This film is such a hot mess, like I feel this month and last month have not been my day when it comes to watching films, they either had crap first acts, second acts or been a train wreck. Though in this, the issue is the characters, representation and general story.
Here's a character who is a homophobic narcissistic, but he's good really, even though he let his 3rd wife walk in to a burning car in the first act and did fuck all to save her. The only nice character is treated like shit even though she is showing genuine compassion and kindness and being a good person. Spoiler, she doesn't live because kindness is weakness in this film's eyes.
The lead wears make up constantly even though it's dooms day cause you gotta look good even though the world has gone to shit right? Sandra is a great actor, just not in here. Her character is a mean, distant and cruel, and she doesn't even name her kids there just called boy and girl, which just made me think of Catherine Cooksons The Girl and the two maids going why does she call her girl, the cat has a name? With reference to the crazy mother who abuses the lead character as she's not her daughter and therefore won't refer to her by name.
So Sandra's character doing the same raises the question as to if she should even have either of these children to start with? Should her character have died in act 2 and someone else have them? As it's clear she never wanted her own child from the start but no one was pushing her to get an adoption her family were just forcing her down the motherhood route, but the film's message is your not allowed to say no and if you do everyone around you will punish you if you don't comply.
Where this film gets really messed up is it states the presence what ever it is as you never ever see it once which is a huge film mistake as the viewer does not know the stakes at all as all they see are some rustling bushes. They state if your mentally well, you kill yourself. If you have mental illness, you become its slave and do its bidding and try to get others to see it.
Which is a really messed up way to hit at people who have mental illness, as it's saying your worthless and weak, and you'll buckle and do z bad guy's bidding. Its plays again to the tone that people with mental illness are the most dangerous to sociality, which they are not in reality. The film feels to me like one that wants so bad to look progressive but doesn't want to do its homework in any way and thinks it can wing the class, when it can't.
Like I know there doing a sequel of this, but I dread to think how its gonna turn out....