Verónica

Verónica tells the story of a therapist who takes on a mysterious and conventionally attractive new client named Verónica. Verónica has repressed memories of childhood trauma that cause her to find violence arousing. Also all of this is happening at a remote cabin because that’s absolutely how therapy happens.

Verónica’s script is something I constantly felt to be at least 15 years behind the times. The movie is a psychosexual thriller and it delves into all the tropes that go along with that. Questions of identity and sanity come up and there’s a major plot twist in the third act. It’s all very late 90’s early 2000’s in terms of its themes as well as its major plot twist. But I can hardly even call the revelations in Verónica’s third act a plot twist. Plot twists should be surprising and this one wasn’t at all. Not only is the twist telegraphed far too heavily, it’s such a common plot twist. I was able to predict this whole movie because Verónica’s idea of surprising revelations are things that might have worked in the late 90’s. Verónica feels like it belongs in the era of Fight Club, Identity and Primal Fear. But this movie was released in 2017 so none of its ideas feel fresh. They’ve all been done before and better.

Verónica was filmed in black and white. Throughout the movie, I kept wondering why the director chose to do so. Usually when I see a modern film in black and white, I just respect the director’s artistic choice and don’t really care that there’s no colour. With Verónica though, I did feel like I was missing colour. The black and white didn’t add to the mood and there are lots of scenes that I imagine would more striking if they’d been filmed in full colour. As such, I spent most of the movie wondering why the director had made the choice to film in black and white. Then I figured it out. Verónica is filmed in black and white to make it look more artistic and unique than it actually is.

Even in regards to the WLW genre, Verónica isn’t remarkable or new. This isn’t a case where the choice to have a queer slant to this story makes Verónica feel fresh. Thrillers involving characters with identity problems and mental illness are fairly common fare for WLW films. If anything, the idea of a woman who’s attracted to women and also has a list of psychological problems is passe.

The directing and acting are good enough that I can’t call Verónica a bad movie. The two lead actresses give great performances. It’s also a quick sit, only about 75 minutes so the movie doesn’t lag. However, because the story is feels so unoriginal and so overdone, I can’t call Verónica a good movie either. With a more unique script, this could have been a really good movie. There is a lot of potential here. But time and time again, the fact that this is a story I’ve seen so many times before let Verónica down. During the entirety of Verónica, I kept thinking of movies that did the same things as this movie except they were done 20 years ago and to better effect.

Overall rating: 5.3/10

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