Sundance Review: Mia Wasikowska's PIERCINGS is a Violent Thriller and Comedic Farce
Violent thrillers and comedic farces are not two things I would ever think would go well together. And while I still don’t think they are a match made in heaven, there is a certain charm that it adds to the movie Piercings.
It’s a movie about a guy, who is obviously mentally unwell (well, it’s obvious by the end at least) as he feels the need to kill someone. He is married and has a child and has the urge to kill them, so he decides he needs to let out these feelings of murder on a prostitute. Hilarity ensues when the prostitute thinks he is just a lonely guy who wants to have sex.
It isn’t a bad movie. In fact, I found myself finding it quite funny at many points, but others around me were more silently observant about the comedy. One scene that drove me crazy in particular was when he kept mentioning how he wanted to “do something” to her. He means stab and murder, but she interprets as stab with his PENIS AND SEX IT UP!! WOOT WOOT! Sorry. I won’t give away the ending, but things happen.
If you are on board with the premise, then you might like this movie. It is very clever in its execution and had some amazing comic book-like visuals throughout. There are a couple scenes which seemed unnecessary altogether, but you can tell were very important to the director. I didn’t care for the main actor, Christopher Abbot. He was unlikable, which could be the point. Mia Wasikowska was both charming and wonderfully psychotic in her role and seemed to steal the show with everything she did.
Altogether, it had some great parts and isn’t bad in the long run, but it does have a feel of disconnectedness, as if the director had a bunch of cool ideas for a movie, and decided to put them all in one but without really considering if he should. Check it out if you are in for a laugh… or you know… some brutal violence.
