Swallow review: A young trophy housewife finds herself pregnant and suffocating under her overbearing husband and his family in this clever and stylishly told quirky drama.
Hunter (Haley Bennett) is a meek young housewife. She strives for perfection in every aspect of her life, always dressing immaculately and keeping her super stylish house to a museum-level pristine standard. Her life though isn’t entirely her own as she’s controlled by, not only her wealthy husband, but by her in-laws too. Hunter seems to be surviving in this existence until she discovers she is pregnant and beings to swallow various household items. As her compulsions lead her to ingest an increasingly more dangerous array of things, Hunter finds her perfect life unravelling before her eyes. Can she get her addiction under control, or will it be yet another external factor to which she succumbs?
Directed by Carlo Mirabella-Davis, Swallow is a sumptuous feast for the viewer. The visuals are expensively lush, the sound an auditory delight, the story whimsically fantastical, and the central performance stunning. There’s little to fault with the film, which when you consider it to be Mirabella-Davis’ feature film debut, is quite the accomplishment.
Given the sensationalist imagery conjured up, on paper Swallow easily sounds like a horror film. However, the execution and narrative content actually morph the idea into a film more akin to a relationship drama. Whilst watching, it felt that Swallow has much more in common with a film such as Room than it did anything else. Rather than focus on Hunter’s bizarre condition, we hone in on her home-life. As we find out later on, Hunter has been through a lot in her young life, but has always shied away from confrontations. This has led her to start suffocating in her ‘perfect’ life due to husband Richie (Austin Stowell) and his overbearing parents. She turns to swallowing things as a form of control, one that some escalates into an addiction. It’s the only thing in her life that she can control and in doing so, through her disorder, she learns the necessary skills to break away. The condition is handled in a very mature manner and, given that it is a real phenomena that people suffer from, highlights a very real reason to suffer from.
Mirabella-Davis demonstrates a lot of restraint in terms of what we do and don’t see. Mature in approach, he doesn’t show anything that we don’t need to see. Swallow could all too easily have ventured into gross-out territory and been horrific, but Mirabella-Davis knows exactly when to pull the camera away. We never see Hunter actually swallow anything, and yet in the way that the scenes are framed, it you feel like you do, just without the yuck factor. A simple spot of blood here, and a strained facial expression, is all that is needed.
In Bennett, Mirabella-Davis has found the perfect leading lady. Best known to most as playing the object of Emily Blunt’s obsession in The Girl on the Train, here Bennett plays a very different character, transforming in front of our very eyes. When we first meet Hunter she is this husky-voiced, overly polite, little mouse. Glimpses of the real Hunter, trapped underneath the vast layers of expensive silks and cashmere’s, are only seen in the immediacy of a swallowing episode. Here, Hunter is completely unburdened, and for a fleeting time, free. Her obsession to achieve this feeling is what takes her down the dangerous path. Her addiction drives her to become more feral and feisty, traits that her spouse and in-laws are not happy with, and they take drastic actions to curb this behaviour and it’s from here that Bennett really gets to have fun with her character.
Everything in Swallow combines to reinforce Hunter’s emotional journey. Visually, the set design and costumes reinforce the refined taste and vast richness that Hunter has married into. The house is immaculate and straight out of a home living catalogue. The camerawork reflects Hunters imposed meek nature and is, for the most part, quite static. As with Hunter, the camera only truly begins to spark to life when resting on one of the items that Hunter is either about to swallow, or has previously swallowed. These shots have an odd, almost loving, feel to them. The items are given an instant fetish quality. The theme of reflecting Hunter is also followed through with the score. Most of the film is quiet, almost silent enough to hear a pin drop, highlighting the lack of life and vibrancy in the homestead. What is slightly different with the score though is that it is the moments prior to a swallowing episode that are the most boisterous, and it amplifies Hunter’s inner turmoil.
With Swallow, Mirabella-Davis bursts onto the scene as an accomplished director whom you need to keep a close eye on. Bennett shines brighter than we’ve seen before, and with such a beautifully crafted and thoughtfully acted film now on her resume, we can only hope it leads to more greatness.
Swallow was reviewed at Arrow Video Frightfest Halloween 2019. Swallow arrives on limited edition Blu-ray via Second Sight on 22nd November 2021.
Swallow
Summary
Sheer cinematic perfection, it’s hard to find a debut feature as expertly constructed as this.
