Downloading Nancy

I had a sudden self realization the other day. I looked back over the films I’ve discussed so far, and many of them are recent films from the past ten years. At the onset, this hurt my heart. Because my heart truly lies within the 1970’s film era. So I am going to do a full week’s worth of reviews of films from that era. However, I ran into another problem. I need to have watched those films THIS YEAR in order to add them to this film critic blog. So, I will postpone my 1970’s special week until next week. I will continue my plague of recent films that were great.

Downloading Nancy - Watch Trailer Here

Maria Bello is probably one of top ten favorite actresses of all time. Right up there with her would be Catherine Keener and Edie Falco. PAYBACK, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, and THANK YOU FOR SMOKING are just a few films where we are graced with her acting presence.

I watched DOWNLOADING NANCY on Netflix through my blu-ray player, and I was very skeptical at the beginning of the film. Was this one of those rare films where I was going to donate 20 minutes and then turn it off reluctantly? And to be honest, there has probably only been 5 films in my entire life where I actually shut it off because I came to grips with the fact that I was truly wasting my time watching this film any longer. However, I did watch GIANT OCTOPUS VS. MEGA SHARK all the way through, so you can understand how truly picky I would have to be to turn off a movie mid-run. I live by the mantra that you can always learn something from any film you watch. But sometimes you have to weigh that mantra against the investment in a 90 min film.

Right from the very first scenes of this film I knew I would be in a bad romance with it. Something that pulls so earnestly on the perfect heart strings to make you care, relate, and engage with it. I was right there. The simple premise of the story is that Nancy has become so depressed with her life that she pays a random online-friend-stranger to end it for her. The problem is that they end up falling in love with each other and her husband ends up kidnapping him, etc. The storyline is not what makes this film so powerful. For me, it was the performances that were so believable that I could not turn away.

Nancy cannot begin to accept the fact that this man, who she initially hired to kill her, now loves her and wants to save her. She still attempts suicide, but he always manages to be there and rescue her just in time. What an interesting dynamic relationship, huh? Her vulnerability is what intrigues us so much and we cannot help but watch and sympathize with her. And when she finds those brief moments of relief, whether it be from a mild canning or release in a hardware aisle way, we cannot help but solemnly celebrate with her. Albeit disgusting and inherently wrong, we smile on the inside just the same.

If you are in a deep depression and mulling over the meaning of life, etc., this film is not for you. It heavily reminded me of SECRETARY, with Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader. A film where there is so much hard aggression between two unlikely lovers that is expressed in physical domination. It’s the whole pain for pleasure thought. And I love this film because there are a few moments of very real emotion from the characters. Like the husband and boyfriend/killer who you can tell try their best to bottle up their emotions and never let them out. They seem to be off-limits to us throughout most of the film. But when they lose all control and have to let them fly out – those are some of the most powerful scenes in this film; scenes that reward the viewer for sticking it out during the incredibly slow build-up sequences in the first act.

This is an excellent film to watch with a tall, stiff drink. Get ready to throw your life against a wall and see if there relationships are strong enough to stick. It challenges many of the SOP nuances that we live our very mundane day-to-day lives. It really is a mental trip and afterwards you cannot help but be changed in some fashion. Even if it just makes you think, it has then served its purpose. And that is the reason I love cinema so much. These movie images with sound have the power to change our lives and our perspectives by which we see the world. Enjoy.

Rating: 9/10