Trish Johnson (Margaret Qualley, daughter of actress-model Andie MacDowell of “Groundhog Day”) is an American journalist stuck in Nicaragua, having had her press credentials and passport yanked by the local authorities. She’s been reduced to begging for freelance travelogue-type journalism work, with a side-line of prostitution. She’d love to escape to Costa Rica.
Trish soon encounters Daniel DeHaven (Joe Alwyn), a blond, white-suited, surreptitiously gun-toting, well-connected British businessman. He’s mysterious but candid, sexy but shady, kindly but dangerous, which for some women is catnip, and is for Trish, too, but more alluring is the fact that he can pay $50 USD. And so there ensues much rum drinking and sex.
Their pasts don’t really matter; “Here, there, and yonder” is all she’ll answer when asked where she’s from. He’s married back home, and in-country for business instead of pleasure, but offers a bland, generic spy-type cover story when pressed, and won’t go into detail.
As mentioned, Trish is looking to escape to Costa Rica, but nothing really happens until authorities start trying to apprehend Daniel, and he’s forced out of his upscale hotel and into her ratty motel, where the thick air is stirred lazily by ceiling fans but not conditioned. More sex and rum.
What are their goals, dreams, ambitions? How does this story fit into the context of the larger world around them? Few answers. Those types of basic elements of storytelling (the who’s, what’s, where’s and why’s) would appear to be treated with a Gallic “pfffft!” and eye-roll by French director Claire Denis. What are we to make of these two? The French (and Europeans in general) love these types of long-winded, slowly meandering stories where nothing ever really happens.
Of course, it’s not all that hard to guess early on that there’s more to Daniel than just business interests. Is he a secret agent man? He’s being shadowed by a Costa Rican policeman (Danny Ramirez, who played a pilot in “Top Gun: Maverick”) with follow-up by an American consultant (Benny Safdie). “Consultant” of course is the standard euphemism for “OGA” (Other Government Agency) and “OGA” is the standard euphemism for CIA.
Time and Place
Since her first feature film, 1988’s “Chocolat,” director Denis, who grew up in West Africa with a French civil servant father, likes to deconstruct the problematic influence of Western nations on Third World countries.In 1984 (the time depicted in the original book), Nicaragua was governed by the Sandinistas and threatened by the U.S.-backed Contras; it was a particularly dangerous time for an American journalist. That much rings true.
There’s definitely an atmosphere of colonialism with a Brit and an American carnally cavorting and bringing their problems and privilege to the Central American jungle, swaggering around like they own the place and dragging the locals into their drama.
Qualley
You can always tell when a star is about to be born, like Julia Roberts in “Mystic Pizza,” Matt Damon in “Courage Under Fire,” Brad Pitt in “Thelma and Louise,” Jack Black in “Bob Roberts,” Tim Robbins in “Bull Durham,” Scarlett Johansson in “Ghost World,” and Emma Stone in “Superbad.”You could already tell with Margeret Qualley from her brief turn in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” as the young hippie-chick Pussycat, pressing her dirty bare feet onto the windshield of Brad Pitt’s character’s beige Cadillac. It’s interesting to try and describe the elusive “it” factor. Qualley definitely has it, as do the most mesmerizing movie stars.
Model-actress Andie MacDowell has two daughters, Margaret and Rainey, with one more model-y and one more actress-y—Margaret being the actress-y one. Which is not to say she’s not also fairly model-y; she’s got her mom’s catwalk body and fountain of wavy black hair. But here’s the physical “it” factor: like Susan Sarandon, she’s got a large degree of white surrounding her greenish-blue irises, which creates that disturbing, glowing orb look that horror movie directors love to cast women with these types of eyes for.
What the rarified quality of powerful actor charisma really is, though, is an ability to live so intensely in the moment, in a place of inner stillness, that the choices made by one’s subconsciousness actually surprise the actor’s consciousness in the moment. Which means they never know what’s coming next. Which means we the audience also don’t know what’s coming next, and so we feel compelled to pay close attention so as to not miss any of the surprises.
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