Based on good reviews and a little on the character it’s based on, I rented the new movie Shirley (on iTunes). This movie is based on Shirley Jackson, supernatural horror novelist behind your high school’s time reading the short story The Lottery as well as The Haunting of Hill House and a few other classics. But it’s not a biopic… and if you are not super familiar with Jackson, it’s not clear why it’s based on her… and I suspect if you are familiar with her, it’s probably still not clear.
The flick follows a couple who are grad students in the 1950s. They have accepted the help of Jackson’s husband (a professor) and they move into the Jackson home. Shirley and her husband have an interesting, angry, weird toxic relationship and they almost immediately begin to toy and psychologically mess around with the couple. And that’s about it.
I said the film has good (but not great) reviews and that’s true… but I don’t personally “get” this movie. I wasn’t invested in it and I’m pretty doubtful much of it is based on real events so I’m not sure why they are picking on Shirley Jackson. Which begs the question why the movie exists with a real-world character. Or maybe she did do these things (her son argues his parents were not monsters, but hey, he would…?).
I will freely admit the acting is quite good and the suspense/mood is solid. They achieved that goal so if you are bought into the bad behavior and care about these four people, you’d probably like it. But it was lost on me.
Score: 68