X
- 2015
- R
- Drafthouse Films
- 1 h 35 m
- 2015
- R
- Drafthouse Films
- 1 h 35 m
Summary At the end of the Civil War, Southerner Augusta (Brit Marling) encounters two renegade, drunken soldiers (Sam Worthington & Kyle Soller) who are on a mission of pillage and violence. After escaping an attempted assault, Augusta races back to the isolated farmhouse that she shares with her sister Louise (Hailee Steinfeld) and their female...
Directed By: Daniel Barber
Written By: Julia Hart
- 2015
- R
- Drafthouse Films
- 1 h 35 m
- 2015
- R
- Drafthouse Films
- 1 h 35 m
The Keeping Room
58
5.6
Where to Watch
Summary At the end of the Civil War, Southerner Augusta (Brit Marling) encounters two renegade, drunken soldiers (Sam Worthington & Kyle Soller) who are on a mission of pillage and violence. After escaping an attempted assault, Augusta races back to the isolated farmhouse that she shares with her sister Louise (Hailee Steinfeld) and their female...
Directed By: Daniel Barber
Written By: Julia Hart
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
58
43% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
57% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
58
43% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
57% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Even as The Keeping Room plays with formulaic ingredients, it manages to combine them into an eloquent portrait of gender, race and the constant march of time without overstating any of its potent themes.
The finale Barber and actress-turned-screenwriter Julia Hart deliver is righteously, remorselessly satisfying.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 16 User Ratings
5.6
31% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
50% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
19% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 16 User Ratings
5.6
31% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
50% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
19% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Pure, strong, emotional and tense. This words describe The keeping Room, one briliant movie when we can see "Girl Power" with the three AMAZING actress: Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld (really great) and Muna Otaru (the best part and suprise of the movie, excellent debut).
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[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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While the gender-based farmhouse siege is suspenseful and bloody, director Daniel Barber weighs in too heavily with extended silences that slow down the goings-on of a film that has darkly lit tension, lovely scenery and fiercely presented ideas on feminism.
The Keeping Room attempts a blend of sexual curiosity, home invasion horror and elegiac drama, that doesn't quite work, but whose ambitions are nonetheless compelling.
Barber, who directed the neglected, unabashedly satisfying vigilante thriller “Harry Brown” knows how to get the blood pumping and stoke an audience’s craving for righteousness, vengeance, and vicarious sadism. What he lacks is the woman’s touch, if by that one means nuance, ambiguity, and empathy.
Like Barber’s London-set vigilante movie "Harry Brown," it’s another lurid exploitation film classed up with moody lighting and character monologues, with none of the authentic regional flavor or amateur energy that gave real grindhouse flicks their tang.
What might have looked intriguing on paper appears to have been largely pared away in the artsy mannerisms and loaded silences of Brit director Daniel Barber’s self-consciously elliptical treatment.
War is Hell. But we never think about the people left behind on the home front and what they go through. This was the Civil War so life was pretty boring anyway. No internet, no video games, life was slow and boring. The movie portrays this; eat, farm, hunt, sleep. Next day, repeat. Much tougher for these women since their men were on the losing side of the war. We see the lives of 3 women, an older woman, maybe her fiancé left for the war, a young girl who doesn't really comprehend what the war's affect is on her life, and a slave who has become the equal of the white women, not because she moved up in social status but because they moved down.
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It becomes frustrating at times because the rhythm decays, but it's also effective, it has good performances, especially Brit Marling who really stands out and the general environment immerses you in the story. With only 90 minutes the film delivers enough to keep you in your seat, I totally believe it could have been better but that's another story
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I decided to watch The Keeping Room following the one-two Civil War ladies besieged by men punch of The Beguiled and its remake. This is the slightest of that slight sub-genre. It doesn't really seem to have much to say, the tension is basically non-existent, and the motives of both men and women sketchy in two different ways (unclear and plot contrived).
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A finely acted although agonizingly slow home invasion in Wild West
There's a merit on doing all female leads drama thriller set on volatile era of Civil War, especially when there's social prejudice involved. However, aside from some admittedly fine performance, the movie feels clunky and slow. It doesn't have the intricacy or characterization beyond the basic formula of “there are bad men coming”, and even that takes the film about half its runtime to get the pace going.
This is the story of three women, one of whom is colored, as they defend their home from outsiders. Each woman might not be easily relatable at first, but the acting as well as decent investment time to them manage to deliver a few heavy thought provoking and intimate scenes. Brit Marling as the oldest one keeps a strong presence even though her character may be lacking in term of actual strength.
Muna Otaru as Mad, the colored housekeeper or technical maid, has a unique personality as the caretaker of the girls and also her own woman. As for the antagonist Sam Worthington makes do, he's decent but his motivation doesn't have the same focus as the girls', which means less connection to the character as he basically stumbles on the predicament he himself creates. The cinematography works by keeping an intentionally bleak and less stylish version of Wild West.
This is a deliberate pace for drama, not action or thriller. It does feel terribly slow at times, not in a good Tarantino build up style. Furthermore, there's not much cat-and-mouse cerebral standoff, which feels like a missed opportunity, especially when it could’ve used the setting as intense backdrop. Panic Room with Jodie Foster had trade of wit between protagonist and antagonist that created depth and utilized its premise, while here it's more of random gunslinging action.
The Keeping Room has a couple of good performances, especially geared towards heavy themes such as race prejudice and violence towards women. However, instead of putting more focus on home invasion to elevate the drama, its slow pace removes any thrill to what could've been a powerful commentary of an era and its lingering issues.
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Production Company
Gilbert Films,
Wind Dancer Productions,
Anonymous Content
Release Date Sep 25, 2015
Duration 1 h 35 m
Rating R
Tagline Some things are worth fighting for
Awards
Women Film Critics Circle Awards
• 4 Nominations
Film Club's The Lost Weekend
• 3 Wins & 3 Nominations
Stockholm Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
