WATCHER
UAR/US/Romania, 2022, 91 minutes, Colour.
Maika Monroe, Karl Glusman, Burn Gorman, Madalina Anea.
Directed by Chloe Okuno.
This is a 90 minute slow-Burn psychological thriller. Audiences who enjoy this kind of film will find this one satisfying. Those who want instant and all continuous action, will have to wait until the end!
The original screenplay for Watcher was set in Brooklyn. However, it has been transferred to Bucharest and filmed there. This makes quite a difference to the drama. The central character is Julia, who has married Francis, a businessman whose mother was Romanian and an opportunity arises in Romania for him to work there. Julia accompanies her husband. She is played by Maika Monroe. He is played by Karl Glusman. There watcher of the title is played by Burn Gorman, often sinister presence in films.
The audience identifies with Julia and, if they do not speak Romanian, they will share her difficulties in understanding and not understanding, and people speaking without reference to her, sometimes some translation, sometimes some explanations. This adds to her bewilderment in being in a strange country – and to the bewilderment of the audiences sharing her experience.
All seems normal enough. Julia wanders around the city, prepares a meal for her husband and his colleague and wife, goes to socials. She does become involved with some of the people on the floor, a landlady who is searching for her cat, noise from the adjacent apartment, a prostitute, Irena, who also works as a stripper. They become friends.
In the background are media reports about a serial killer.
The film is something of a reversal of Hitchcock’s Rear Window, the observer, the watcher, but the main focus is on Julia, more of the title of “Being Watched”. She experiences the watcher at a cinema (going into watch Audrey Hepburn in Charade), his presence in the supermarket, her waving to him and his waving back, finding him at the strip club as a cleaner, her fears, going to his apartment door in finding an old man answering, then seeing the watcher, his getting the police to accuse her of stalking him.
Julia becomes more paranoid, more wary. Ultimately, there is some violent action as she discovers Irena’s body, is attacked by the watcher, stabbed, finally confronting him.
A not unfamiliar scenario, but this one quietly achieves what it set out to do.
- The title? The focus on Weber as watcher, revealed as serial killer? The focus of the title, being watched, Julia observed?
- The original screenplay in Brooklyn, the effect of transferring to Bucharest, the issue of language, no subtitles, Julia not understanding except for a few words, the audience not understanding and sharing her difficulty? The sensitivity of the Romanians, others insensitive to Julia’s difficulty? The effect of bewilderment for Julia and for the audience?
- The cinema influences, the various thrillers of people looking out windows, observing? Hitchcock and Rear Window? But, this time, the action concerning the person being watched? The victim of the watcher?
- Julia, American, love for Francis, arriving in Bucharest, his job, her being at home, the difficulties with language, coping, going out, the streets, buying the Dracula statue, the neighbours, upsets, the landlady searching for Elvis the cat, the noise from Irena and her clients on the other side of the wall? Francis having his colleague and the wife to the meal, their talking, making jokes, her sensitivity, upset? Meeting Irena, their friendly talk, her background, support? Irena’s ex and his coming to the door? Her ignoring him?
- Julia, observing the watcher, in the opposite building, the silhouette, the light behind him, the curtain open? Her eventually waving, his waving back – and the consequences as he explains someone acknowledging him? At the cinema, his moving to the seat behind her, her leaving, the supermarket, his presence, upset, running out the door, escaping? Explaining to Francis, the police, looking at the surveillance footage? At the strip club and finding him as a cleaner? Irena’s ex, his visit, Julia asking him to accompany her, going to the building, knocking on the door, the old man emerging? Weber and his arrival? The police, arriving at the flat, Weber accusing Julie of stalking? Their agreement for peace?
- The social, Julia upset, Francis and his exasperation, her leaving, the taxi? At home, the noise, going to Irena’s apartment, discovering her decapitated body, not looking in the cupboard (though the audience wanting her to look in the cupboard), Weber and his attack on Julia, the erotic aspects, his loneliness, his father, expectations? Her fight, her neck slit, on the floor, the blood, his watching? Lying gazing at her? His leaving, Francis arriving home, bewildered, the phone and its ringing in Irena’s apartment, his coming to the door, opening it, Weber shot by Julia – and the past story of Irena explaining the gun in the desk drawer?
- A satisfying slow-burn psychological thriller, the victim, not being believed, paranoia? The watcher, the background of the newspapers, television, the serial killer?
