'The Ones Below' : Below the Standards of British Cinema.

So this review is going to be a polar opposite to the last one. Hail, Caesar! seemed to get generally negative reviews despite being a great film (in my opinion), and The Ones Below has been getting very positive reviews to which I can't say I agree with. The trailer for The Ones Below makes the film look incredible without a doubt, however I was very disappointed; when it comes to something like this which is supposed to simply be a piece of thrilling entertainment, it's disappointingly one dimensional which is such a shame because its clear the film had so much potential. The story was no doubt the strongest element to the film, with the weakest elements being the poor directing and acting style, poor set design and the general predictable nature of the film. Clémence Poésy, plays mother-to-be Kate who are living the top half of a duplex with her husband Justin, played by Stephen Campbell Moore. Apprehensive about their downstairs neighbours,who have just moved in, they avoid them until Kate discovers that Teresa, played by Laura Birn, is equally far along with her pregnancy. They swiftly become friends and she invites Teresa and her intimidating husband Jon, played by David Morrissey, upstairs for dinner. Though friction with conflicting personalities initially rustles tensions, it's an unbearable tragedy at the dinner's end that sparks the film's ultimate story of parental paranoia in the vein of Roman Polanski's memorable motifs on women in apartments.

As aforementioned, the story is definitely the strongest element to The Ones Below however it just wasn't able to come across through film. The relationship between the two main female characters is awkward from the beginning. Their characters were clearly made to contrast each other so much so that even what they wear completely oppose one another. As Birn's character often wears brightly coloured clothes and Poésy's character wears nothing but bland and conservative colours. And so their forced friendship feels unnatural. The dinner party scene is the beginning of where things seem to get out of hand.  The two couples are brought together in an uncomfortable atmosphere, due to the fact that the scene escalates quickly into a loud and over acted row. Scott Tobias wrote in his article for Variety, and alluded to this scene saying: "The dinner party carries the awkward tenor of people gathering more out of obligation than camaraderie." One element to the story that was completely unnecessary was the inclusion of Kate's mother as she was only in two scenes. I feel maybe her character played a more significant role throughout the screenwriting process, but was cut out of most scenes for convenience and also left in for convenience to tie up loose ends in the plot and in doing this, the film tries too hard to cover all grounds, as it shoehorns in this subplot regarding Kate's relationship with her parents. The film often defies logic for the sake of an empty gravitas.

Dinner Scene in The Ones Below

The cinematography for The Ones Below wasn't anything spectacular. I didn't get any sort of feel for individuality or style. There's not an inch of the frame wasted as they try desperately to make this two story narrative cinematic.Spending money on lights and cranes which are just used for unmotivated movement remove the film of a human grounding that it's begging for. The colour scheme used throughout the film played and significant role however, and it made sense. It works, and it's thoroughly attractive, but it's almost too full and vibrant, not reflecting the rough tone that the film should have. Patrick Smith described the use of colour in his article for The Telegraph saying: "Production designer Francesa Balestra Di Mottola (I Am Love) kits out Jon and Teresa’s flat in garish, childlike primary colours, as opposed to the rustic, bohemian feel of Justin and Kate’s place."
It does offer this reflection of how Kate feels later on as it grows more rugged and desperate, but it doesn't stitch together in a way that really puts you in her head, and by that point it's too late.

Laura Birn in The Ones Below

Rather than put blame on the actors in the film for the average performances; I feel it is due to bad direction. It is very easy to tell that director David Farr has gained most of his experience in the theater, as some of the performances became very exaggerated and melodramatic were it was completely unnecessary.Throughout the whole dinner sequence, Morrisey's eyes are shrouded in shadows as if the idea of his menacing nature couldn't have been more subtly communicated.  Smith wrote in the article for The Telegraph describing the Farr's direction in acting styles between the two main female characters, "He conveys Kate’s mental state with expert precision, cajoling an unshowy performance of quiet fragility from Poésy, who lulls viewers into thinking that she might have lost her mind. Less impressive, however, is Birn, who seems to view every line she’s tossed as an opportunity to vamp up the role’s melodrama – it grates." For the film to attempt a subtle approach to story telling, the acting completely contradicts this. To put it simply, the acting most definitely needed to be toned down.

Clémence Poésy and Stephen Campbell Moore in The Ones Below

Overall, The Ones Below was reminiscent of mix between We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) meets The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992). From the beginning, I could predict what was going to happen in the end, and the film was not subtle, which it tried so hard to be, when laying out hints to the conclusion. I just expected much better things from well resourced British cinema that doesn't resort to appealing to the least perceptive people in the room. And at best, the rating I would give this would be two stars out of five. The story had so much potential, but as I previously stated, it didn't translate well into film; if the screenplay was adapted into a novel I would definitely be interested, that way there would be much more opportunities for elements that felt rushed and underdeveloped: like Kate's mother's character. I'll end on another quote from Tobias's article in the Variety, as I feel it perfectly depicts the essence of the film: "Though Farr and d.p. Ed Rutherford do their best to cast an atmospheric pallor over Kate and Justin’s apartment, “The Ones Below” lacks the sustained menace of living a thin wall — or, in this case, a hardwood floor — away from hostile figures."