CNN
—
Between “Wednesday” and her earlier forays with the “Scream” franchise, Jenna Ortega may be having fun with a pop-culture second, however even that star energy can’t overcome the issues in “Miller’s Woman,” a sort-of psychological, semi-erotic drama that, regardless of its literary pretensions, possesses roughly the mental heft of a fragrance advert. Dated and creepy in all of the unsuitable methods, it’s a film which may have escaped derision within the Eighties however deserves to get slapped round at present.
Certainly, greater than something, this debut function from writer-director Jade Halley Bartlett seems like a contemporary model of “The Crush” – a type of icky ‘90s artifacts that actually didn’t age nicely – with a teenage Alicia Silverstone in search of to seduce a a lot older Cary Elwes and lashing out when he doesn’t totally succumb to her charms.
Right here, the filmmakers make a degree of noting that the protagonist, Ortega’s Cairo Candy, has turned 18, however she’s nonetheless a high-school pupil when she develops a unusually intense relationship along with her instructor, Jonathan Miller (Martin Freeman), who ceaselessly sees her tromping by means of the woods from the mansion she occupies whereas her absentee mother and father are touring.
“I’m the scariest factor in there,” she says, when he asks her about strolling that path alone.
Alas, Jonathan doesn’t have the great sense to take heed to that warning, dazzled as he’s by Cairo’s writing expertise and engagement, in addition to the truth that she learn his largely ignored ebook. At first blush the fun of that discovery proves comprehensible, form of, but it surely’s clear the instructor is sorely missing inspiration as he sleepwalks by means of life, coping with an alcoholic, work-obsessed spouse (“Succession’s” Dagmara Domińczyk) who barely tolerates him.
Set in a distant nook of Tennessee (which explains the Southern accents that drop out and in), the story performs off Cairo’s off-the-charts potential and burning want to get out, citing Yale as a objective, juxtaposed with Jonathan’s sense of entrapment. That unfolds, alas, in opposition to a gender and energy dynamic that’s a combination of fantasies run amok, although it’s frankly onerous to inform if the writing is consciously provocative or just tone-deaf.
Everybody within the forged deserves higher, however for Ortega, the function offers a type of overt indicators she’s now not the lady individuals watched on the Disney Channel, a message that appears notably pointless given her ample media publicity. Nor does it assist that the movie saddles her with a operating narration designed to sound literary in type (whereas namechecking authors like Henry Miller) that simply seems like an particularly pretentious episode of “Gossip Woman.”
Whereas the age hole has served as the main target of advance protection, essentially the most uncomfortable side of “Miller’s Woman” includes portraying Cairo and her good friend Winnie (Gideon Adlon) because the vaguely predatory pursuers of their much-older lecturers. The latter overtly flirts with Jonathan’s greatest pal (“High Gun: Maverick’s” Bashir Salahuddin), who, by not backing away instantly, seems to be enjoying with fireplace as nicely, simply on a barely decrease setting.
The movie is produced by, amongst others, Seth Rogen, so there have been some adults within the room enabling its questionable choices. “No excuses to be made in your selections,” Cairo muses in voiceover close to the top. At the very least she, and the filmmakers, obtained that half proper.
“Miller’s Woman” premieres January 26 in US theaters. It’s rated R.