Mark Reviews Movies: SEPARATION (2021)

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | April 29, 2021

The thinking behind the storytelling of Separation seems to be that it doesn't have to make sense, as long as there are plenty of opportunities for creepiness. The creepiness of this story, featuring ghosts dressed like oversized puppets and red-tinted visions of the world, doesn't make much sense, either, so the movie fails on two counts.

One can tell that screenwriters Nick Amadeus and Josh Braun haven't put too much thought into this tale, about a family haunted by the ghost of a murdered loved one (as well as one other ghost, whose presence here isn't explained and whose appearance seems to be setting up a sequel—the only logical option, if logic exists in this). Director William Brent Bell follows suit, providing little consideration to how this story flows and caring more about making sure there's a scare-attempt every other scene or so.

The thin story revolves around Jeff (Rupert Friend), a comic book artist whose career has hit a dead end. He's married to Maggie (Mamie Gummer), who has a good-paying job through her wealthy attorney father Rivers (Brian Cox, classing up and admirably committed to his scenes).

The couple's daughter Jenny (Violet McGraw) likes to spend time in the attic, where she plays with eerie puppets and takes a bad fall while trying to look out an elevated window. That's the last straw for Maggie, who doesn't understand why she pays for babysitter Samantha (Madeline Brewer) if Jeff is going to distract her with his failing dreams.

She starts divorce proceedings. Maggie demands sole custody of Jenny, so that the two can move across the country for Maggie's new job. Jeff doesn't want to give up his daughter, but he also doesn't want to take a job doing touch-up work at a friend's comic book house. None of the debate matters, though, because Maggie is run over by an SUV.

The rest of the movie follows a pretty obvious, dependably predictable formula. Jenny starts seeing the ghost of her mother, a floating spirit dressed as a nag-like caricature in a wrinkled mask with oversized features. Jeff has nightmares and daytime visions of spirits, sometimes of the wife but also of a man dressed as a mime, whose body contorts in unnerving ways while he slowly approaches a surprisingly calm Jeff. Bell even gives us the tired clichéd of the double nightmare, as one scary dream causes Jeff to wake up into another allegedly frightening moment, only for all of it to be a dream. One should feel free to voice his or her preferred dismayed, dismissive interjection when this moment arrives.

Some other amusing oddities include Jeff's boss Alan (Simon Quarterman), whose knowledge of the occult and ghosts and the spiritual realm line up perfectly with what Jeff and Jenny are experiencing, and that ghastly mime, whose appearance is key to Jeff's hauntings and whose sudden leap toward the camera puts a cap on this story and whose existence here is completely inexplicable. Maybe it was explained somewhere in the screenplay, and to be fair, Bell pretty much takes a hatchet to any sense of narrative progression and story consistency.

There are a pair of scenes that have been clearly swapped in the final edit, because they contradict what happens before them. In one, Jeff, Jenny, and Samantha take a day out at a park, but after Samantha kisses her boss, Jeff scolds his daughter for going up in the attic earlier that day. A few scenes later, Jenny actually does go up to the attic, while Samantha, who had apologized to Jeff, is instantly back to her not-to-subtle flirtations with him.

Witnessing this transparently choppy and nonsensical editing, we kind of understand the dually troubled nature of this movie. First, Amadeus and Braun's screenplay is so generic and so predictable that its basic structure and characterizations can be moved around with blatant disregard but with little to no consequences in its impact. Second, Bell cares incredibly little about this plot and these characters. He's primarily focused on ensuring that there aren't too many scenes between the potential scares.

The horror of Separation, though, doesn't work. The characters and their grief mean so little, and the ghosts' behavior isn't explained until a final twist (which could have been resolved with a few words or a single phone call to the cops, but is instead dragged out in an especially convoluted way). There's also the fact that the execution of these scare sequences is consistently and quite silly.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products