This movie kept coming up as a suggestion given my recent tastes. I had it on my list for a while and today felt like the best time to watch it. So, while my husband and 9-year-old were off golfing, my 13-year-old was in the living room watching Anime, I got myself a cup of coffee and got comfy on my Tempur-Pedic.
The film is set in the 1950’s and stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Reynolds Woodcock, a haute couture designer in London. He dresses high society women as well as royalty and is seen as a genius in the fashion industry. Lesley Manville plays his sister Cyril, who oversees his day-to-day activities as well as ensuring nothing gets in the way of his work. After a stressful day, Cyril suggests he goes to the country where he meets a waitress, Alma Elson played by Vicky Krieps. Things escalate quickly as she not only becomes his lover but his muse and model and moves in with him. Alma soon discovers that Reynolds is demanding, picky, and likes things his way.
After an argument, where he gets upset with Alma for cooking asparagus in butter instead of oil and salt like he likes it, Alma decides to poison his tea with wild mushrooms. As he’s working on a dress for a Belgian princess, Lady Harding, he collapses and ruins the dress, forcing his staff to work all night on the dress. He becomes very sick but Alma is at his side nursing him back to health. After Reynolds recovers, he tells Alma that a house that doesn’t change “is a dead house” and proposes. They have a quaint civil ceremony and a lovely holiday in Switzerland.
Things start to get creepier (if you didn't think they were by now) when he finds out that Lady Harding has left to a rival fashion house and his domineering personality comes out again. Alma walks in on Reynolds and Cyril as he says he claims he’s made a mistake and wants out of the marriage. Now, you’d think that would put the kibosh on the whole thing, but no. Miss Alma ups the ante and decides she likes him weak and dependent on her and so she poisons him AGAIN. This time he’s aware of what’s happening and he’s there for it. It's a twisted game of control between a man and a woman where only those who are willing to do anything to stay on top will succeed.
The film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Day-Lewis, Best Supporting Actress for Manville and Best Original Score, and won for Best Costume Design at the 90th Academy Awards. It also earned four nominations at the 71st British Academy Film Awards, winning for Best Costume Design, and received two Golden Globe nominations.
4/5 martinis
I don’t eat mushrooms, thankfully :)
I loved this film on its release and have watched it several times, probably my favorite PTA film and DDL performance. "A twisted game of control between a man and a woman where only those who are willing to do anything to stay on top will succeed" is exactly right -- by the end of the thing Reynolds quite likes the game. I know a lot of men like Reynolds who pick up women but expect them to leave them alone because Work is Sacred; the film interrogates those guys. Neither him nor Alma change in the last minutes: they recognize that if they're going to stay together they're gonna have to treat the marriage like a role play.