So here’s the dilemma: Our publication would like to offer uplifting fare—my particular beat being cinema. And yet The Epoch Times is also a legitimate bastion of traditional journalism; we need to be able to report on all kinds of stuff.
However, we live in time where spiritually uplifting art—and especially uplifting cinema—is not, shall we say, necessarily at the forefront of the minds and intentions of the world’s current crop of filmmakers.
What We’ve Got Here …
“Sanctuary” is basically a story about that particular type of “sex worker” (I grow to loathe that particular euphemism more and more daily) normally pictured in stiletto heels, holding a bullwhip. And yet the movie is not about that particular form of decadence but about mind and power games.The movie’s worth a mention, because, while just being well-crafted certainly can’t absolve a movie with low moral content, it can hold your attention. And the ultimate message—that women have usurped so many traditionally male roles—while not a groundbreaking concept in and of itself, has a particular logic here that’s engaging.
Furthermore, the fact that the entire movie does a comedic leap out of dangerous, thriller-mind-game territory into a (dare I say) kinda cute (albeit pathetic) rom-com ending is … a little bit interesting?
Story
The first 15 minutes of “Sanctuary” are mildly and innocuously mischievous, and foreshadow the rest of the film. A striking blond young woman in a business suit arrives at a good-looking (and soft) young man’s upscale hotel room, where she lays various legalistic accoutrements out on the table, and starts asking the man a series of increasingly personal (and increasingly cruel) questions.Rebecca (Margaret Qualley, Andie MacDowell’s daughter) is ostensibly an attorney overseeing the transition of power from the current CEO of a corporation to this young man, Hal (Christopher Abbott). Hal’s about to inherit the company originally founded by his massively emasculating father. Rebecca’s been sent to ascertain his qualifications.
Not an Actual Lawyer
Rebecca is not, in fact, an attorney. She is a mind-game version of the aforementioned type of “worker” who normally gets hired to provide pain. She provides pain, in this case, by taking issue with the rigidity of Hal’s script (he’s written the whole scenario out, which is a mildly funny concept), saying that she would like to take over the situation and say not what he thinks he wants to hear, but what she knows he needs to hear. She’s got therapy skills.This sets up the power plays that continue over the film’s runtime, allowing for shifting audience perceptions of who’s in control, what that particular person wants, and why she or he wants it.
But as indicated by the opening sequence, “Sanctuary” isn’t really a thriller. There are some credible threats of violence, and tension about what will happen next. For example, Hal is not entirely hapless, regardless of the acres of low self-esteem his father bequeathed him, and he reminds Rebecca about what huge scads of money can accomplish in terms of, say, blackmail. The blackmailer can be easily made to disappear for good.
The film’s also not really sexy, and there’s no nudity. But there are also frequent jokes and interludes of silliness; it fluctuates between something that appears to want to be taken seriously as a thriller, but really might just be a romantic comedy pretending to be something more dangerous.
Who Cares?
Granted, it grows increasingly more difficult to care about fictions about the wealthy, who, with all their physical and practical needs met, have a need to invent new ways of being unhappy and increasingly weird pleasures to pursue. The conflict we’re seeing probably would be very hard to envision without vast sums of money hanging around off-screen.There’s nothing wrong with a romantic comedy playing around with power plays, but “Sanctuary” wants to play it both ways: as a thriller that unnerves its audience and as an unconventional but ultimately heartwarming romantic comedy. And in so doing, it fails at being great at either.
It’s pretty good as both, though. There are number of good laughs throughout, and Qualley and Abbott have excellent chemistry, and more during in the sweet moments than in the tense ones.
“Sanctuary” keeps you guessing. Ultimately, what you get is a portrait of an heir as a confused young man with a massive fortune and a stratospheric job title—a man who might marry his beautiful sex worker just because she’s incredibly business savvy. She likes playing the role of being in charge and giving orders, and can do all that like falling off a log, without having needed to go to an Ivy League to learn it, or even having been to-the-manor born.
What’s the take-way? Good acting; a very well-written, twisty script, and an insight into how far the worlds of men and woman have turned topsy-turvy. But you knew that last part already. The film is a clever commentary on that particular power-balance men and women find themselves having to deal with today. And this review is hopefully an inoffensive and successful commentary on that commentary.
