Sundance Review: Rebecca Hall's RESURRECTION - What in the Hell Just Happened!?

Rebecca Hall stars in this new psychological thriller titled Resurrection, which made its big debut at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Hall plays a woman named Margaret whose nightmarish past has come back to haunt her in the form of a man played by Tim Roth. The story pretty much kicks into gear when she first recognizes the man at a conference she is attending, and it instantly throws her into a panic attack. 

Margaret is also an overprotective mother, and when this man pops back into her life, that protective aspect of her is amplified. As you might imagine, her daughter thinks her mom is completely bonkers, and it doesn’t help that her mom doesn’t explain anything to her about what is going on or what she’s going through. 

This is another slow-burn thriller where the mysteries of the story slowly unfold over the course of the film. I usually like these kinds of movies, and I also like Rebecca Hall and Tim Roth as actors, so I was looking forward to watching this. Unfortunately, I thought the movie was pretty dull, and it took some effort to stick through it to the end. It didn’t really do anything interesting enough to grab my attention, then the end of the movie came.

Things got super freakin’ weird and bonkers at the end, and I was not expecting things to play out the way they did. That doesn’t mean the movie is good, though! The end of the movie should be locked up in the looney bin. The whole movie pretty much builds up to this insane ending that is meant to shock you, but it just came off as laughable and silly and I couldn’t take any of it seriously. I’ll just say it: I don’t know what the hell that was all about! I literally said out loud in a room by myself, “What in the hell just happened!?”

I didn’t care for the film. I didn’t like the way it ended. It just didn’t work for me. I don’t know, maybe some of you might like it. The movie might just be worth checking out to see what I’m talking about. That ending… what the what!?

Here’s how the film is described by Sundance:

Margaret (Rebecca Hall) leads a successful and orderly life, perfectly balancing the demands of her busy career and single parenthood to her fiercely independent daughter Abbie. But that careful balance is upended when she glimpses a man she instantly recognizes, an unwelcome shadow from her past. A short time later, she encounters him again. Before long, Margaret starts seeing David (Tim Roth) everywhere — and their meetings appear to be far from an unlucky coincidence. Battling her rising fear, Margaret must confront the monster she’s evaded for two decades who has come to conclude their unfinished business. 

Writer-director Andrew Semans has crafted a surreal and deeply disturbing film, blending drama and horror to deftly unearth a nightmare that feels all too real. Hall masterfully embodies Margaret’s trepidation as her firmly controlled world begins to unravel, while Roth's David diabolically begins to pull the rug out from underneath her. Resurrection promises a gripping excavation of an inescapable past.