THE FRONT ROOM: 2 ½ STARS. “Kathryn Hunter will grab your attention.”
SYNOPSIS: In “The Front Room,” a new psychological horror film directed by Max and Sam Eggers, brothers of Robert Eggers, and now playing in theaters, a young couple is pushed to their emotional limit when they take in the husband’s ailing but demonically domineering mother.
CAST: Brandy Norwood (a.k.a. the mononymously famous R&B singer Brandy), Kathryn Hunter, Andrew Burnap, and Neal Huff. Directed by the Eggers Brothers.
REVIEW: “The Front Room,” based on the short story by Susan Hill, benefits from a bravura performance from Olivier Award winner Kathryn Hunter. As the mother-in-law from hell Solange, she is the catalyst for the growing sense of paranoia and fear that drapes over the proceedings.
Hunter, a virtuoso of physical performance, is, by times, frail, powerful and terrifying. She’s an unpredictable agent of chaos in her new home, and Hunter brings the spectrum of the character’s manipulative behavior to vivid life.
She is pure malevolence whose arsenal includes verbal abuse, guilt and even incontinence. Her presence changes everything in the house, proving that sometimes good deeds do, indeed, go unrewarded.
Hunter is the movie’s withered heart. Without her wicked performance, and the game of figuring out exactly what she is up to, you’re left with a horror riff on “Monster-In-Law.”
“The Front Room” tackles the price of obligation and the psychological stresses of parenthood, but it is Hunter who will grab and hold your attention.
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