Are you aware your neighbour? Are you aware them by identify? Have you ever held a dialog past “hello, do you may have my parcel?” For many people, the particular person subsequent door is a determine we solely see often. We hear their canine barking or child crying by the partitions, however interplay will be slim. In line with a 2023⁄24 survey, 69% of adults reported chatting with their neighbours a minimum of as soon as a month. It was the bottom degree since knowledge assortment started in 2013.
Enter author/director Paul Andrew Williams’ Dragonfly, a twin portrait of two lonely neighbours who discover a renewed function in an unlikely friendship. Unable to reside fully independently after a fall that injured her wrist and knocked her confidence, pensioner Elsie (Brenda Blethyn) lives alone in a semi-detached bungalow. In lieu of her son, John (Jason Watkins), caring for her, carers from “the company” come and go like ghosts, tidying up and showering her with uninterested small speak. On the opposite facet of the bungalow wall (“it’s identical to mine, however the different method round”) is Colleen (Andrea Riseborough), a lady on advantages depicted with a hauntingly memorable efficiency from Riseborough who harbours unresolved ache with layered nuance.
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Their connection begins with Colleen nipping right down to the retailers for some milk for Elise, after she realises the carers are shortchanging her on time. Then it’s her shopping for and planting new flowers after her canine, an American bull terrier crossed with “god is aware of what” named Sabre (a superb efficiency from the hound), chewed up Elise’s backyard. Little by little, Elise welcomes Colleen into her life till the youthful lady is caring for her at no cost. However there’s a lingering query about her friendliness, having lived subsequent door for years, why now? When the pair determine it’d be simpler for Colleen to have Elise’s debit card for procuring, eyebrows elevate even additional. However we must always maintain out hope for the goodness of individuals… proper?
The pair proceed to develop nearer, speaking with walkie-talkies, a lot to the disdain of John, whose voice turns into more and more annoyed down the landline telephone. With the very good Blethyn and Riseborough’s anchoring, it’s simple to be lured into this newest addition to the brand new wave of British social realist dramas. Dragonfly was written through the pandemic, and it reveals, tapping into the visceral, haunting sense of loneliness with placing cinematography.
Williams’ portrayal of pervasive isolation is initially gripping, however a last-minute pivot into horror-thriller feels out of kilter. It’s completely irritating that one thing so brilliantly constructed up comes tumbling down in a clumsy, unbalanced ultimate act. A sense of simmering horror was already current with the Mike Leigh-esque social realist thematics (susceptible human connection and the care system’s failures), and this ultimate push shoots for shock over a significant conclusion. All through, Dragonfly performs with perspective, fascinated by the potential of others and what individuals are able to. Nevertheless, the movie’s ultimate observe is deeply cynical, as whether it is embarrassed by the sincerity of its real and very important message.
