Mother knows best…
Directed by: John McNaughton
Written by: Stephen Lancellotti
Starring: Samantha Morton, Michael Shannon, Charlie Tahan, Natasha Calis, Peter Fonda
The H-Bomb: Young Andy (Charlie Tahan), who’s wheelchair bound and has been sick for most of his childhood, lives a lonely life with his mother, Katherine (Samantha Morton) and father, Richard (Michael Shannon) at their secluded farmhouse. Katherine, who works as an ER doctor, is the overbearing type who home schools Andy and allows him no social life, whatsoever. It’s a situation that Richard isn’t happy about, but has resigned himself to.
One day, a new girl in the neighborhood, Maryann (Natasha Calis), happens by Andy’s window, and the two of them strike up a friendship. Naturally, Katherine does not approve of this, and chases Maryann off every time she sees her. However, Maryann just lost her parents, is new to the area, and is determined to keep the one new friend she’s managed to make.
While hanging out with Andy one afternoon, Katherine unexpectedly comes home from work early, and Maryann is forced to hide in the hallway closet. Inside this closet, Maryann discovers a dark secret about Andy’s parents. A secret that makes it clear why Katherine shelters Andy from the world, and doesn’t want him to have any visitors.
Director John McNaughton first made waves with his disturbing indie thriller, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. He then went on to make the above average romantic comedy, Mad Dog and Glory, with Robert De Niro and Uma Thurman, as well as the fantastically sleazy guilty pleasure, Wild Things. Everything else on McNaughton’s resume I haven’t given a shit or a shake about, until I caught The Harvest (which premiered on DVD earlier this month) on Netflix.
This, I would say, is McNaughton’s best film since Henry, and possibly his most unsettling. The Harvest is very much the opposite of The Green Inferno, in that there is next to no on screen violence, yet the threat of violence constantly looms overhead, particularly as Morton’s whack job of a mother becomes more and more unhinged. People who are sensitive to child abuse will find certain scenes hard to sit through, and would probably be wise to just skip it, altogether.
Those who enjoy smart thrillers that are unpredictable and genuinely suspenseful, will find much to their liking. The twist that occurs mid-movie, the secret in the closet, is one that I certainly didn’t see coming, and that changes the film entirely. Without giving too much away, it changes our perception of Andy’s parents, and makes the movie much, much darker. Some may feel that this reveal is too jarring, too out of left field, and changed the film too much. For me, though, it made me all the more invested. Ideally, I would be able to discuss this in more detail, but for the sake of not revealing spoilers, I shall leave it at that.
One thing I can divulge, is that you will fucking hate Samantha Morton’s Katherine by the film’s conclusion. That’s how well she inhabits this obsessive, overprotective, and shockingly cold-blooded character. She is as chilling as she is detestable, and goddamn is she fucking fantastic. Far be it from me to overstate anything, but her monstrous turn here is award worthy. This is probably the most impressive performance I’ve ever seen from Morton, which is saying a lot.
Michael Shannon is equally impressive as, get this, the saner half of this lovely couple. Just read that last sentence again and let it sink in. He delivers a solid, under-stated performance, where it’s obvious there’s so much going on with Richard underneath the surface, having to manage a sick child and a sick wife… at first, he seems perfectly sympathetic, but by the end, he’s just plain pathetic.
Our young leads, Natasha Calis and Charlie Tahan, both acquit themselves well, considering that much of the film rides on them. Sometimes the actions of these two characters annoyed me, such as Maryann not contacting the police at certain points, but performance wise, these two have more complex, demanding roles than child actors are typically burdened with, and they both pull them off admirably. Peter Fonda pops up as Maryann’s well-meaning grandfather, though overall, he is sadly wasted.
I should stress that The Harvest is not a horror film. There’s not much in the way of outright excitement, and even at a fairly slim 104 minutes, the pace will be far too leisurely for some, as it’s definitely a slow burn, in which the tension builds gradually and oh-so-subtly. Also, I must re-iterate, that the subject matter will be very off-putting for many a parent, but thrillers that seep under the skin and linger in the mind long after they’re over, are so few and far between, they shouldn’t be missed. The Harvest is most definitely one of those thrillers, and it most definitely should not be missed.
