Made during the pandemic, Alone with You tackles a tricky relationship in this mostly single situation psychological thriller. Make-up artist Charlie (played by co-writer and co-director Emily Bennett) lives with her high-profile photographer girlfriend Simone (Emma Myles). After being apart whilst Simone works on a shoot overseas, Charlie is ecstatic to discover Simone is on her way back home. Charlie then decides to put together a surprise romantic welcome home, but somehow finds herself trapped within the walls of her apartment. Unable to contact Simone, and unable to get out, Charlie is forced to confront issues that she had been trying to ignore.
Given the constraints of the filming conditions, Alone with You having been shot during Los Angeles’ lockdown, the concept presented works well. Charlie trapped inside her house mirrors situations that millions found themselves in last year. However, here it’s a little more literal. Rather than confine the story purely to Charlie all by herself, the directing team of Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks, introduce a handful of other characters with whom Charlie interacts with via technology. She spends time catching up with her mother (a cool little cameo role from Barbara Crampton) and friend Thea (played by Bliss star Dora Madison) via video calls. Interactions with Simone however, are suspiciously absent and lead the viewer to figure out why exactly this is. These little moments with Charlie’s mother and friends give further insight into the character and her relationship. Thea is against the relationship, Charlie having essentially retreated from her former life and spending every waking moment possible with Simone. Charlie’s friend makes several valid points and one can’t help but think that Thea’s advice should have been listened to at a much earlier stage.
Bennett has a history in acting, although much of her work has either been on short films or in supporting roles. In Alone with You, Bennett commands the film. The entire story is built around Charlie and Bennett is the perfect vessel for the character. Bennett’s performance is considered and absorbing, luring the viewer into Charlie’s world and presenting just enough mystique to keep them guessing. It’s a quiet and intricate performance, one that may draw comparisons to that of Morfydd Clark in Saint Maud for all the right reasons. It takes a lot for an actor to hold a film at the best of times, not least when they are the only person in front of the camera, but Bennett is more than equal to the task.
Both Crampton and Madison are great in their supporting roles. Crampton has some cutting catty remarks about Charlie’s work, with Madison stepping back into Bliss mode to convey drunk. Madison also has the added bonus of having some gorgeous bi-sexual lighting to work with. The interactions with both are shot in a naturalistic manner; it’s so easy for filmmakers to strive so hard for perfection that they iron out kinks that make aspects work, but there’s no such issue here. Bennett and Brooks let the Zoom call between mother and daughter be marred by technical issues – mainly due to the mother’s inability to work the technology. They also ensure that Thea is never properly framed, she’s always just an eye, a mouth or just too close to the camera. Both decisions mirror reality, and by focussing on getting these little details working, the viewer then doesn’t mind when Alone with You begins its descent into the madder side of its story.
At some point, time goes awry, it’s barely perceptible at first, but soon builds. Like Charlie, the viewer loses all track of time. It quickly becomes unclear how long Charlie has been trapped in the purgatory state, waiting for her beloved to return home. This is a cinematic visualisation of the saying that a moment can feel like an eternity when you’re apart from the one that you love. The walls then seem to shift, the layout of the apartment becomes confused, reflecting Charlie’s own mental state. Even the photographs on the wall begin to distort, the images within them juddering, reinforcing Charlie’s inability to maintain a grasp on reality.
Despite being made independently of one another, there are several commonalities between Alone with You and Frida Kempff’s Knocking, which itself was an adaptation of Johan Theorin’s novel. It’s a little strange that both have ended up debuting into the world around the same time, but luckily there are enough differences to allow both to co-exist rather than compete with one another.
Alone with You
Summary
An intricate dissection of how individuals shape their reality to fit their own ideals, Alone with You works on several layers and is certain to encourage a few watch-throughs to really get to the heart of everything that Bennett and Brooks are trying to convey.
Alone with You was reviewed at Grimmfest 2021.
