Charlie Says is allegedly an adaptation of Karlene Faith’s book, The Long Prison Journey of Leslie Van Houten, which I have not decided whether or not I am interested in reading it. The film focuses on Faith’s work with the three Manson Girls as they reflect on their life with Charles Manson, aka Charlie. The Walking Dead’s Merritt Wever plays Karlene Faith. Game of Throne’s Hannah Murray, whom you probably remember as Gilly, plays Van Houten. Matt Smith plays Manson. Faith struggles to rouse them from their cultish devotion and return them to who they were before they met Manson.
Unfortunately Charlie Says shares none of Faith’s goals and is happy to tiredly trot out less than television movie quality recreations of the women’s time on the Spahn movie ranch from harmless hippies to psycho killers. The main narrative problem is that Faith’s goal is not reflected in what is depicted in the film. If she is trying to get these murderers to remember who they are and return to sanity, then the viewers should see who they were before Manson, but we never get a glimpse of those people. Instead the movie reduces them to their time with Manson because it is the most sensational part of the story and probably what drew viewers to the film. I rarely advocate for a movie to pull a bait and switch nor am I doing so now, but I expected more of the story to be devoted to Faith’s relationship with the three convicted murderers so if the narrative shifted focus from their time in prison to see them as more than their worst moment by visually reversing the clock, not necessarily going backwards as if they were Benjamin Button, but showing their life pre-Manson in flashbacks then stopping right before they got to the ranch, it would have had a chilling effect where we would have been screaming at them not to go there because we were invested in who they were and liked them and not wanted them to ruin their lives. They could have converted viewers into seeing them as Faith did, with sympathy, but instead they remain what we expect. We do not get any of their backstory.
Charlie Says’ protagonist should have been Faith since it is based on her book, but instead there are two converging storylines: their time in prison when they meet Faith and when they meet Manson. In both scenarios, they slowly warm up to their teacher and begin to see things from the teacher’s perspective. The film does not have the intended effect of rousing them from their insane devotion. It makes it seem as if the murderers simply swapped out whom they delegated to think for them as opposed to becoming critical thinkers who would never make the same mistake again. It is only the luck of the draw whether they get a good or bad teacher. Another weak point in the film is that the flashbacks begin solely from Van Houten’s point of view, but as the movie unfolds, it gets sloppy and just becomes a recreation from perspectives that she could not necessarily know.
Charlie Says was also frustrating because when the movie depicted how the murderers worked with Faith, instead of showing the entire interaction, it runs right back to a flashback. In one scene, a black man confronts them for the Manson’s racist ideas which they thoughtlessly repeat so Faith encourages them to listen to them. Well, can Faith talk to the filmmakers because we do not hear a damn thing, and the way that the scene was set up, it felt as if it was one of those pivotal deprogramming moments when the murderers finally understood that maybe Manson is not always right. We never see a conversion process if there ever was one back to decency and sanity.
Charlie Says is more interested in showing how a cult slowly strips you away from your individuality, but I have seen other movies do that more effectively and been more engrossed. If you are asked to let go of your ego, but you do not have a big head, you are really being asked to erase your boundaries. Not being allowed to read isolates you from being exposed to other people’s opinions. If women cannot have money, they become dependent and unable to survive without men. Body positivity gives way to any control of your body. If you are not comfortable with your body being used like communal property, you cannot be part of the group, but if you do decide to have sex without asking for permission first, you are wrong. You are made to believe that you do not have agency over your body. Um, what happened to freedom and no restrictions? You are stupid if you think that the leader made a mistake or contradicted himself. It means you literally cannot exist without another person thinking for you. Leaving a cult would mean death because you are no longer a sovereign person capable of existing independently from the leader. So there were no Caribbean women in Manson’s cult, right? You would have lost me early at the food then the money.
Can I be honest with you? I do not watch Doctor Who so I am unfamiliar with Matt Smith’s most famous role. I have watched him un Official Secrets, Patient Zero, Mapplethorpe, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Terminator Genisys. Is he supposed to be good? If you think that he is good, is it that he was having an off day in every single one of these movies or were these movies not great? I don’t see it, y’all. He is never even the best part of the movie. I have a bias in favor of British actors so I brought nothing but good will, but he is barely solid. Maybe the problem is that he does not play Americans well, but I did not like his performances when he was playing for the home team. I understand that he was the biggest name in the cast, but he did not deserve the biggest part of the story. Neither did Manson.
It was supposed to be the women’s story, and it never was. I was excited to see Wever take center stage in Charlie Says. I always enjoy the understated nature of her performances, which always feel genuine and organic as if she is not acting at all. Unfortunately even though she depicts the person who actually wrote the book, she does not get enough screen time, and she was the best part of the film as the audience’s surrogate stunned and horrified at the murderer’s behavior.
If you really love Wever, maybe you will want to see Charlie Says considering that she appears in few movies, but I would liberally use the fast forward button and watch a different movie if you want to learn more about the Manson family or better yet, read Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter. No, Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood does not count because it is historical fantasy. It is a disappointing movie that feels completely derivative instead of a fresh approach to well-known criminals.