The eldest son in a wealthy American family wants to move out of their incestuous compound and start a new life.
Greek writer Efthimis Filippou is the man behind unsettling, bizarre movies such as Dogtooth and The Lobster, so you can just imagine what to expect with his new film Rosebush Pruning.
Loosely based on Marco Bellocchio’s 1965 film Fists in the Pocket, the satirical dark comedy revolves around a wealthy American family living together in a compound in Catalonia.
Two years ago, their mother (Pamela Anderson) was pulled apart by wolves, and her four children inherited her money so they don’t need to work, thereby becoming lazy, bored and emotionally stunted people. As the saying goes, the devil finds work for idle hands, and most of them have become awful people because they have nothing to do.
They all worship the eldest son, Jack (Jamie Bell), who seems the most normal and has a life outside of the compound with his girlfriend Martha (Elle Fanning). They are upset that he is planning to leave and start a new life with Martha, especially siblings Anna (Riley Keough) and Robert (Lukas Gage), who are in love with him.
The story is narrated by the middle son, Edward (Callum Turner), another seemingly normal character, who believes his siblings and his blind father (Tracy Letts) need to be pruned like a rosebush.
The film, which feels inspired by projects like Succession and Saltburn, seems like it was written for Yorgos Lanthimos, Filippou’s regular collaborator, to direct. However, it is actually helmed by Brazilian filmmaker Karim Aïnouz, who made his English-language debut with Firebrand three years ago.
The characters are perverse and messed up (except Jack and Martha), but not as interesting or entertaining as the film thinks they are. They are more like vapid sketches than real people, and their actions don’t feel earned because they’re just for shock value.
Watching dysfunctional rich people destroy each other – or self-destruct – can be exciting in the right hands, but the execution is off here, and the film doesn’t give viewers the catharsis they need at the end because it doesn’t get it quite right.
You know where it’s going to go eventually – the title is a giveaway – but you’re not exactly sure how it’ll play out. The first sequence in the third act delivers – it is ridiculous, satisfying and actually quite funny – but after that, the others feel very rushed and contrived.
On a positive note, Bell and Fanning deliver strong performances as the relatively well-adjusted Jack and Martha, and Anderson commands attention every time she’s on screen.
Rosebush Pruning isn’t a complete disaster, however, you can’t help but wonder what Lanthimos would have done with the material.
In cinemas from Friday 10th July
By Hannah Wales
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