ReelBob: ‘Shirley’ ★★★
By Bob Bloom
“Shirley” examines the creative process in a psychological manner that keeps you on your toes throughout, as you must learn to differentiate between the protagonist’s daily life and her creative imagination.
The movie stars Elisabeth Moss in an Academy Award-worthy performance as horror author Shirley Jackson, who is inspired to write a novel after a young married couple that moves in with her and her husband, upsetting Jackson’s daily routine and heightening tensions between the author and her philandering college-professor spouse.
The movie plays like a more perverse version of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” as Jackson and her husband, Stanley Hyman (a wonderfully pushy, selfish, self-centered and obnoxious Michael Stuhlbarg), play mind games with each other and newlyweds Rose (Odessa Young) and Fred (Logan Lerman).
Director Josephine Decker, working from a script by Sarah Gubbins, adapting the novel with the same title by Susan Scarf Merrell, seamlessly moves between events in the Jackson-Hyman household and plot outlines Shirley ponders for her future novel.
Decker keeps you wondering what is real or figments of Shirley’s imaginings for her novel.
“Shirley” feels unevenly paced; too many sequences feel repetitive. Yet Decker imbues the movie with an underlying uneasiness in which you feel that you can’t really trust what you are seeing.
You know that something is off throughout most of the movie. You simply can’t discern what it is.
Moss’ performance abets your vibe; her Shirley is mercurial, unstable, acerbic, manipulative and antisocial. You rarely trust a word she says nor can distinguish if her actions are genuine or planned to garner a reaction from another character.
You don’t know whether to feel sorry for Jackson or dislike her because of her scheming.
In a sense, Stuhlbarg’s Stanley is just as vile as his wife. Outwardly, Stanley is a charmer, a raconteur. He also is jealous of his wife’s talents, constantly undermining her, creating doubts about her talents and failing to wholly support her efforts.
He is a womanizer who almost as soon as Rose and Fred move in with them, begins hitting on the young woman — even though it is soon revealed that she is pregnant.
The movie, set in Bennington, Vt., takes place mostly in the Jackson-Hyman home or the nearby all-girls’ college campus, where Hyman teaches and mentors the ambitious Fred.
One of the film’s minor weaknesses is Lerman’s Fred. He is underdeveloped, a flaw in Gubbins’ script and giving Lerman little opportunity to expand the character.
Young’s Rose, meanwhile, is given texture. At first, she is uncomfortable around Shirley and Stanley, but as she spends more and more time with the author, she comes to understand Jackson’s personality and accept her eccentricities — even when they emotionally pain her.
“Shirley” is more character study than biopic; how much is true can be debated. Really, though, that is not important. It’s the subtext, the unsaid glances, asides and smiles that you need to interpret or analyze to fully grasp the movie.
The core of the film is the impact creativity has on the person not only laboring with it, but with those around her.
I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My reviews appear at ReelBob (reelbob.com) and Rottentomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com). I also review Blu-rays and DVDs. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com or on Twitter @ReelBobBloom. Links to my reviews can be found on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
SHIRLEY
3 stars out of 4
(R), language, disturbing images, sexual content, nudity