Good Manners

Good Manners is a creative, ambitious genre-blending film. It also really benefits from a comparative lack of competition in its dark fantasy elements. Sure, vampire movies are constant and zombie media had its heyday in the 2010s. But how many werewolf movies do you see these days? That’s a mythic creature that seems to rarely get a look in. Which is kind of a shame, because as Good Manners proves, there’s some good themes to work with.

The first half of the film deals with the developing relationship between the pregnant Ana and the woman she hires as the nanny for her unborn child. Ana’s choice to not terminate her pregnancy despite it being the product of adultery has made her isolated from her rich family and ex-fiance. Perhaps because of this, she quickly develops a relationship with Clara that goes beyond being her employer. But as the weeks go on and they grow closer, Clara begins to notice some of Ana’s unusual pregnancy symptoms. Such as sleepwalking, and eating a cat. Clara also makes the connection that the worst of Ana’s symptoms coincide with the full moon.

Good Manners is a horror movie, but only by technicality. There are few scenes that are overtly scary. The exception to this rule is the birth scene. Brief as it is, it is pretty horrific. Apparently Good Manners has a PG rating. And based on this scene alone, I think that’s a little low. After the brief but horrifying birth scene, the film jumps forward seven years. The child Ana carried is now a young boy named Joel. And due to the traumatic birth scene, Clara is the one raising him. But there’s still an hour of the movie left. So it’s not going to be a case where Joel is fine and normal and definitely not a werewolf.

The strongest themes in the film are motherhood, love and secrets. I really love the motherhood theme specifically. Ana and Clara both have an important role to play in Joel’s life. But their roles are different. For Clara especially as a non-biological mother, the film constantly shows her providing a mother’s love as best she can. And unlike a lot of movies, this love isn’t really monstrous. It’s pretty normal. She loves her son in a regular way, she just also has to deal with him getting real hairy once a month. But even with such strong themes of love, pretty much everyone in the film would’ve benefited from being more honest and sharing pertinent information with one another.

Good Manners greatest success is its mixture of ambition and control over that ambition. This film involves aspects such as important musical numbers, an animated sequence and a heavy exploration of themes using werewolf mythology as its base. And it all comes together pretty well. This ambition and mix of tone also helps keep the film interesting over its 135 minute runtime. This is whatever the reverse of biting off more than you can chew. Good Manners bit off exactly as much as it needed and then also added creative flair to every single bite.

Overall rating: 7.1/10

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