Movie Review: “Bitch” – A Love-Hate Relationship, Part Two

[yasr_overall_rating]
 

A woman snaps and assumes the psyche of a vicious dog as her checked-out, philandering husband attempts to keep the family together.

The title, “Bitch,” sets an obvious tone of aggression and my emotional hackles immediately raise at the derogatory implications. The story is about a woman who has an emotional breakdown and is afflicted with the psyche of an angry female dog (since anything angry and female is obviously a “bitch,” unrelated to any other biological causes). Fortunately, the storyteller does grant her a modicum of reasonableness since her husband is grotesquely negligent of her emotional well-being and also practically flaunting an affair in her face.

Bill Hart (Jason Ritter) is handsome and completely oblivious to the responsibilities of his domestic life. His wife, Jill (Marianna Palka, also writer and director), is pretty, but she’s no longer the drop-dead gorgeous 20-something with whom Bill skips conference meetings for fellatio. They have four children, all in private schools with four schedules of insanity. Everything about Bill repulses us while everything about Jill implores us to understand her. In fact, everything about the setup of the plot is so blatant and abrasive that it might be easy to overlook how utterly relatable the story is.

True, the plot is oddly twisted with human snarling and manicures clawing at the basement door. But the opening scene seeps into your pores with gasps of terror and desperation mixed with the creaking of leather and toes scuffling to hold on, but also to let go. It’s right there in your hands, the weight of the need to be noticed, to be heard, to matter, to be set free.

The story is truly told in a mesmerizing way, with overlapping circles of perception and layers of emotion coming into play. Whether it’s the child wondering if his mom will always behave like a dog, or a husband facing the awful reality that he crushed his wife into disappearing over the brink of a howling rage, the emotional picture is broad and also detailed with nuance. There is one scene toward the end of the film that is particularly noteworthy: Bill takes his wife to a dog park and shows her that it’s okay for her to be who she needs to be. He even gets down on the ground like a dog and plays with the other dogs…like a dog. It’s so playful and bittersweet, so deeply hopeful and yet also tinged with despair that she is still trapped, still not her own, still not free.

This film was surprisingly similar in style and psychology as another film which I reviewed recently. You can read that review here if you like. Admittedly, I puzzled over my love-hate response, strongly preferring “Bitch” over the other. They both demonstrate intelligent storytelling. They both make strong deviations from the normal human experience of loss. They are both jarring and mostly uncomfortable stories that one is compelled to see to the end just to know how it will end. They do have completely different resolutions, one being horror-filled while “Bitch” offers a thread of hope. But I honestly think the biggest difference between the two is the demonstration of emotion. In this regard, these two films are on opposite ends of the spectrum. So, in my “expertise,” I remembered once again, that opinion is nothing more than the muddled musings of perception, expectation, and one’s emotional framework. So don’t just take my word for it, go see both films and decide for yourself which one you will love and which one you will hate.

In theaters & VOD Friday, November 10th