By Peg Aloi

Maybe director Marielle Heller decided that Night slutThe unusual premise had to be balanced with a decent narrative style.

night bitch, Director: Marielle Heller. Screening at the Coolidge Corner Theater.

Amy Adams in Night slut. Photo: Searchlight Pictures

Marielle Heller’s debut as a screenwriter and director began in 2015 with the critically acclaimed film The Diary of a Teenage Girla darkly comic coming-of-age story based on the graphic novel by Phoebe Gloeckner, who co-wrote the adapted screenplay with Heller. Next came 2018 Can you ever forgive me? The film was adapted by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty from Lee Israel’s autobiography and received three Academy Award nominations. The following year, Heller achieved even greater recognition A beautiful day in the neighborhoodwith Tom Hanks in a standout performance as Fred Rogers and Matthew Rhys as the reluctant, concerned journalist who interviews him. With her latest film, Heller continues the themes of her previous works: chaotic human behavior, the limits and struggles of a creative life, and redemption that overcomes feelings of regret.

Adapted from Rachel Yoder’s novel, Night slut In the lead role, Amy Adams plays a 42-year-old woman who has chosen the life of a housewife instead of her previous career as an artist. The film begins with the unnamed “Mother” (Adams) standing in her kitchen drinking coffee while her adorable son plays at her feet. As she stares into space while preparing breakfast, a voice-over monologue hints at a rich inner life as she laments a daily life marked by exhaustion and boring routines. “Husband” (Scoot McNairy) is a nice guy, but he travels a lot for work, doesn’t know exactly how the coffee machine works, and doesn’t help around the house nearly as often as he could. Furthermore, the husband only notices his wife’s existential crisis when things come to a head. As Mother goes through her days—filled with cooking, cleaning, and running errands—her inner monologue includes elements of frustration, anger, regret, and increasingly morbid fantasies. She spends most days alone with her young son. Her other social contacts are limited to interactions with other young mothers and their children, as well as occasional conversations with the local librarian (a great cameo from Jessica Harper), who may know more about Mother’s predicament than she initially lets on. Mother finds the other mothers quite boring and refuses to befriend them, even though she is desperately lonely and longs for stimulating conversation: all they have in common is being mothers. Mother begins to believe that she may be losing touch with reality. She then feels connected to the dogs in the park and eventually believes she is turning into a dog.

At this point, the film can’t quite decide whether it wants to be a socially provocative drama or a domestic comedy with a touch of magical realism. It can’t quite achieve the former, as its cultural commentary is marred by the rather dull, upscale suburban setting. If the latter is the case, I would have liked to have seen it venture further into the fantasy world and delve deeper into the animalistic implications of the mother’s transformation. I wanted to learn more about Heller’s metaphorical juxtapositions of creativity and wildness, of family life and oppression, to find out what drives the evolution from woman to dog. Instead, the narrative became contrived and clumsy, the human-animal overlay drawing attention without saying much. Still, the dialogue is well written, no matter how lackluster and inadequately realized the vision is. The mother’s voice-over speeches are often very funny, thought-provoking and sometimes shocking. The bond between mother and son is tender and sweet, which makes the protagonist’s dilemma even more heartbreaking (though it doesn’t cause the film to veer into darker emotional territory). The parallel mother-child and human-dog connections have also been rarely researched; Maternal love is also non-verbal, unconditional and wild in its strength. Nevertheless, the emotional tension is palpable, combined with a feeling for fate and for paths not taken. The mother must be present during the child’s formative years as she feels her own youth fading, sees opportunities pass her by, and fears that her artistic talent may fail her. Eventually she decides to follow her creative path, and the catharsis is liberating.

Amy Adams delivers a bubbly, nuanced performance as an intelligent, vibrant artist who consistently sticks to her guns to keep the peace at home. The escalating tensions between mother and husband are well portrayed by Adams and McNairy, an average actor who effectively conveys the character’s loving cluelessness (McNairy was also great as the almost wordless Woody Guthrie in ” A complete unknown). The film ends up having a Hallmarks feel to it, and that’s disappointing. Maybe Heller decided that Night slutThe unusual premise had to be balanced with decent storytelling tropes. Still, the film is funny, inspiring, witty, and at times quite brave in its exploration of contemporary motherhood. But I wanted Night slut to dig a little deeper, run a little further, break free from his chains, loosen his collar and howl, unfettered, unleashed, instead of letting convention hold him in check.

Peg Aloi is a former film critic for Boston Phoenix and a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Critics Choice Awards and the Alliance for Women Film Journalists. She taught film studies in Boston for over a decade. She has written about film, television and culture for web publications such as Time, Vice, Polygon, hustle and bustle, Dread Center, microphone, Orlando Weekly, Refinery29And Fucking disgusting. Her blog, The Witching Hour, can be found on Substack.