Cat Person review: A simple dating movie takes a dark turn to a violent thriller

CAT PERSON

(15) 120mins

★★★★☆

NAVIGATING your way through the modern dating world is so very complicated.

It can become a he said/she said essay on human behaviour.

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Emilia Jones and Nicholas Braun star in Cat People[/caption]

Grand gestures and subtle nuances can be misread, with people immediately being put into boxes of “psychopaths” or “commitment-phobes”.

Terms such as “catfishing” and “gaslighting” are often bandied around with little consequence of the true connotations.

It all makes for a fascinating subject in this layered and intriguing drama, based on Kristen Roupenian’s much-discussed viral short story for the New Yorker in 2017.

Worst kiss

It is the seemingly simple tale of Margot (Emilia Jones), a 20-year-old college sophomore who starts having a textual relationship with Robert (Succession’s Nicholas Braun), 33, after he asks for her phone number at the cinema she works in.

Margot soon becomes reliant on these safe and sweet messages from Robert. She seeks the funny and sometimes sexy texts that don’t involve any real conversation or physical interaction.

After hundreds of messages, the pair have their first date, where the power struggle starts.

Robert in real life is not the fun, flirty guy behind the phone screen who Margot was falling for.

She feels he should be grateful to date her, as she is cool, youthful and beautiful, while Robert exerts his maturity and wisdom — as well as performing the worst on-screen kiss ever.

Then, later, an excruciating sex scene that manages to be funny and sad.

Robert can be a little creepy and Margot a bit self-absorbed, so you spend much of the film trying to work out whose side you are on.

The age gap is clearly a problem, with Robert idolising Harrison Ford’s forceful love scenes in Star Wars and Indiana Jones, which appear dated and misogynistic to Margot.

She shows such little interest in the real-life Robert, that she never even asks what he does for a living.

After a standard break-up, the film moves from a sharp study of the highs and lows of in-person dating to a violent, psychological thriller.

Director Susanna Fogel deals with this change of pace well, leaving an air of mystery and wonder around labels we put on people.

DOCTOR JEKYLL

(15) 90mins

★★☆☆☆

THIS strange take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 story of the man with two personalities has the initial look and feel of a thriller that could make you want to sleep with the light on.

Sadly, it soon becomes a reason to put it out.

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Eddie Izzard stars in Doctor Jekyll[/caption]

We meet the naive and jobless Rob (Scott Chambers) who is finding life a struggle until his brother gets him a job as a carer.

Rob has a criminal record, so alarm bells ring when he’s accepted after a short interview by the corset-wearing lady of the middle-of-nowhere-manor, Dr Nina Jekyll (Eddie Izzard). Strict rules are put in place by Jekyll’s housekeeper, Sandra (a sinister Lindsay Duncan).

But once she disappears in the middle of the night, Rob finds Jekyll’s behaviour more unpredictable – especially when she becomes Rachel Hyde.

Chambers does a decent turn as the former junkie, and the house feels spooky and secluded. But Izzard performs Jekyll as a strange, hammy Hunchback of Notre Dame – hobbling around the set on a stick and challenging her guest to games of chess, as though that’s scary.

It leaves you craving Christopher Lee.

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S

(15) 109mins

★★☆☆☆

AHEAD of taking a night-time security job at an abandoned family pizza restaurant, Mike Schmidt is warned the pay is “not great but . . . the hours are even worse”.

One thing the job description omits is that the venue is haunted by dead children, who possess giant animatronic animals and love to commit gruesome murders.

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Five Nights At Freddy’s is based on a video game series that has sold 33.5million units since 2014[/caption]

They have already blitzed the face of one employee with rotating saws and now plan to take out Mike and his young sister, who they want to turn into a killer robot just like them.

At the same time, Mike is looking for answers to solve the disappearance of his brother Garrett, who was kidnapped as a child.

Five Nights At Freddy’s is based on a video game series that has sold 33.5million units since 2014.

But, as with most button-basher adaptations, the film falls flat.

This time it’s due to an excessive number of subplots, including a will-they-won’t-they romance and a bitter custody battle.

Josh Hutcherson (Hunger Games) is good as Mike but aside from that, viewers will be longing to see “Game Over” flash on cinema screens.