Brandy has to deal with a real Monster-In-Law, and so do we.
A few years ago, I enjoyed “I Care a Lot,” which starred Rosamund Pike as a conwoman who convinces the courts to grant her guardianship over elderly people whom she claims can’t take care of themselves. And they would end up in care facilities without contact from their loved ones. Well, if she came across a woman like Solange, then we would root for her to have her placed in those homes, or better yet, a mental hospital, because she is a religious freak, a racist, and an evil old woman, who makes life Hell for her family and for the audience.
“The Front Room,” the latest A24 movie, introduces us to her, and it ends up being one of the studio’s most Hellish experiences. It’s like a horror version of “Monster In-Law,” and that was already a bad movie to begin with. And it could also serve as a social satire based on the African-American themes presented here, but there are no laughs or terrors. Just somebody you thank God you aren’t related to.
Brandy Norwood plays a pregnant woman named Belinda, who is getting over the death of her first child and quitting her university job because of the recent unfair treatment. And given the circumstances of her maternity leave, her house is in financial trouble.
Her public defender husband Norman (Andrew Burnap) hates his stepmother Solange (Kathryn Hunter), who is so religious that believes she’s the Holy Spirit and has been an abusive mother to him in his youth. But when his father dies, his last will and testament requests that he and Belinda allow Solange to stay with them, in exchange for her life sayings. He knows he’s back in Hell, but she believes that their financial problems will be over, and that he should move on with his life.
Solange has arthritis, which means she has to take over the baby’s room downstairs, but later in the film, Belinda finds out she’s faking her illness. She also forces the couple to name their baby (and it’s a girl) after Belinda’s father Lawrence, and she will be known as Laurie. But soon Belinda begins to regret giving in to her wishes.
Solange continues to behave like a baby, crying for help, deliberately urinating and crapping herself, farting in Belinda’s face, and calling her “Belinder.” That’s why we eventually get a nauseating montage of toilet humor to the tune of “This Little Light of Mine.” And she’s also a racist and a manipulator, threatening to turn Norman against Belinda, but even he doesn’t fall for her dirty tricks.
Back to her claiming to be a Holy Spirit, and there are scenes that try to convince us of that, like how she prays and Belinda ends up having the baby simultaneously. If she was a saint, then she wouldn’t be lying, insulting, or tainting the livelihood of these people. And good people don’t give sinister looks to other people.
I suppose Norwood and Hunter give believable performances in the sense of a black woman and a religious racist living in the same house, and they’re both directed by Robert Eggers’ brothers Sam and Max. But why torture the audience through all these aggravating behaviors? The studio has produced brilliant horror films and will continue to do so, but “The Front Room” should go out the back door and never come back. Ever again.