Sanctuary

I will admit that I thought about bailing on this movie. I honestly didn’t have much of an idea exactly what it was about going in, and once in I wanted to mostly be out. I mean, I watched the trailer and thought it would be something more than it turned out to be. Which is basically a secret, kinked-out rom-com with two admittedly excellent actors in a hotel room. I believe they refer to this as a chamber piece. They being people who know more about the structure of plays and movies than I do. I’ve never been opposed to movies that feel more like stage plays — as this one does — but there is something about the general lack of reality in the situation that made me wonder if the writer knows how business actually works. The writer, Micah Bloomberg, did pen both the podcast and television adaptation of Homecoming, but this kind of twisted, fetishistic romantic comedy couched in kinda-sorta familial and business intrigue is something completely different.

I will say, both Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott are terrific. They look great on screen and manage the material as well as anybody possibly could. This is a straight-up two-hander for 90 minutes with not a single other person of note gracing the screen. Now, you will have to buy Abbott as a business scion and Qualley as a dominatrix. Your milage may vary on both. But, again, that’s the writing and not anything the two actors are or aren’t doing. Granted, Abbott’s character, Hal Porterfield, has a shame kink that presumably comes from deep-seated insecurities in taking over his father’s hotel empire after his death. Though, we’re told this “relationship” between him and Qualley’s character, Rebecca Marin, has been going on for some time. So, even before he is suddenly on the verge of being thrust into this overwhelming CEO role, he was feeling this whatever psychological pressure it is that causes one to be forced to do demeaning, non-touching stuff by a pretty lady. Where this whole dive into being dominated and humiliated comes from isn’t really exposed in the script from what I can tell. Which feels like a miss. But perhaps — not being particularly educated in this whole world — I missed it. But it’s certainly not all tied to the pressure Hal feels in losing his father and having to take over his empire.

I have and will continue to admit that I’m a bit of a prude when it comes to this stuff. Honestly, the dominatrix performances are relatively mild compared to some other action I’ve had to sit through in mainstream films. Hal has to clean the bathroom floor in his underwear. And must self-pleasure, with his climax controlled by demand of Rebecca. But, otherwise, it’s a bunch of scripted role-playing. Literally scripted, in that Hal writes out a script and has Rebecca follow it. I’m honestly not even sure these scripted plays qualify as dominatrix activities, but rather something a couple who does this type of stuff just does. You know, a job interview that turns sexy. That kind of thing. I’m sure there’s more to it, but I was honestly a little bored by the whole thing out the gate and didn’t care to delve too deep into the psychology. Though there was a mention that at some point, as part of their roleplaying, Hal had her DNA tested to confirm that she’s 100% Ashkenazi Jewish? I thought I misheard that part, but I think it was a thing and am still confused by it. I think it’s because the writer is intimating that Hal is Jewish, or she is Jewish, or both are Jewish (neither Abbott nor Qualley being anywhere close to Jewish), but it was just a weird writing quirk that he wanted stick in there. It just wasn’t my jam.

And this is where the chasm between the concept and the writing widened. I get that this is ultimately a rom-com. Which typically care very little about the mechanics of plot or reality. But in this case the scenarios laid out are so unrealistic as to be distracting. Rebecca turns out to be a more savvy dominatrix than we knew. She uses her savvy to essentially get what she wants out of Hal. Which amounts to money and power. But maybe, actually love? The whole thing just escalates in a really rapid burst of silly demands that would never, ever be a thing in any real-world business scenario. Which puts this thing more on the fairytale track than anything else. Albeit a fairytale with some ambiguous sex stuff that could definitely be construed as rape if it were perpetrated by the opposite party. I don’t know. I won’t spoil where it all goes, though this isn’t a mystery or anything. It’s a quirky love story about two people who can’t say their true feelings out loud for one reason or another. Until they can. It’s just that the manifestation of their feelings about themselves and one another leads to a place that could never end where it does. Perhaps that’s the point. But perhaps it’s not. Whatever the case, I did like watching these two try to navigate this script and attempt to make something interesting out of what amounts to a two-room set and a very limited plot. I do think that if someone took a pass at the underlying business piece and bolstered that tension a little more realistically, while keeping this romantic shell, it could have been a more successful endeavor. But, hey, we don’t want to rehash the silliness of all of rom-coms past and make them into Michael Clayton now do we? Do we?