It has been more than 48 hours since I watched Nicolas Winding Refn’s newest film Her Private Hell. In those 48 hours I have mulled the film over in my mind and I have been struggling to write this review. Is it a horror movie? Is it a science fiction movie? Is it a thriller? Is it an homage to David Lynch, Dario Argento and Brian DePalma? The answer is yes. yes. yes and yes.
Nicolas is a director that critics and audiences have had a love/hate relationship with over his career. His movie Drive with Ryan Gosling was a hit with critics and audiences alike. His next two films were Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon starring Elle Fanning. The two were given mixed reviews by critics and were box office disappointments. I am a fan of his work and was unfortunately let down by Her Private Hell.
To try and go over the plot would be foolish. The movie follows a young troubled woman named Elle ( a nod to Elle Fanning?)who lives in a high rise apartment complex in a dystopian future where she becomes hunted by a demon known as The Leather Man who may or may not be her adopted father. The movie is female fronted and while the actors are trying their best, Nicolas himself has stated that he has a hard time writing for women and in this movie it shows. Sophie Thatcher plays Elle and she is the best part of this movie. She has been so good in other genre projects such as The Companion and Heretic. Her character in this movie has to play seductive, innocent, and crazy and she does such a terrific job often only using her facial features. When the movie doesn’t focus on Elle, it tells the story of am American G.I. who is looking for his daughter who he believes was killed by a serial killer or the Leather Man who preys on young girls. Charles Melton plays the soldier and it’s this part of the movie that plays more like a traditional Nicolas Winding Refn movie with over the top fights, blood and bright neon colors. The two stories do merge in the third act and this is where the movie becomes more like a typical horror movie with a masked killer hunting his victims where Elle becomes the final girl. The problem is by the time the movie reaches the bloody climax it is so weighed down by bad dialog, scenes that go nowhere and its “look at the homages to Brian DePalma, Dario Argento and David Lynch” that it becomes a bore.
In the end I will say that I was never bored while watching Her Private Hell because I never knew what was coming next. But that doesn’t mean it is a good movie and even if you are a fan of Nicolas Winding Refn you may want to skip this one.
