By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Strange Darling (USA, 2023. Dir: JT Mollner): Thrillers that rely heavily on a twist have a limited shelf life (remember The Uninvited? A Perfect Getaway? The Invitation? Relax, nobody does) The ones that remain transcend the gimmick by providing more substance, usually in the form of well-rounded characters (The Sixth Sense) or good writing (Fight Club).

Strange Darling understands the assignment. At the heart of the film you’ll find two profoundly damaged people with two default modes: fight or flight. The movie doesn’t stick the landing, but for a good portion of it, it’s intriguing.

Divided in six (scrambled) chapters and an epilogue, Strange Darling opens with a woman known as “The Lady” (Willa Fitzgerald, Reacher S1) running for her life from a shotgun wielding lunatic the movie calls “The Demon” (Kyle Gallner, Smile). The Demon is competent and proficient, while The Lady makes questionable decisions like stopping for a smoke.

An early flashback reveals they had met the night before in a classic hookup-gone-awry scenario. Both The Lady and The Demon are commitment-phobes and spend a fair amount of time negotiating the boundaries for their one-night stand. Yet the expectations for both go unfulfilled by a country mile.

To tell you more about the plot would be ruining the fun but know neither lead is fully a saint or a sinner (both are awful). Also, be on the lookout for all-too-brief performances by Ed Begley Jr. and Barbara Hershey as former hippies who are also terrible judges of character.

While I applaud director JT Mollner’s efforts to subvert expectations, the twist is fairly easy to spot as the possibilities are limited. Furthermore, it often feels that Mollner is stretching a single idea. In corporate parlance, this could have been an email. There’s also an overreliance on Willa Fitzgerald’s histrionic capabilities, too much of an ask for an actor that’s competent, but not sufficiently charismatic to carry the film. 2 ½ stars (out of five).

Strange Darling is still playing in theatres across Canada.