A young couple seeks solace and renewal by retreating to a remote home in the woods after facing personal and professional setbacks. Their reprieve is quickly interrupted and turned upside down leaving them scrambling to piece together what is real and what isn’t as they attempt to confront issues with addiction, family planning, and being at peace with who they are.
This brand of psychological horror is well-trodden ground in the genre, but Scott Friend’s directorial debut, manages to feel grounded and confident enough to remain engaging. The film captures the audience’s attention from the first notes of the score combined with the opening credits, creating a sense of fantasy and wonder. The sweetest, pink curly font
is overlaid atop some fairly ominous wooded scenery perfectly telegraphing the way that the film will continue to balance its whimsical and eerie qualities throughout.
We get all of this before even meeting our main characters, Dennis (Friend) and Mia (Madeleine Morgenweck), and once they arrive on the scene, there is a tangible weight surrounding them. The audience can sense something bad has happened, and the details of what that thing may be are somewhat irrelevant in comparison to the pain that has come from it. Another strength of TO THE MOON is the way in which it doesn’t over explain things. Information is doled out as necessary, and we learn in time that Dennis is working through addiction issues, he and Mia are having a difficult time conceiving, Dennis has received disappointing career news, and Mia has been forced to put a pause on her figure skating career due to an injury. All of that would be a lot to take in at once, but TO THE MOON reveals these layers to their characters and their lives in a way that feels natural and enhances the experience of watching the film.
As Dennis and Mia attempt to recalibrate while taking some time away at Dennis’ secluded family home, their plans are quickly derailed by the arrival of Dennis’ brother, Roger (Will Brill). Roger breathes fresh life into TO THE MOON, seeming to exist in an entirely different world from Dennis and Mia. For our characters however, Roger’s presence is less than refreshing and instead poses a disruption to an already tumultuous situation. He has caught them in a very vulnerable time, and his strained relationship with his brother does little to help that. Roger has been living off the grid for years, failing even to attend Dennis and Mia’s wedding and seems to represent a certain realm of new ageism that leans more into toxic positivity than any real spirituality. Most people know a Roger, or a Roger-like figure, and while the impulse in that situation may be to cut that person out of your life, that becomes increasingly difficult when you are blood related, as we can see with Roger and Dennis.
We get a great sense of who these characters are very quickly with Mia wanting Roger to feel comfortable, Dennis wanting Roger gone, and Roger managing to bring up all the wrong topics over the course of one very tense dinner. Despite Roger’s attempts to connect, we get the sense that Dennis has a hard time believing he has changed or has the capacity to change, a running theme throughout TO THE MOON. The things you can change butt heads quite a bit with the things you cannot within this story. For example, upon learning about Mia’s skating injury, Roger dubs it the piece of her that is missing. Her own body has let her down and a great deal of her frustration comes from the fact that she hasn’t been able to achieve the same strength and ability she had before the injury. TO THE MOON goes beyond the fear and dread of failing bodies, though. We witness Dennis’ faltering grip on his mind as he begins to lose control through hallucinations and what Roger describes as psychosis. Has his addiction wrested control of his body or is there something more going on here?
The search for identity permeates all aspects of TO THE MOON. Who is Mia if not a figure skater? Who is she if she never becomes a mother? Who is she if her marriage fails? Who do people expect you to be and who do you want to be? These questions are most at odds with each other in Roger and Dennis’ relationship and the resentment they feel for how the other chooses to live their life. Roger thinks that Dennis, “could use a little time in the earth,” feeling that he has forgotten his roots after being seduced by his fancy city life. Dennis, however, doesn’t understand how Roger can be comfortable without the wealth and modernity he had become accustomed to. It’s a tough lesson in personal identity, coming to grips with the fact that not everybody is going to want the same things that you want, no matter how “right,” you may think you are.
TO THE MOON’s strength lies in how contained it is. One location, three wonderful actors, with enough layers of conflict and strife to create a rich and immersive world, only giving you enough information to keep you wanting more. It builds so beautifully that it’s somewhat of a shame that it doesn’t stick the landing as expertly, leaving us with a conclusion that feels slightly stunted rather than wholly satisfying. That being said, it’s an ending that still upholds the film’s philosophy of respecting the audience’s intelligence and remains open for analysis and interpretation. A film that invites you in like a warm bath that turns scalding on a dime, TO THE MOON is a cozy, contemplative force of a film that’s sure to scratch your psychological horror itch.
TO THE MOON from 1091 Pictures is available on digital platforms September 20.
Tags: 1091 Pictures, Addiction, Madeleine Morgenweck, Now on VOD, psychological, Scott Friend, To the Moon, Will Brill
No Comments