Men

Year of release : 2022

Run time : 1h40min

Genre : Mystery / Psychological Thriller / Surrealist Folk Horror

After the loss of her husband, Harper rents a house in the British countryside. She hopes the secluded place will give her a breath of fresh air in the aftermath of her husband's tragic death.

Upon arriving at the beautiful place, the image of an apple tree full of apples, lures her in, and she takes one, biting into it. After meeting the owner of the place, he jokes that " the original sin " apple was not to be eaten.

Spending time alone in the house and walking around the premises, Harper is haunted by the last conversation she had with her husband, in which he first tried to appeal to her common sense, then tried to gaslight her, then got violent when she still refused to give him another chance.

Out on her walks, she meets a few villagers, all men, who act rather weird, not to mention, they all seem to have the same face, at different ages.

Also, after finding a long tunnel, and discovering someone watching her, to the point she almost lost her way back home, she gets stalked by this naked man the police finds harmless in the end, and releases. Problem is, the man doesn't stay gone.

The movie, written and directed by Alex Garland, started out so well, it was built like a drama, with moments of silence and honestly, beautiful, haunting music and imagery. It really gave me, the spectator, the feeling I was there with her, and I could feel was she was going through.

Problem is, the movie (which received good reviews from the critics, but mixed reviews from the audiences of Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, Cinema Score audiences grading it a D+! And was a flop at the box office, with a box office of only a little over 11 million dollars ) kept on prolonging the reveal, and when it did reveal, it made no sense. To me at least.

The actors were great, especially the leads who had to carry the movie. Rory Kinnear was amazing, as he had to impersonate all these men, at different stages in their lives, with different personalities, accents.. etc..

I personally don't recommend it, mostly due to the last scenes which involve SPOILER the naked man who keeps turning into the other men, who say nasty, vulgar things to her, and who in the end give birth to one another, through a woman v@gina. The scenes are very graphic and disgusting. Watch it at your own expense. END OF SPOILERS

Rating : Could have been a contender !