If you are looking for something slightly unusual for your cinematic pleasure, I suggest you check out Nightbitch, a simple tale of a woman struggling to cope with motherhood. Doesn’t sound that unusual? This film will take you to a world where you must change to manage. Not in the way you would think. Marielle Heller’s new film tackles the subject of a woman slowly going mad in a most unusual way. While it may divide audiences, there is one thing it can agree with: the film’s star, Amy Adams, gave the most electrifying performance of her career.

Mother is a woman who used to be an artist but gave it all up to look after her son. Yet the mundane routines of cooking breakfast, walking to the park, visiting various parenting groups, and fighting a losing battle to get him to sleep are taking their toll. Things don’t help when her husband seems incapable of doing the most straightforward chore when he returns home from working away. While her life is slowly sending her crazy, she discovers she is changing, but not in the way she expects.

Heller’s previous films include the brilliant Can You Ever Forgive Me? and A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, yet this is definitely her most bizarre movie to date. An examination of a woman on the edge, facing the prospect of never having an identity or a life again. She loves her son and being a mother, but this will not be easy to escape, considering where she came from and where she is now. Everything about her life she despises, from the women with who she shares a library reading club to going through the motions of her everyday life.

The film offers an unusual approach to the solution—one that is unexpected yet the title suggests. Without giving too much away, Mother finds that she is changing, from having sharper teeth to areas on her body that have hairs growing. For her, it’s a mix of shocking and exciting.

Where the film may be divisive is from a point of sex. Women who have had children will fully understand what Mother is going through, especially when she has come from a career going somewhere and then having to give it all up to look after the new arrival. What was once a world of possibilities now offers nothing but the mundane. Men, however, will probably struggle and not see what she sees. Husband, for the lead characters who don’t have names, is utterly oblivious to what his wife is going through, and when he does offer to help, he seems unable to do it without calling on her. One scene, in which the Husband is bathing his son, involves calling out several times for towels, for the Mother to discover her husband sitting on the toilet with his mobile phone while his son sits in the bath.

Heller has decided that this is a movie made by a woman for a woman, and it speaks volumes. The divide might also occur when the changes happen, and we enter a fantasy realm. Or are we? We often see Mother talking at great lengths about the issues she encounters, only to discover that these are potent speeches in her head, and she cannot bring herself to say them out loud. The same thing could be happening in her real life? Is she changing, or is it what she wishes to do?

The film has one powerful weapon: Amy Adams. Adams has been struggling to find decent parts in decent movies, and while this is uneven in many senses, she shines. It is a tour-de-force, a performance that only a skilled actress like Adams could deliver. Every inch of her face tells a story. There are many scenes where the camera is focused on her face, and you know exactly what she is thinking and feeling. When she delivers long and profound speeches about the perils of parenthood, she does so with the commitment of someone performing Shakespeare. It is beautiful, nuanced, and sometimes funny but always truthful. Adams has been nominated so many times for Oscars. Could she finally win it with this?

Nightbitch is a film that some will immediately get and others won’t. If you are looking for something out of the ordinary, you may want to try this. It’s best to stay away if you don’t, especially if you don’t relate to parenting. Uneven, yes, but Adams is worth the ticket price.

4 out of 5

Director: Marielle Heller

Starring: Amy Adams, Scoot McNairey, Arleigh Patrick Snowden, Emmett James Snowden, Jessica Harper, Zoe Chao, Mary Holland, Archana Rajan

Written by: Marielle Heller and (based on the novel) Rachel Yoder

Running Time: 98 mins

Cert:

Release date: 6th December 2024