5.5
Netflix

The "smug upper middle class twits have a dinner party/ meet up and all their secrets come spilling out" subgenre is a surprisingly sturdy one, from Mike Leigh's 70s yuppie satire ABIGAIL'S PARTY to Roman Polanski's Brooklyn-set CARNAGE and, more recently, Sally Potter's delightfully acidic THE PARTY. All of these films are absurdist, satirical and inherently theatrical in nature, as well as loaded with well-known character actors chewing the scenery with all their might. To their number can now be added THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA (a title which brings to mind Hitchcock's underrated farce THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY), a jet-black comedy-drama which adds to the hot-house, borderline hysterical mood by throwing in the tragic, dramatic suicide of one of the party-goers within the first half-hour, an act which sets off a series of recriminations amongst the others. The friend is the titular Jessica (Indira Varma), the glamorous black sheep of an otherwise (apparently) happily married group, a troubled soul whose constant air of drama has led to her friends trying to dissociate their messy pal from their otherwise perfect lives (even as they are somewhat fascinated by her). Naturally, because this film is entirely populated by horrendous, selfish arseholes, Jessica's demise sets her surviving friends off on a hare-brained scheme to move her body back to her own flat-- because if the body is found in the house of her friends this will potentially implode a crucial upcoming property sale, necessary in order to stave off bankruptcy.

It is well worth emphasising: the choices the characters make in this film make absolutely no sense whatsoever. The narrative hinges on nobody acting like a human being at any point; it also relies heavily upon a series of completely ridiculous escalations that fail to pass any sort of smell test (a couple of weirdly proactive police show up at the door for reasons which any person familiar with the British police will immediately call bullshit; a sudden visit from the buyer of the house; a sub-plot involving a pushy, autograph-hunting neighbour who keeps showing up). But the thing is that none of this particular matters-- the film is clearly intended to be heightened and silly and full of theatrical artifice. Going into THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA expecting something that makes logical sense and with character motivations all checking out is not the right attitude to have here. Instead it should be seen much more as a blistering satire on the selfishness of the upper middle classes, their moral emptiness and manipulative side coming roaring to the surface upon this unanticipated contact with actual tragedy. And on that account the film does a pretty good job: the film is funny, well-acted and, in places, gasp-inducingly dark. The cast-- a real whos-who of "ahh THAT person" character actors including Shirley Henderson an Alan Tudyk-- are also really good, putting in very obviously theatrical-style performances with extra slices of ham, but it suits the style of the film very well. However, the film runs badly out of steam as it heads toward its somewhat neat and tidy conclusion; it is also disappointing to note that the filmmakers seem to lose their nerve toward the end of the film, seeking to insert some (extremely late in the day) sense of morality into the characters in a way which feels totally at odds with the withering social commentary found in the rest of the film. The film's attempt to suddenly make us care about and empathise with the characters-- having spent the previous hour or so making us hate them-- simply doesn't work. It is also arguably unnecessary-- this is a satire! Just let us hate them! Anyway-- I thought this was not without its charms, but as I say the final third really didn't work for me.