plots blend from bizarre, expressionist to surreal moments. In the background of all this is a tantalizing mystery of a motherhood, kindness, disbelief, skepticism and madness. The characterization could have been better.
Carol Lynley as Ann Lake is scared and distraught mother, who has to quickly connect strings in her life. Keir Dullea as Steven Lake is her distressed brother who has managed to draw a thin line between madness and kindness. Their bizarre game at the end of the film is a sort of culmination of their trepidation.
Laurence Olivier as Superintendent Newhouse has stole the show as a somewhat cynical, but very detailed inspector.