Looking at the trailer for “Men”, I had a feeling that this was
going to be either a bad or weird movie and probably both. But, the
movie was written and directed by Alex Garland, who has made some of
the better movies in the past five years including “Annihilation”
and the exceptional “Ex Machina”. So, I thought I would give
“Men” a chance. The movie is both
weird and bad.
The story is simple (or maybe not). A woman named Harper (played by Jessie Buckley) has been recently widowed. She broke up with a man who couldn’t handle it and committed suicide by jumping off the roof. She decides to visit a cottage in the English countryside for rest and relaxation. The visit is not relaxing for very long. She is stalked by a naked man and then has a series of encounters with other creepy men from the village. Actually, the men are all the same man. Each one is played by Rory Kinnear with different accents, makeup, and costumes. There is a metaphor in here somewhere, but I’m not sure what it is supposed to be.
This is the second Jessie Buckley movie that I’ve seen that features her wandering around a weird home with weird inhabitants. The first was “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”. (Come to think of it, that movie too had a weird love interest.) “Men” though is more of a horror movie. I think. Well, at least there is more violence and much more gore. Actually the ending is quite gruesome, but after it goes on for quite awhile, you may find yourself considering the spectacle with the expression of Jessie Buckley, as in: Is this still going on now? and where did I leave that hatchet so I can finally put an end to this movie?
As I said, the men in “Men” are all played by one actor, Rory Kinnear, who is generally underrated. I have seen him play the comic relief in rom-coms like “Man Up” and meld into the bureaucratic background in James Bond movies like “Skyfall” and “No Time to Die”. Given that he is usually a supporting actor, one may then be surprised that he can throw down with great orations as he does in “Peterloo” where he plays the historical public speaker Henry Hunt. In this movie, the most we can say about Rory Kinnear is that he is a very good sport. He gives up the full frontal nudity, grows plants from his face, and tries some silly accents. I hope Alex Garland got what he was looking for at least because one might characterize the performance as embarrassing.
What is this movie about? I can only really glean one attempt at metaphor. There is an apple tree in the front yard of the house that might be analogous to the apple tree in the garden of Eden. Beyond that though, what is anything else supposed to be? I suspect there may be some message critical about men or how men treat women, but why do you need a vague metaphor for that? Aren’t there enough real world examples that don’t require the use of metaphor? Am I supposed to watch this movie, and come to the realization that a woman’s experience is like being chased around a british cottage by Rory Kinnear in different costumes?
Is this movie offensive to men? Well, I don’t think so, but maybe that is just because I didn’t understand what the movie may have been trying to tell me. After all, to be truly offended requires understanding. For instance, I got Jordan Peele’s message in “Get Out”. I was offended because I understood it. I can’t say the same for “Men” and this is not one of those movies that was at least interesting enough where I would be curious to hear the director’s commentary.
One last thing: like “Thor: Love and Thunder” there is a scene that employs CGI to digitally enhance a human body where it should be totally unnecessary. There is a boy character whose face is digitally enhanced so it looks like a young Rory Kinnear. The CGI is really obvious and distracting in a bad way. I don’t understand why a young actor that vaguely looks like Rory Kinnear couldn't be used or why regular makeup was not utilized.
