Sacrifice is a mash up of Coma (1978) and The Wicker Man (1973) with a dollop of Rosemary’s Baby, Bluebeard and The Magdalene Sisters. It is about a doctor who moves from Manhattan to Scotland to her husband’s hometown after a miscarriage to start a new life. Her father-in-law hooks her up with a new job and uses his connections so they can adopt a baby, but after discovering something suspicious on their land, she begins to suspect something is strange about her new neighbors.
I saw Sacrifice after a string of bad to middling movies so pardon me if I think that it is a fairly solid movie albeit a very solid TV movie, which was apparently originally released in theaters, but unless you have a time machine, how would that detail matter to you? It wouldn’t. So if it comes on, I would warn you that a lot of plot twists rely on absurd moments involving farm equipment that could stretch a viewer’s suspension of disbelief, but I did not find it completely implausible, and I had fun. It is the rare ninety-one minute movie that does not feel as if it is never going to end.
What I most appreciated about Sacrifice was that there were actually no supernatural elements even though we were clearly talking about a cult. It added a level of credibility and gravity to the entire narrative by making it seem as if it could happen by keeping it rooted in reality. I also think that this movie ages well because I’m watching it a little over two years after it was released, and the idea that a generational spanning, misogynist, patriarchal, supremacist conspiracy could exist with women being complicit in the victimization of other women not only doesn’t seem far-fetched, it seems as if it was ripped from the headlines with the major difference being that they did a better job hiding it.
I actually liked all the major relationships set up in Sacrifice although they are not completely expanded to their furthest corners. The husband and wife relationship was riveting because you have this problematic man who is trying to navigate his marriage and his allegiance to this cult so while he is not the worst, I would still divorce him. It was a really great living and breathing metaphor for men trying to escape the pull of societal expectations in their treatment of and relationship to women. I thought the equal, collegial, collaborative, cross professional relationship between the detective and the doctor when they frequently changed roles as experts and supplicants was thrilling, and I don’t recall seeing such a clever interplay before. Usually one person is the expert and expects deference. Also they shared similar experiences of getting undermined among their colleagues because of gender, but it wasn’t laid on like a trowel. It was subtle. I also loved the setup that the husband openly hated a guy that he knew since childhood, and I knew that it was going to play a role in the denouement. Even when something is obvious and heavy-handed, it can still be pleasurable and cathartic, which should be the slogan of this movie.
Sacrifice is a satisfying viewing experience because it is great at setting up something for the viewer to notice and predict before the character does so that when it delivers, your attention feels rewarded, and it creates more empathy and relatability between the viewer and the main character. My problem with a lot of mysteries and thrillers is that they create this puzzle, and the solution isn’t really hidden. It was never ever on screen until the eleventh hour. They aren’t clever. They are annoying. If you see a set of keys in this film, you know they are going to play a role later in the film. It may lack subtlety, but there are no dangling threads except one—who is the baby daddy?
Sacrifice has one moment when Catholicism is alluded to, but never teases out the possible syncretic relationship between the cult exploiting Catholic beliefs such as preferring to put the child up for adoption instead of having an abortion. The movie seems to accept at face value that most of the pregnant women at the adoption center are there voluntarily when in real life, we know that Magdalene laundries or asylums were a form of enslaving pregnant women. It was definitely too ambitious for the scope of this film to explore that broader aspect instead of restricting it to individual stories, but if I see a center for pregnant women run by a cult, I’m going to associate it with the Magdalene asylums even if the movie isn’t set in Ireland. If the movie gets a bit shaky, it is restricted to the actual logistics of how the conspiracy covers up its dirty deeds and dead bodies.
Sacrifice has its nitpicky problems. Why don’t characters in movies lock their computer screens when they leave their desk? Why are you doing research on your work computer? Don’t you have a smartphone? If you had a cell phone, you could take photos of all the crazy crap that you keep seeing because no one is going to believe you. Stop wearing heels! Wear gloves when you are breaking in! There is one point in the movie when the doctor grabs a bunch of random files to appear as if she belongs in that part of the hospital, but she leaves them in a more secure part of the hospital. I am probably the only viewer still worried about those missing files. Some poor schmuck is still looking for them and will never find them because they are in a different department, and no one may even notice them. If a man takes contraception, it would prevent pregnancy, not cause miscarriages right? OK, that question is just dumb because no one expects men to take contraception. My bad! Would you really recognize babies and be able to distinguish which one is yours in a nursery if there were no nameplates? Wouldn’t putting a pregnant woman in a drug-induced coma hurt the baby?
One reviewer complained that Sacrifice was a pale imitation of Hitchcock, and it is. I specifically thought it referenced Rear Window. I can’t get mad at a derivative movie for copying one of the greats. It just isn’t one of my pet peeves. Radha Mitchell hasn’t played such a central role since Pitch Black, one of my all time faves, and it was nice to be reminded that she could be more than the main character’s love interest. Minor, superficial critique: I’d like her to go shorter like Carrie Anne Moss or Robin Wright Penn. She should get more work, and usually it is the least important things that grab people’s attention. It is stupid and unfortunate, but true.
While Sacrifice is far from a must see movie, it is definitely an entertaining one unless obviousness irritates you. I found it satisfying and fulfilling like McDonald’s fries plus I love when unfamiliar folklore takes center stage in my popular culture with apologies to people more well-versed in the origins of the story that probably got twisted for my amusement.