I deliberately didn’t see The Little Stranger in theaters because I had a feeling that it was one of those movies that seemed like one thing, but actually was another, and I would be disappointed because it wasn’t my cup of tea. I was right. I think that it was too subtle and atmospheric for my tastes, but if you want to read a review from someone who loved it, and that I completely cosign, I encourage you to read Kristy Puchko’s Peeling Back the True Horror of The Little Stranger, which is teeming with spoilers and saves me time from addressing my thoughts on that portion of the film.
The Little Stranger is an adaptation of a novel and focuses on Dr. Faraday played by Domhnall Gleeson. Dr. Faraday is a rising star after WWII when it became possible to rise above your class origins. Instead of going to London and fully capitalizing on his professional success, he chooses to stay close to Hundreds Hall, the Ayres family estate, which he was obsessed with as a boy. Now his profession provides him with a reasonable opportunity to visit the home as often as possible and unexplained, supernatural events seem to plague its inhabitants who then need his services as a result.
The Little Stranger feels like a very British movie. There is barely a hint of emotion in people’s voices, but it isn’t exactly monotone. The cast is excellent. Gleeson acts against type and only shows a cheerful, lifelike demeanor when interacting with the maid of the house, who is the only one that notices his stories are strange. His restrained, professional and cold manner makes one wonder how anyone could mistake his actions for kindness for even a moment. Luther’s Ruth Wilson is great, but I only wish that ahistorical Alice could have suddenly possessed her character because it was the only thing missing from her character’s repertoire. I completely empathized with her character and was overjoyed when she put the brakes on. I
Will Poulter was unrecognizable. He was one of the bad guys in Detroit. Though Charlotte Rampling is an amazing actor, if I see her in a movie, it is the equivalent of seeing Jeremy Irons in the cast. Lately they’ve been harbingers of cinematic disappointment, but The Little Stranger is actually one of the better films that she has been in lately.
The Little Stranger reminded me of Oculus in the way that the past affected the present. While it is overtly a movie about class, it is also a movie about how modernity destroys the past glory. A ghost story is rooted in the past. This type of supernatural story seems eager to erase it and claim it. I think that my main quibble with the story is that it takes a familiar supernatural figure then explicitly redefines it, which George Romero did with eager acceptance with zombies, and basically invents a new entity with new rules, which I quickly discerned, but kept questioning based on my outside understanding of this entity. I just couldn’t let go and get on board.
I’m particularly sensitive, and I’m not blaming The Little Stranger or necessarily even attributing the following criticism on the author of the original story, but by paralleling the harmful supernatural with the advent of the National Health Service and medical professionals, it is a regressive film. I live in the US, and our national, political discourse has been plagued with suspicion of science, rejection of vaccines and prescription medicine, ridicule of education and expertise and sneering at the hint of socialism, particularly in the health care industry. It is too bad that proponents of those ideas are unlikely to be Anglophiles because they would have loved this film, which vindicates all their suspicions about medical professionals and depicts their worst nightmare about the power that doctors have over individuals’ lives. There was a point in the movie that it seemed glaring obvious that Dr. Faraday was objectively way too close to the situation to be permitted to deliver a dispositive medical opinion yet the professional community accepts it anyway.
Even brushing aside my sensitivity, The Little Stranger definitely puts the viewer in the awkward position of rooting for a rigid class hierarchy that probably would not benefit the majority of the audience. Most of the depicted doctors are vaguely self-serving and sinister in their motives that makes us root against them when they scheme and socialize with their patients. They’re grubby interlopers who need to be put in their place, and while we feel it keenly when we do and maybe even sympathize with them, because we have a greater insight into their dark soul, we know that it is right to rebuff their upward mobility at all costs. The upper class definitely has flaws, but they are not furtive about them.
If you love animals, particularly dogs, do not watch The Little Stranger. I was frustrated by the main character’s cluelessness about himself. It was clear that he was capable of emotion only when he was around the maid possibly because he did not feel the need to act a certain way around a person who was the same class as he was and was like his mother. I don’t understand purposely relegating yourself to a part of society that makes you feel as if you have to be less than your authentic self. I just wanted to shake him or get him one insightful friend. He may be happy, but he was in hell.
I usually love a bleak movie, but I’m thrilled that I didn’t see The Little Stranger in theaters because then I would have been big mad. At least at home, I could appreciate that it was a solid movie, but just not the kind of movie that I enjoy watching. If God forbid, you are similar to me, then you will probably have the same aggravated reaction by the end, but if you aren’t, then you may love the movie as a subtle dramatic take on the supernatural that you may find refreshing and thrilling. Objectively the cast and crew should be proud of what they achieved because everyone did an excellent job regardless of how the viewers receive the film.