Bad Behaviour
Alice Englert’s directorial debut is an unusually fascinating comedy-drama distinguished by two brilliant performances.
Ana Scotney and Jennifer Connelly
For all its imperfections this film is unusually fascinating. It finds Alice Englert already known to us as an actress entering into two new roles since she is both the writer and the director of Bad Behaviour as well as playing in it. Since Englert is in addition a singer/songwriter (and indeed shares the composing credit on this film), her range is extraordinary and it is striking that this film proves to be one with such a very individual voice. In the event, though, that very individuality has proved divisive in that Bad Behaviour has met with many unsympathetic reviews. But, whilst some elements in it do justify harsh criticism, I side with all those who declare that the good things in it are very effective indeed.
Although Bad Behaviour unfolds as a single narrative, it can be thought of us being in two parts. The first of these begins without any preamble since we are introduced to the central figure, Lucy (Jennifer Connolly) when she is already in a car en route to spend time at a rural retreat in Oregon. Lucy, who had once been a child actress, is now of a mature age, has long since separated from her husband and has a distinctly uneasy relationship with her adult daughter, Dylan. The latter (that’s Englert's role) is currently in New Zealand where she is engaged as a stunt performer working on films. Facing some kind of mid-life crisis, Lucy has decided that she would benefit from what the retreat can offer through its spiritual leader, one Elon Bello (Ben Whishaw). This guru is in charge of workshops and of silent meditation as he encourages those who come to him for help to face up to their fears and to let out their anger.
The first half of Bad Behaviour incorporates scenes in New Zealand to introduce us to Dylan and her boyfriend, an actor named Elmore (Marlon Williams). But this aspect is very much secondary to the many scenes showing Lucy’s experiences in the retreat. It is, of course, the kind of place which some would regard as genuinely helpful while others might well view it as inherently bogus and perhaps even dangerous given the influence that can be wielded by many a guru. It might be supposed that Englert’s screenplay would adopt one or other of these attitudes but remarkably she chooses to blend them.
This approach is, of course, a balancing act and one that is very difficult to pull off. Nevertheless, Englert fully succeeds aided by the pitch-perfect performance of Ben Whishaw, arguably his best yet. As Elon Bello he adopts a beguilingly mellow tone that is miles away from turning Bello into a self-evidently evil influencer relishing his power. Nevertheless, he makes it highly believable that Bello could be profiting from cultivating rich followers and anybody who instinctively looks askance on a retreat of this kind will find Bello’s talk of how to obtain enlightenment exactly what they would expect. And it's just the same with the exercises that he leads, as when a group is asked to divide up and take in turn the roles of either mothers or their babies. For that matter even the name of the retreat, ‘Loveland Ranch’, seems of a piece to encourage that way of seeing things. Nevertheless, we recognise that Lucy, confronted as she is by her own unresolved problems both past (regarding the relationship that she had with her mother) and present (the inability to act in a way which persuades Dylan that her mother loves her), is indeed in need of help and in the course of the story she will find a path to follow.
If Whishaw plays wonderfully on the knife-edge between these viewpoints, so too does Jennifer Connolly. As Lucy, she can amuse us with her outspoken manner and her hostility to another student at the retreat, a model named Beverly (Dasha Nekrasova), but the issues that are affecting Lucy are seen as serious ones. In describing her film Englert has described it as "sincere and a satire" and that improbable combination is exactly what her portrait of this retreat memorably manages to be.
However, elsewhere success eludes her. In the film’s first half the scenes set in New Zealand seem rather perfunctory and are not meaningful enough to justify their place. Thereafter, following an unexpected turn of events, the second half of the film finds Dylan in America with her mother but here fresh problems arise over both the tone and the style of the presentation. Dylan's journey by air from New Zealand is bizarrely shown featuring animation and, far from maintaining that risky but triumphant knife-edge, the later American scenes feature contrasted tones that emerge as inconsistent. Some of this remains effective: an intense exchange between Connolly and Englert is genuinely powerful and later they share a touching scene together. On the other hand, a comic passage in which a waitress takes orders for a hotel breakfast seems to belong to a different film altogether. And then, just when the tale appears set to reach a satisfactory close, a sudden fresh element, one providing Dylan with a romantic interest, takes the film temporarily off-course.
Overall, Bad Behaviour is a work which through bad judgment flounders at a number of points throughout. But what you take away from it is the unique tone of its best sequences and the sheer satisfaction of watching Whishaw and Connolly at the top of their game. Plus, there’s an unexpected little bonus: within this film about mothers and daughters which is indeed sincere at heart, one finds the briefest of scenes in which we are reminded that Alice Englert's mother is the director Jane Campion.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Jennifer Connolly, Alice Englert, Ben Whishaw, Dasha Nekrasova, Beulah Keole, Marlon Williams, Karan Gill, Ana Scotney, Alistair Sewell, Xana Tang, Kahu Welling MacGregor, and Jane Campion.
Dir Alice Englert, Pro Desray Armstrong and Molly Hallam, Screenplay Alice Englert, Ph Matt Henley, Pro Des Heather Hayward, Ed Simon Price, Music Alice Englert and Cameron McArthur, Costumes Kirsty Cameron, Sound Alan Kidd, Dialect coach Perry Percy.
Ask Me About My Films/Badly Behaved Babes/Sandy Lane Productions-Icon Film Distribution.
107 mins. New Zealand. 2023. UK Rel: 5 February 2024. Cert. 15.
