SMILE

US, 2022, 116 minutes, Colour.

Sosie Bacon, Kyle Gellner, Caitlyn Stasey, Robin Weigert, Jessie T.Usher, Kal Penn, Judy Reyes, Rob Morgan.

Directed by Parker Finn.

Smile is a beguiling word. And many smiles themselves are beguiling. But, this is not the kind of smile in the title of this film. Rather, there is that other aspect of a smile, a grin, sometimes a fixed grin which might look immediately cheerful but is ultimately sinister.

There are some suggestions that Smile is something of a horror film. That is not quite exact. Rather, it can be described as “eerie”, atmospheric, with some dramatic and grim moments, moments of blood and gore, but the film is more of a psychological portrait of a young woman, becoming more and more disturbed. (This description of “eerie” does more justice to this kind of film which can be seen by a wider audience than devotees of horror, blood and gore, because they create tension, apprehension, a recent example of which was the abduction thriller, The Black Phone.)

The central character is a young doctor, a therapist, eager to work, overworking, in a central hospital, interviewing patients with mental problems. She is called back to interview a young woman, very much disturbed, a PhD student whose professor has killed himself in front of her. Then, with a grimacing grin, rather than a smile, she kills herself in front of the doctor.

The doctor is played by Sosie Bacon (daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick), an intense young woman who is disturbed by memories of her mother killing herself and her not trying to intervene. She interacts with her sister who lives a comfortable life, clashing with her about their mother. She also has a fiance, a comparatively passive character rather than understanding and supportive.

Because the doctor is so preoccupied with what has happened to her, she wants to investigate the background of the doctor who killed himself, visiting his widow, upsetting her, and then going to visit her former boyfriend, a police detective, and asking him to get information, photos…

What ensues is the discovery of a whole chain of such deaths, the smile, the suicides, and seemingly the passing on of a curse. And the suggestion is of the paranormal, something of the presence of an evil entity that is continually passed on.

Ultimately, the doctor has to confront her past, revisit the family house, experience what happened with her mother. And an unexpected (perhaps expected) finale.

1. An eerie film? Touches of horror? Touches of gore? Realism? The paranormal?
2. The New Jersey settings, the hospital, exteriors and interiors, offices? Apartments? Stores? Therapy sessions? The surrounding countryside? The house in the country? The musical score?
3. The title, cheery? The victims and their sinister smile? The range of smiles? And the culmination?
4. Rose, her story? Working as a therapist, overworking, her relationship with Trevor, but preoccupied? The encounter with Carl, his mutterings about death? The encounter with the Laura, her story, the professor and his suicide, her smile, cutting her throat? The effect on Rose? Dr Desai and his concern, Rose and the time off? Her visiting her therapist, the questions, her answers, the dinner with her sister and brother-in-law, their money talk, her reaction? Preoccupied, listening to the tape of Laura over and over again?
5. Trevor, the engagement, rather quiet in the background, Rose turning on him? His calling in the therapist?
6. Rose, her dreams, her dead mother, her hallucinations, characters smiling?
7. The confrontation with her sister, the conversation about their mother, her mental condition, Rose at home, her sister leaving, Rose and her dying mother, not getting help? Continued guilt?
8. The crisis at the party, Rose buying the gift, the cat lost, the cat in the box, everybody’s reaction? Her falling through the glass table?
9. Joel, role as police, the interrogation, revelation of the past relationship, her contacting him, the various files, the professor who killed himself, his witnessing the suicide, at the service station, the man with the shears, Joel discovering the train of suicides and deaths? The survivor? Going to see him in the prison, his reaction, the revelation that was only by killing someone else that the curse could be avoided?
10. The pressure on Rose, to kill herself, to kill someone else, the possibility of killing Carl, in the hospital, the doctor’s reaction?
11. The visit of the therapist, Trevor, the questions, the deathly smile, the hallucination?
12. The return to the family home, the presence of her mother, the appearance of her mother, the flashbacks to her as a little girl with her mother, the present, the monstrous mother, Rose, decisions, the fire?
13. Rose outside the house, audience relief? Joel and his arrival – and Rose and her smile, to kill herself, the consequences for Joel?
14. The realism in the plot development? Evil entity? The paranormal?