These elements are used to powerful, frustrating effect in the new thriller Kindred<\/em>, in which pregnant Charlotte (Tamara Lawrance) is faced with the sudden death of her boyfriend, Ben (Edward Holcroft), and is coerced into living with Ben\u2019s overbearing family (Fiona Shaw, Jack Lowden) until she gives birth. Kindred<\/em> is effectively moody and yell-inducing, but its cruelty takes it from a chilling-but-fun experience to a bitter and uncomfortable one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the first moments, director Joe Marcantonio (who co-wrote the script with Jason McColgan) lets us know that something\u2019s off with Ben\u2019s family. Ben\u2019s mother Margaret (Shaw) and milquetoast stepbrother Thomas (Lowden) live in a decaying manor that Ben is expected to eventually take over. When Charlotte and Ben announce plans to move to Australia, Margaret goes ballistic. After finding out Charlotte\u2019s pregnant, her weaselly doctor (Anton Lesser) tells Margaret, leaving the conflicted Charlotte with no choice but to keep the baby. After Ben\u2019s death, Margaret and Thomas force Charlotte to live with them, first gaslighting her into staying, then slowly restricting her more and more. After an escape attempt, they lock her into a single room, citing concerns for Charlotte\u2019s mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marcantonio does a solid, even-handed job of slowly increasing the film\u2019s tension with each new instance of Margaret and Thomas\u2019 obsessive control. He\u2019s helped immensely by a production design team that turns the manor house into a creepy, rotting relic full of peeling wallpaper and moth-eaten taxidermy, morphing over time from Miss Havisham-esque disrepair into a hellish prison. As Margaret, Shaw gets to sink her teeth into a creepy, acidically manipulative role, sparring well with Lawrance\u2019s determined-but-bewildered Charlotte. Lawrance is a fine surrogate for the audience\u2019s frustration, as she rails against, then tries to work around, every weird new obstacle or conspiracy put in her way. The twists of Kindred<\/em> aren\u2019t terribly surprising, but they\u2019re delivered in such a way that it\u2019s impossible not to react.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s fatally lacking in Kindred<\/em> is a sense of catharsis. Charlotte never gives the audience any reason to think she deserves the treatment being visited on her. Margaret and Thomas\u2019 machinations are so baldly patriarchal and abusive that the only satisfying end to the story is for them to get their comeuppance. Charlotte\u2019s attempts to save herself and her baby, however, are never rewarded with success, and in some cases require out-of-character behavior on the part of people Charlotte tries to ask for help. At a certain point, it starts to feel like all that frustrating build-up is the only thing the film has up its sleeve, and while the ending is chilling, it also seems unnecessarily mean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kindred<\/em> is powered by a strong command of tone and some solid performances \u2013 it\u2019s especially great to see Shaw getting to ham it up. However, the movie doesn\u2019t fully embrace its paranoid potential, or explore the emotional reality of its premise. It contains some of the gratifying \u201cI told you so\u201d moments that let audiences really buy into the drama, but lacks payoff. The result is a discomfiting sinking feeling that belies a lack of sympathy for its extremely sympathetic main character. And the ending leaves an unpleasant aftertaste, for reasons that don\u2019t really justify its existence. “Kindred” is out in select theaters, digital, and VOD on Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/kindred2-scaled-1024x429.jpg\")
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