Concussion is the
debut feature from director Stacie Passon. It is the story of forty-something
mother Abby (Robin Weigert) who – after receiving a blow to the head with a
baseball – realises that her life is going nowhere and she wants to find the
one thing in life that’s worth it. Feeling distanced from her high-flying wife
Kate (Julie Fain Lawrence), Abby sets herself up as an escort and begins a
series of encounters with a varied array of women.
The key to the film is Weigerts’ central performance, which
is terrific, perfectly capturing someone in a state of complete non-committal
and someone who is reaching for something more. The other characters all put in
decent performances but all are upstaged by her. All the characters and their
dialogue are written in such a way that you genuinely believe that these are
real people. This is something further enhanced by the fact that everyone in
the film actually looks like a normal
person and not just a bunch of over-glamorised Hollywood ‘babes’.
The love scenes themselves are a sight to behold, the
intimacy of the camera showing just the right amount but holding itself back in
just the right places to prevent the film from just becoming voyeuristic. All
of this is offset incredibly well by the alternation between a total lack of
music or a pulsing, powerful underlying musical score from Barb Morrison. The
cinematography throughout the film retains a cool iron grey, almost
photo-realistic feel that keeps the focus on the characters while also keeping
up the realistic appearance of the film.
One of the most surprising aspects of the film is the first
half, which gives the audience cause to laugh on several occasions, and – for
me at least – contained a lot more comedy than most self-proclaimed comedies
I’ve seen lately. The only problem is that this feels rather disjointed when
compared to the much more serious second half, and the scenes in-between waver
a little as the film tries to decide on which direction it wants to go. This
could be seen as a reflection of Abby’s uncertainty, but I’m not sure it’s
completely intentional. The film is also slightly too short, meaning that the
ending leaves you wanting just that little bit more time to fully comprehend
what’s going on.
Concussion is a
scorchingly erotic and powerfully intimate drama depicting a woman who wanders
seemingly aimlessly through life and the women either in her position or
growing up in a similar state all meeting in the middle to share brief but
life-altering moments together. It’s a film that isn’t afraid to show intimacy
between people that haven’t been ‘smoothed-out’ by Hollywood and treats a
well-developed, realistically depicted homosexual relationship with the same
level of attention and care as a heterosexual one, and for that it should be
applauded.
4 Stars
