When Judge Stefan Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush) has a stroke, he gets sentenced to serve a life sentence at Royal Pine Mews Care Home. Just living in such a facility is a nightmare, but things get worse when he catches the attention of Dave Crealy (John Lithgow), a fellow resident dismissed as a harmless child who wears a puppet doll on his hand. Turns out that Dave is a homicidal, sadistic psychopath with a host of victims without any of the staff noticing. They do notice Stefan kicking up a fuss and chide him for being mean to Dave. Will the Judge ever accept his situation? Never underestimate a government employee’s ability to play the long game in pettiness.
“The Rule of Jenny Pen” (2025) adapts Owen Marshall’s short story. It is rich that Rush and Lithgow did not swap roles considering rumors about Rush’s alleged sexual harassment of women costars, but here Rush plays a judge who has a special reserve of contempt against people who abuse children and the helpless. When Stefan was a judge, everyone would listen to him bloviate as he relished delivering sentences and castigation on anyone whom he deemed worthy of judgment. Because he has seen so many people, he believes that it is easier to peg them. If the story falls short, it never reveals why he is so driven to live that kind of life even as he is losing everything that defines him. For a man who turns his analytical gaze on everyone, it is surprising that no one else returns the favor.
“The Rule of Jenny Pen” could be terrifying without Dave. It does not feel like a coincidence that lawyers are depicted as dreading illness and disability more than death. Whether it is Carrie-Anne Moss as Attorney Jeri Hogarth in the Netflix “Daredevil” series or this Judge, there is an awareness that even able-bodied, tolerance for bullshit is at an all-time low and the only way to survive it is the ability to fight back, but facilities are full of shit with not a single shovel in sight. Stefan soon discovers how easy it is to die in one of these places without any consequences or reforms. Old people die all the time due to negligence without consequences, which makes those grounds easy pickings for Dave.
Dave’s position in “The Rule of Jenny Pen” may remind viewers of “Blindness” (2008). In certain communities, it is not hard to have an advantage over others, and Dave has plenty. He is still able-bodied and physically domineering with his memory intact, which is unfortunate for all the residents. He roams the halls at night terrorizing and killing the residents with only the home’s gorgeous Norwegian Forest cat (start putting animal names in the credits, damn it) noticing. Whether it is Marshall, cowriter Eli Kent or director/cowriter James Ashcroft, thank you for not getting the cat caught up in that nastiness. No wonder Stephen King loved it—they borrowed the cat from “Doctor Sleep” (2019), who in turn ripped it from the headlines. The story is set in New Zealand, which means that Lithgow sports an accent, and his delivery worked for this ignorant American. As Lithgow always does, he commits to the bit playing a racist, physically and sexually abusive man who spends every waking moment looking for ways to spoil life and happiness.
There are scenes in “The Rule of Jenny Pen” where it seems unbelievable that the staff would not at least suspect Dave. He can walk, but the Judge cannot. How can the Judge hurt Dave if Dave was not in the Judge’s face? There is not one attendant in the room as Dave wantonly clears a dance floor. Older people do not heal quickly so it is especially cruel. The attendants only come to interrupt the Judge when he is being great. Well, I am officially going to sign a waiver because when my Mom lived at an assisted living facility, I witnessed a fellow resident spitting in people’s food, and my Mom wanted to intervene, but I waited to get an attendant and tattled. Overworked, underpaid, but also a familiar phenomenon. How many school administrations only intervene when the bully gets their just desserts? The home does not even have a smokers apron! Does New Zealand not have regulations? (Don’t stop, won’t stop being a lawyer: New Zealand’s health board bans smoking.)
The best part of “The Rule of Jenny Pen” is the pairing of Ashcroft’s direction and Gretchen Peterson’s editing. The loss of time or “blips” that the Judge suffers are more evocative and ratchet up the stakes. Early in the film, they do too good a job of making the Judge into an unreliable protagonist that it seemed possible that he was delusional, and Dave does not exist. Cinematographer Matt Henley had so much fun playing with color—the red light, the red curtains, all the better to make Jenny’s empty sockets seem to glow with evil kindling an inner fire. They build so much tension in the way that a crowded, chaotic film suddenly feels still as Dave and the Judge stare at each other like a couple of gunslingers waiting for the clock to strike 12.
Stuck in the crossfire is the Judge’s roommate, Tony Garfield (George Henare), a former Maori local legend who had no choice but to bend the knee. Racism does not stop at the nursing home’s door so like the women residents, Dave reserves an extra special sauce of cruelty to certain demographics. As the story reaches the denouement, it becomes obvious that the story may have been better if Tony was the protagonist though because he has fewer physical and mental ailments than the Judge, the Judge’s defiance is more riveting whereas Tony’s rebellion would seem obvious considering he is the only other resident who has the physical odds in his favor compared to everyone else. The Judge is a jerk to everyone, including Tony, but they soon bond over their common enemy.
“The Rule of Jenny Pen” has a ticking clock. The Judge does not have a lot of time to engage in a showdown with Dave. Also the story toys with the idea of Dave being vaguely supernatural with a pan shot of staff photographs, which feels like an homage to “The Shining” (1980), but seems to lose interest in the idea soon after implying it. The story goes on too long, and there is nothing wrong with a short story being converted to a film with a shorter run time.
“The Rule of Jenny Pen” enjoys the torture a bit more than it should, but it also works during the quiet moments. It is universally relatable the rest and calm that comes over a community when the lone mood killer is absent. It is that peace, more than ego, that is the movie’s goal. In a battle of wits, only one person can be the victor, but when the rule of law is perverted, if people band together to protect themselves and their home, a functioning society can exist even under the worst circumstances.
