- Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
- Written by Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou
- Stars Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan
- Run Time: 2 Hours, 1 Minute
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQFdGfwChtw
Spoiler-free Judgment Zone
It’s slow and tedious, yet fascinating at the same time. A strong cast really helped a lot. There’s a strange element to the dialog, it’s very stilted and polite, which along with a few other strange things around the edges gives the whole thing a vaguely surreal feeling. Overall we liked it more than disliked it, though it felt a bit long.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on a scene of open-heart surgery. Credits roll.
Steven Murphy is the doctor in this operating room. He meets up with young Martin afterward. Martin apologizes four or five times for being late. Steven gives Martin a very expensive watch and Martin asks for a hug. They’re oddly formal. Martin goes home and has dinner with his family, and that’s weirdly formal as well. Youngest son Bob needs a haircut, as does sister Kim.
When they have sex, wife Anna pretends to be unconscious with a general anesthetic, just the way he likes it. He introduces Martin as one of his daughter’s schoolmates to Matthew, an anesthesiologist. Everything just seems a little off with these people.
Steven invites Martin to come to meet the family; he’s never met any of them before. Kim sings for Martin. They all seem weirdly friendly and polite to Martin. Steven tells Anna that Martin’s father died in a car crash, and he went to the funeral.
Martin invites Steven over for dinner tomorrow night. They end up watching a movie afterward until Martin goes to bed abruptly. Steven is left with Martin’s mother, who remembers his hands from the hospital. She soon starts kissing his hands and coming on to him, and he leaves.
The next morning, Martin is waiting for Steven at the hospital. Martin thinks his father should have come out of that surgery Steven performed. Martin says his chest hurts, and he’s afraid he inherited a heart problem. Steven orders some heart tests for Martin to make him feel better, there’s nothing wrong with him.
More and more, Martin stalks the doctor; he seems oddly obsessed.
At a picnic, Matthew tells Steven that he saw Martin hanging around Steven’s car. Kim says she saw Martin after choir practice.
The next morning, Bob says his legs are numb and he can’t move them or stand up. Steven and Anna rush him to the hospital. After an examination, Bob is fine. On the way out to the car, he falls down; maybe he’s not that fine. After even more tests, the doctors still say he should okay. That night, Kim and Martin go riding on his motorcycle.
Martin comes to visit Bob the next day. Martin calmly tells Steven that if Steven doesn’t kill one member of his family, his entire family will die. Steven gets to choose which one to kill. It’s only a fair trade for Steven killing his father. Martin explicitly explains how they will all die. Steven has Martin removed by security.
Bob won’t eat. Steven tries to force feed Bob a donut. Kim still sees Martin every night, but her parents don’t know about it. She wants to have sex, but he prefers to leave.
The doctors think Bob’s simply got a psychosomatic disorder; it’s all in his head. He’s not eating, and he doesn’t look good. Steven takes Bob out for a drag, dropping him on the hard floor several times. Steven tells Bob a very weird story about his own father’s genitals. He then threatens to make Bob eat his own hair if this is all an act. Anna says, “It’s all going to be fine.”
At choir practice the next day, Kim passes out. Things are not going to be fine. She can’t walk and won’t eat either.
Steven goes to Martin’s house, but no one’s home.
Anna and Steven talk about Martin. Steven’s been seeing him for about six months; he knew Martin was unbalanced. Steven says he had been drinking a little before the operation on Martin’s father, but he didn’t kill him.
Kim talks to Martin on the phone, even from the hospital; she has no idea that Martin is behind all their problems. Kim gets out of bed and walks to the window to wave at Martin, but Anna doesn’t see him. After this, Anna forbids Kim from talking to him ever again, but Kim is argumentative. Anna takes her phone.
Steven gets the hospital to bring in nationwide experts to work on the problem. Anna goes to see Martin at his house. “Ever since your husband killed my father, he’s been flirting with my mother.” She asks why she has to suffer for something her husband did three years ago. “I don’t know if this is fair, but it’s the only thing I can think of that’s even close to justice.”
The hospital director says there’s nothing more they can do for the kids and that they should be transferred home.
Anna talks to Matthew and asks if he was the anesthesiologist on Martin’s father’s operation. She wants to see the dead man’s medical file. He tells her that Steven had been drinking that day, but that wasn’t unusual at the time. In return for the information, Anna gives Matthew something he’s always wanted.
The kids move home, hospital beds and all. Anna comments on Steven’s beautiful hands. She clearly blames Steven for the whole situation. He gets upset.
Steven now has Martin tied up in the basement. He shows Anna, and she doesn’t say a word. Martin says a clean slate is just one murder away. Martin is clearly psychotic, and he takes a big bite out of his own arm after he bites Steven. Just to be fair.
Kim and Bob talk, and they both seem to know exactly what’s going on. Bob drags himself downstairs and cuts most of his own hair off. Steven asks the school principal which of the two kids he likes best. Anna tells Steven to pick a child; they’re still young enough to have another one. Kim talks to Martin about sacrificing her little brother, and she’ll still run away with him. She drags herself out of the house and down the street.
The next day, Anna lets Martin go. Bob starts bleeding from the eyes, a sign that the end is near.
Later, we see Anna and both kids gagged and duct-taped with pillowcases over their heads. He pulls a stocking cap over his own head and spins around. Pin the tail on the donkey? He fires and doesn’t hit anyone. After the third or fourth attempt, he finally shoots Bob.
Martin comes to the diner and sees Steven, Anna, and Kim. We see that Kim is eating again. All three of them get up and walk out, not saying a word to Martin.
Commentary
The entire movie is very awkward and slow, and the weirdly robotic, monotone dialog is off putting. None of them seems remotely human or realistic. Once both kids are in the hospital, it starts picking up, but the weird dialog continues.
I love how the kids drag themselves down the stairs, and the parents don’t offer to help them in any way. The shotgun thing at the end was just bizarrely stupid.
Anna’s not much of a mother. After a while, she knew exactly what was happening. Wouldn’t she have volunteered to be the victim?
How did they explain Bob’s death? There were far more natural-looking ways they could have killed him. No one went to jail at the end, so they must have done something with the body. They also never really explain how Martin did whatever it was that he did to the children. Poison? Black magic? Hypnosis?
It’s a horribly slow and tedious film, but it’s definitely disturbing, and there’s a lot to think about and question when it’s over.