Elizabeth Moss shines in female led thriller - Shirley REVIEW
Author Shirley Jackson was way ahead of her time and her persona is depicted exuberantly in this fictional tale starring Elizabeth Moss.
Shirley Jackson was an underrated genius of her time. Over her two decade writing career, she amassed six novels, two memoirs and over two hundred short stories. Her novels are known to be dark, unnerving and gritty, which both gave her an edge and criticism at the time of her career. A woman in the 1940s being able to make a living off of writing was a rare thing, and although Shirley was successful, her declining health and struggle with mental health meant that functioning outside the world of her stories proved difficult. Growing up, she found it difficult to interact with other children, fulfilling social experiences with writing instead, much to her mother’s distaste who favoured her brother over Shirley. This made her mother horrified at the fact that her daughter wouldn’t grow up to be a typical woman of the Post World War II era, a theme prevalent in Josephine Decker’s Shirley. Shirley Jackson met a bitter end, dying in her sleep the age of 48. She was a frequent smoker, which led to heart problems and chronic asthma, leading her to her death in 1965.
A couple, Fred and Rose Nemser (Logan Lerman and Odessa Young) have come to stay at the home of Shirley Jackson (Elizabeth Moss) and her husband, Professor Stanley Hyman (Michael Sthulbarg). Fred Nemser is to start teaching as a professor at the local college, using Pr.Hyman as a mentor whilst staying at his home. From the get go, Shirley does not approve of the young couple’s presence at the house, making it clear that she resents Rose, who is pregnant with the couple’s first child. Rose is left in tears of embarrassment when Shirley brings up her pregnancy at the dinner table in front of Fred and Mr Hyman, for she is quite young to be a mother and should be in college. Shirley even expresses her views on this further by saying she “didn’t know [they] were having sluts at the dinner table”.
As time goes on, Rose is forced to spend more time at home, whilst Fred works at the college and manages its Shakespeare Society. This means spending more time with Shirley, who after some bitter sweet encouragement from her husband, has started to write again. Shirley’s become infatuated with a girl who's gone missing in the local area, believing this girl to be the protagonist in her next best seller (which is the basis of Jackson’s novel Hangsaman) but can’t quite see the girl’s face in her imagination. It's only when she starts to spend more time with Rose that she realises who this character could be.
Shirley feeds off the mellow, unfulfilling life Rose lives to write her story. Rose is both flattered and a little scared of this idea, and the pair of them seem to bond overnight. Rose has finally found a little purpose in life, something more entertaining than being a mother or wife to Fred. Something happens when the two start to grow closer, as they drift further from their own husbands. They liberate one another and the idea of Rose moving away once Fred finds them a home seems out of the question.
The entire world of this film is well structured and so fulfilling in every way. The characters are bold and three dimensional, with each of them having a significance in the film that drives the story forward. Shirley Jackson is the opposite to most women in the 40s; boisterous, outspoken, bold and most importantly, intelligent. There isn’t a thought in her mind that isn’t her own and despite her husband’s relentless criticisms and negative comments, she doesn’t let them stunt her true personality. She has a desirable assertive energy, that’s powerful for a woman to have especially in the 1940s. Whatever you may think or say about Shirley Jackson, she truly won’t care and will go through with she desires most, which is shown throughout the film. Shirley uses Rose as a pupil, someone she can mentor and make realise that there’s more to life than being a wife and mother. Shirley gets the satisfaction of being Rose’s teacher whilst Rose feels liberated in Shirley’s company.
It was refreshing to see the amount of women working on Shirley with the director, 1st AD, 2nd AD and writers all being women. Director Josephine Decker studied at Princeton University, going on to make several independent short and feature films. Shirley premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year, winning the U.S Dramatic Special Jury Award in Auteur Filmmaking.
Shirley really is the start of something for Decker and many female screenwriters, authors and directors who resonate with Shirley Jackson and the unconventional, successful life she led.
