REVIEW: The World to Come (2021)
2021 has been an interesting year for queer cinema, though there weren’t that many memorable pictures. Only J Blakeson’s I Care a Lot and Harry Macqueen’s Supernova are worth seeking out. One of them is a sizzling, deliciously-twisted dark comedy with a career-defining performance by Rosamund Pike; the other is a human, sobering portrait of loss and accepting our own vulnerability in an ever-finite world. I was hoping that Mona Fastvold’s latest film, The World to Come, would fall in the same category as these two films–but alas, there is barely anything found in the movie that kept my interest. The film is supposed to tell the story of Abigail (Katherine Waterston) and Tallie (Vanessa Kirby), neighboring wives of Dyer (Casey Affleck) and Freddie (Christopher Abbott), who [very] slowly fall in love with one another while keeping each other company as their husbands are gone to work. While its cinematography is lush and tantalizing, which beautifully complements its terrific acting, The World to Come misses the sole ingredient that makes any romantic drama shine: proximity.
Most of the film’s dialogue is conveyed through voice-over narration from Katherine Waterston’s Abigail–who explains the feelings she shares for her husband, Dyer, Tallie, and his husband. While voice-over narration isn’t necessarily bad, its overuse distances its audience from the film’s main characters, making the film’s relationship with the two protagonists extremely cold. If there’s no proximity and/or understanding of both character’s psyche, there’s nothing to clamor for. We understand Abigail’s feelings for Tallie…but how about Tallie? A one-sided romantic drama isn’t in any way compelling–since we only have access to one individual’s feelings. Thus, the relationship that slowly progresses into one of passion doesn’t feel rewarding for the characters and for the audience.
The narration is also a sign of extreme unconfidence from director Mona Fastvold and writers Ron Hansen and Jim Shepard (who are adapting the book of the same name by Shepard himself). Textually, first-person narration is fine. Cinematographically, it’s not…especially when you’re desperately trying to infuse passion inside the couple’s love for one another. Look at Supernova, Portrait of a Lady on Fire or, what I believe to be the quintessential LGBTQ+ drama of the last decade, Paris 05:59 Théo & Hugo–love and passion are conveyed through silence and how the protagonists look at one another. One micro-change in a character’s gaze can mean a plethora of things for a life-long couple (like Tusker & Sam in Supernova) or how a newly-met couple will perceive one another (look closely at how Céline Sciamma builds-up the first “look” from Marianne & Héloise in Portrait of a Lady on Fire). None of that is found in The World to Come; Fastvold relies too heavily on the voice-over to perceive Abigail’s love for Tallie and her hatred for Christopher Abbott’s Freddie…instead of that love being implicit, through silence and micro-facial expressions, for it to blossom naturally.
Yes, the performances are great. Vanessa Kirby and Katherine Waterston both portray Tallie and Abigail extremely well–and shine particularly during close-up scenes when there is no voice-over narration. When they kiss for the first time, there is a brief silence that permeates between the two, that could be used as the “blossoming” of a relationship, but Waterston’s line that follows-up the kiss ruins the mood and momentum of naturally building the relationship between the two. It’s almost as if Fastvold doesn’t want to rely on the audience’s intelligence to perceive a relationship growing and instead kowtows to basic insecurity through voiceover and badly-delivered lines to make sure the audience understands what’s happening.
The truth is: we don’t need to understand what’s happening through insecure filmmaking methods–we know that Abigail loves Tallie as much as Tallie loves Abigail. Why not show it instead of telling it? There’s a big difference between narration and “monstration,” in which The World to Come desperately needed to infuse the latter instead of relying too much on Waterston’s unnecessary voice-over, which fills any instance of silence. If the voiceover didn’t have any importance with the film’s overall story and direction, The World to Come would’ve definitely been a must-see…but for now, however, it’s not something that I’d recommend to anyone. Stick with Supernova instead.
