Review: Nancy
Nancy, the title character of Christina Choe's riveting and well-assured directorial debut, is further evidence that Andrea Riseborough is one of the greatest and most underrated actresses working today. As Nancy, she delivers a tour de force that lays bare all the character's complexities whilst maintaining a raw and enigmatic quality so necessary to both Nancy the character and Nancy the film.
Nancy is a thirtysomething woman living with and caring for her mother (Ann Dowd), who has Parkinson's Disease. Nancy is an aspiring short story writer with a glove compartment full of rejection letters. To get by, she works as a temp at a local dentist's office, where she regales her disinterested co-workers with tales of her holiday in North Korea; even with photographic evidence, it's fairly clear that this is pure fiction on her part. She also maintains a blog in which she poses as a mother who has recently lost a child. It is through this blog that she makes contact with John Leguizamo's Jeb, himself recently bereaved, sympathetic of her plight, but later repelled by her pretence.
By this point, viewers are well-acquainted with Nancy's predilection for manipulating the facts of her life. Yet it is still a shock when, after her mother passes and she sees a news report featuring a picture of what a girl who disappeared 30 years ago might look like today, Nancy reaches out to the girl's still-grieving parents, Leo (Steve Buscemi) and Ellen (J. Smith-Cameron), and tells them that she believes herself to be their missing daughter. Ellen is suitably shocked and sceptical but, when she looks at the photograph that Nancy sent of herself, she can't help but see the resemblance; her hopes are reignited and she invites Nancy to come and meet with her and Leo. Leo, wary of having his wife's heart broken again, welcomes her but hangs on to his doubts as they begin to investigate her claims.
One of the most remarkable things about the film is how it sustains its suspenseful ambiguity. Though one strongly believes that this is another one of Nancy's wish-fulfillment manipulations, there's a "what if?" that lurks in the back of one's mind. Nancy's derangement is disturbing and disturbingly relatable, in much the same way that you root for and sympathise with Tom Ripley despite his homicidal tendencies. Nancy is starved for connection, craving to be seen and acknowledged, and to escape the confines of her life. Choe emphasises this by transitioning from a boxy aspect ratio into a more expansive frame when Nancy meets Leo and Ellen.
Though Choe is perhaps too opaque at times in the intent of her end game - is the film meant to be a treatise on loneliness, on family, on class envy, on a type of emotional justice - Nancy remains a riveting watch due to the quality of filmmaking and performances.
Nancy
Directed by: Christina Choe
Written by: Christina Choe
Starring: Andrea Riseborough, Steve Buscemi, Ann Dowd, John Leguizamo, J. Smith-Cameron
