Images courtesy of Music Box Films
THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA– 3 STARS
While The Trouble with Jessica opens on the middle-aged married London couple Sarah and Tom, played by Bridget Jones series mainstay Shirley Henderson and voice actor supreme Alan Tudyk, and their well-appointed home that will stand as the setting for most of the film, the intrigue does not begin until the arrival of the title character. Longtime TV star Indira Varma plays Jessica, a successful author of mild repute. She’s the fifth wheel dinner party guest alongside another married couple, Richard and Beth, played by The Father co-stars Rufus Sewell and Olivia Williams. All five are old college classmates who go back almost 30 years, but Jessica is a provocative pot-stirrer and the drama queen of the quintet.
LESSON #1: WE ALL HAVE THAT ONE UNPREDICTABLE FRIEND– Admonishing her longtime mates with backhanded compliments and voicing rude complaints masked with mild social graces, Jessica may be the most successful of the gathered five, but, from the get-go, her entitlement brings out the worst in the rest as they appease and tolerate her. Stepping back, seeing Jessica rile her people up with flirty narcissism, irrational outbursts, and zero responsibility for any fallout makes us realize we all likely have that one unpredictable and uncouth friend—the one that is simultaneously fragile and dead weight because of their constant need for attention. In fact, you’re thinking about them right now after that character description of Jessica. Whisper that name to yourself for a moment.
LESSON #2: WE ALL HAVE THAT ONE DOOMED FRIEND TOO– Taking that line of friend examination down a darker path, we all might have that one friend in our circle we earmark as the one most likely to die first, possibly in a horrible fashion, and maybe even by their own hand. Odds are, it’s the same person you whispered aloud after Lesson #1. If you don’t have that type of volatile friend in your life, well, then you don’t live in a life fit for a dark comedy or murder mystery like director Matt Winn’s film. Clue or Knives Out aren’t happening at your place. Jessica is precisely the imbalanced and selfish friend who would do such a thing, and, sure enough, she does on the night of this very reunion dinner in The Trouble with Jessica.
After a few courses of delicious food and less-delightful spats of verbal arguments that have been simmering for years, Jessica excuses herself from dinner and shockingly hangs herself in Sarah and Tom’s backyard. When the married pairs discover their friend’s body, shock sets in, only to shed light on a whole new dilemma. As it turns out, the breadwinning Tom has lost most of his money on a work project where the funding ran out. He was telling his friends at this dinner that he and Sarah were selling the house to cover the shortfall, and that a heavily interested buyer was coming the next day to close the deal—something terrifically in jeopardy now with a dead body on the lawn.
This pickle ignites an admittedly nonsensical, yet beguiling turn of events for The Trouble with Jessica. Rather than calling the police and embarking on the more official and honest route, panic takes over for the rich people and their rich people problems. Sarah, as the self-appointed arbiter of bullshit, leads the charge with an insane scheme to move the body from their place to Jessica’s to shuck potential blame and secure the upcoming house sale. As the scurrying ineptitude begins, buried truths and closeted secrets connected to Jessica bubble to the surface and fray even more already-shredded nerves.
Playing very much like a five-person stage play, The Trouble with Jessica flaunts a theatrical strength for presence and performance. The single-location logistics create an orchestrated path of rising action clues leading to climactic revelations, all stoking an enveloping bottle-movie tension. Since the film maintains its streak of black comedy over any Hitchcockian shock-and-awe, director Matt Winn partners with co-composer Matt Cooper (in his first feature film) to contribute a sharp, jazzy background score, which adds to the enigmatic style at play.
Sharing a tidy running time with a small cast grants these five superb veteran actors stump speech and monologue opportunities. As the desperation grows, cracks in character allow the ensemble to flip a few scripts. While Indira Varma was the clear opening catalyst, Shirley Henderson, so often typecast as the demure or mousy loner, steps forward as the pusher of the plan. It’s a pleasure to see the path of poor decisions go through her instead of the usual suspect, which would be a professional movie villain like Rufus Sewell. He still plays a very good cad with the matching exasperated outbursts of self-preservation, but it’s fun to see him put in his place by no less than three women, including the dead one.
LESSON #3: MESSING WITH ROOTING INTERESTS– There’s a compelling playfulness in The Trouble with Jessica where viewers’ rooting interests are worked like a seesaw. At certain junctures, we question who the true victim or victims are. We might even want our present party to get away with this dangerous little ruse. By the same token, other revelations tilt us to want to see their noses rubbed in shamefulness, guilt, and remorse. Like any sure-handed cinematic riddle, Matt Winn keeps pushing the teeter-totter at the right times, dropping question marks all the way until the end.
LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1303)
