Her Smell is a two hour fourteen minute drama starring Elisabeth Moss as the lead in a legendary, pioneering rock band called She Something that has seen better days because of her unstable, abusive and erratic conduct. The movie charts her emotional journey. Will she keep going down this destructive path, reform or do something different?
Between the preview for Her Smell and seeing Moss kill it in Us, I decided that it was about damn time that I start giving her some undivided attention. Mad Men and The Handmaid’s Tale are in my various queues, but respectively one is a huge time commitment, and the other seems like prophecy so I wasn’t exactly eager to start with either television series. When I noticed that it was not going to last a full third week in theaters, I rushed to see it before the close of the second week.
Which would you prefer first: the good news or the bad news? Her Smell is rigorously distinct and committed to its vision as a movie and a story. The dialogue and acting feels more like a play as if someone directed the actors to play for the back row of a huge theater, but the camera reflects the emotional state of the characters. It is relentlessly close, generally handheld, following one person then another to reflect the chaotic turbulence of the characters’ lives. As the frame become still, the characters are similarly stable. It is highly structured, cyclical, chiastic. It is possible that in four hundred years, it will be the Shakespeare of its time with high school students required to quote one of the long speeches as an example of twenty-first century writing that seems like vernacular, but probably reads more like poetry.
Unfortunately like a Shakespeare play, Her Smell is five acts when it is possible that it could have accomplished the same in three. It is too damn long and stays at an emotional ten for the majority of the film, which can be exhausting and tiresome. The second that the movie ended, one viewer got out of her seat and headed for the door as if there was a prize waiting for her on the other side. Very few people will want to watch this movie more than once. The plot’s trajectory is a bit predictable for anyone vaguely familiar with VH1 rock documentaries or the story behind most rock bands in general. One act teeters on a knife’s edge regarding how the protagonist will react to a new group. It is a brilliant scene, but everything else involving that girl band was confusing (why didn’t you go on stage already) or redundant because it was already accomplished emotionally with the protagonist’s interactions with her band mates or in the video clips of happier times and should have hit the cutting room floor.
Some scenes are too unnecessarily packed with people to show how the protagonist’s entire life is in shambles. I’m a complete square, but if you’re a rock star, then isn’t your backstage like the halls to your office? I get that a musician on tour spends the majority of her life on the road so she has to squeeze in personal moments when she can, but it is still work. Don’t be annoyed when it isn’t a good atmosphere for family moments! How would you like it if your relative decided to have a serious family moment while you were at your day job? You need that check. Maybe don’t express your disappointment in her right before she goes on stage. Don’t complain about her professionalism when you are literally undermining her professionalism. You’re part of the problem. Maybe a kid shouldn’t visit anyone where there is heavy drinking and drug use. What did you expect? Also the reverse applies. When she is finally having personal time with her kid, maybe don’t keep interrupting her with business. I know that the point is that none of these people lead conventional lives, but come on!
The end of Her Smell is quite beautiful and resonant even for a cynic like me. I just think that it took too long to get there, and the emotional catharsis was needed earlier. It is too lopsided in one emotional direction when the second to last act should have been the middle. I enjoyed the ambiguity of the ending, which was simultaneously a happy ending though not trite with the potential for it to go the other way, which makes it feel realistic. I thought that it was a great character touch that some aspects of the protagonists’ character are immutable, and her unconventional religious beliefs are genuine and sincere, not an act. Ha, plot twist! Take that Hobby Lobby.
Even though you may not want to, please stay for the end credits that feature album covers of the characters. I thought that it was a nice touch to wrap up how the characters were doing. If you do wait to watch Her Smell at home, turn on the subtitles. Because of the deliberate chaotic pacing for the majority of the film and the environment, backstage, it is noisy, and ambient noise swallows up a lot of the dialogue.
Her Smell has a great cast. Moss’ captivating, roller coaster with brakes performance is the main reason to see this ambitious, but flawed film. I like Amber Heard the person, but while she delivers good work, I felt as if the hype was disproportionate to the actual performance until now. She plays a small role at the bookends of this movie, but she completely nailed her character by striking a balance of dignity, showmanship, earthiness and sensitivity. When I saw Eric Stoltz and Virgnia Madsen, I was psyched because I can’t remember the last time that I saw them on the big screen. Eka Darville from Jessica Jones gets a small role. I wouldn’t be surprised if most people don’t recognize him, but I did immediately.
Dan Stevens is a good actor and delivers a solid performance, but his appearance in movies is now the harbinger of failed excellence since The Guest. I used to see movies because he is in them, and now when I see that he is in a movie, I worry that it isn’t as good as I thought it was going to be. If I had known or remembered that he was in Her Smell, I may have waited until it was available for home viewing.
Her Smell is a distinctive film committed to its protagonist’s journey and the director’s aesthetic and narrative vision, but is in dire need of an editor ready to kill his darlings. It is a strong work, but not necessarily an enjoyable one because of the lack of variety in tone throughout the film. I love an unlikeable woman, and the majority women cast gives unique, organic portraits on a variety of realistic women characters, but I wish that they were given more of an opportunity to reflect the entire emotional spectrum of their lives.
