Movie Review - Shirley (2020)

This film is about real-life author, Shirley Jackson who was more well-known in the 1950's and 60's. I wasn't familiar with any of her work, which was more in the genre of horror and mystery. I wonder if someone who were familiar with her work might get more out of this film because as it stands, I didn't get that much. I'm not sure I fully understood what the filmmaker was trying to say here, or whatever the filmmaker was trying to say didn't feel all that compelling to me. It's compounded by the fact that I wasn't that taken or impressed with the central performance here. It's a shame because director Josephine Decker's previous feature Madeline's Madeline (2018) was a really incredible film that did make me curious to see what she would do next. Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed.

Like Madeline's Madeline, this film is largely about the relationship between women, specifically two women, but, unlike Madeline's Madeline, this film doesn't stay as something just between women. This film becomes about the husbands in these women's lives, which is fine, but there wasn't that much that was new, original or compelling about it. Men either stifle or push too hard and men are unfaithful. The latter becomes a breaking point, but it does so without much delving deep into the whys. Infidelity is just supposed to be accepted as a thing that men do.

Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale and Mad Men) stars as Shirley Jackson, a famous or celebrated author who has had several books and stories published. She's married to a college professor in Vermont where they live. They seem to be middle-aged perhaps. It's not clear if they have any children, but their home seems to have only the two of them there with no evidence that they had any biological children. She's the center of attention at a party when we first meet her, but she seems to be tired or annoyed by the fawning that people do over her. She's particularly annoyed with people asking what she's working on next. This annoys her because she's possibly suffering from writer's block. According to her husband, she's been more of a recluse who hasn't really been writing anything. She mostly stays in bed and mostly gets drunk to pass the time.

Things change when her husband invites a young, married couple to stay at their home. The couple looks like they could be college students themselves or perhaps they're fresh out of college. Both seem to have a strong interest in literature. They stay with Shirley and her husband because they hope to use them to boost their careers. The young husband seems more of an opportunist than the young wife. She's one of those fawning types, but who seems to have a genuine appreciation of Shirley and her work.

Odessa Young (Assassination Nation and A Million Little Pieces) co-stars as Rose Nemser, the aforementioned young wife. She's obviously in love with her husband. The passionate sex she has with him is proof of her love of him. She does seem to have a love of Shirley though. Shirley is like a celebrity and Rose is clearly a fan. She probably wants to be like Shirley, but instead of just being a house-guest, she's also been subjugated to being a housekeeper. She basically has to do the cooking and cleaning for her and her husband, as well as the middle aged couple. This obviously wears on Rose and frustrates her.

Rose tries to ingratiate herself to Shirley, but Shirley is resistant at first. It feels as though Shirley might not warm to Rose at all. Because Shirley doesn't like leaving her house and going anywhere, she ends up needing Rose to do things for her. When Shirley gets an idea for a new book about a missing female college student, she needs Rose's help and uses Rose to help gather information on the missing girl. After months and months together, Shirley starts to warm to Rose and develops a fascination to her. Yet, it's not clear what the relationship between Shirley and Rose is. At one point, things seem like they might turn sexual between the two women. Later, it seems as if Rose is just a toy or a play-thing to Shirley. I wasn't sure what to make of their time together.

Logan Lerman (Fury and 3:10 to Yuma) also co-stars as Fred Nemser, the husband to Rose, and the opportunist who just wants to use Rose's husband to advance his career. He's really self-involved with not much concern for his wife's ambitions or aspirations. He just basically shadows Rose's husband who is a college professor because Fred too wants to become a college professor. Other than constantly nagging Rose's husband, it's unclear what it is that Fred is doing toward his goal. Despite his ambition, we don't get much from him to matter too much.

It's strange though when by the end of the film, he is supposed to matter. The film starts off hot and heavy with Rose and Fred's relationship, but Fred virtually vanishes for the middle chunk of this film, as the focus becomes Shirley and Rose's relationship. Fred's vanishing would be fine, if the relationship between Shirley and Rose went anywhere. That relationship though felt disposable, which is probably the point in and of itself. Maybe, it's that Shirley uses people like Rose and then throws them away or doesn't regard them as much. This would portray Shirley as a monster, but it's not clear if that's what Decker's interpretation is.

Even if that were her interpretation, I don't think that it's supported in the film. Shirley seems more anti-social at times. She supposedly is invested in this missing girl case. The book that springs from that is one that, if real, I'm not familiar, so I can't put it into context. I ended up feeling disconnected from all of this material and rather bored as a result, which is a shame because I was so thoroughly engaged by Madeline's Madeline.

Rated R for sexual content, nudity, language and brief disturbing images.

Running Time: 1 hr. and 47 mins.

Available on Hulu.