Review: The Little Stranger

What to say about The Little Stranger, a gothic drama that is more oppressively tedious than macabre? Adapted from Sarah Waters' 2009 novel, it would seem worth a watch considering that it is director Lenny Abrahamson's follow-up to his acclaimed and Oscar-winning drama, Room. Yet, despite some moments of intrigue, it never fully manifests into anything remotely interesting.

Domhnall Gleeson plays Dr. Faraday who, from the time he was a small boy, has been deeply in love with Hundreds Hill, a grand mansion in England's Warwickshire district where his mother once worked as a maid. A humble country boy, he was enchanted by its opulence to the point where he broke off an ornamental acorn from a mirror frame, an act which both infuriated and shamed his mother. Decades later, in the summer of 1948, Faraday finds himself back at Hundreds Hall to check in on a young maid named Betty (Liv Hill), who complains of stomach pain but, as he assesses, seems more distressed at having to live in such a large and nearly empty home.

Faraday is taken aback at the house's condition - once lavish, it is now in decay, a state mirrored in its longtime owners, the financially strapped Ayres family. There's forbidding matriarch Mrs. Ayres (Charlotte Rampling), who still carries the pain of losing her young daughter, Suki, who died many years ago. Rod (Will Poulter), a scarred RAF pilot, is the master of the house and has plans for a land sale; his mental state will soon be called in question. Lastly, there's the brainy Caroline (Ruth Wilson), who was summoned home to help care for Rod and to whom Faraday takes a shine.

Faraday finds himself willingly woven into their lives, though he is reminded that he is very much an outsider, especially during a dinner party in which the other attendees blithely note how he isn't one of their class. Yet the grateful relief on his face when Mrs. Ayres casually remarks that he is "one of us." It is also during that party where Caroline's dog uncharacteristically mauls the daughter of one of the guests and Faraday is called into action. It's but the first of many strange occurrences - scratchings of the letter "S" appearing on the walls, a mysterious burning smell, service bells going off for no reason. Could it be that Suki is haunting the family, or is this an allegory of how class resentment can fester and poison not only those who harbour it but also its targets?

Whatever the case, The Little Stranger is such a suffocatingly ponderous film that one becomes benumbed to the few genuine frights it has up its sleeve. The film is too contained for its own good; one is never completely convinced of the Ayres' emotional fraying despite the cast's best efforts. Technically, the film is elegant yet there's both a sterility and mustiness to the whole enterprise that further exacerbates the turgidity.

The Little Stranger

Directed by: Lenny Abrahamson

Written by: Lucinda Coxon; based on the novel by Sarah Waters

Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Will Poulter, Charlotte Rampling, Anna Madeley, Josh Dylan, Lorne MacFadyen, Kate Phillips, Liv Hill