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The Ones Below
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Magnolia Pictures Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (9th September 2016). |
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The Film
 Expectant couple Kate (127 Hours' Clémence Poésy) and Justin (The Bank Job's Stephen Campbell Moore) find that the downstairs flat has been purchased by Jon (Red Riding 1974's David Morrissey), a middle-aged Englishman and his younger Finnish wife Theresa (A Walk Among the Tombstones's Laura Birn) moving from Frankfurt who are also expecting. To Justin's dismay, Kate invites the other couple up to their flat for dinner. The two couples prove to be a study in contrasts: Theresa is warm and open while Kate is aloof; Jon seems to have taken on continental airs and is forward while Justin is reserved, with the younger couple having thought themselves more candid than Kate's almost cruelly detached mother (Vanity Fair's Deborah Findlay). Kate is a workaholic while Theresa never cares to work again, and Jon is well-traveled and well-off while Justin is chained to his desk and sees the world through other peoples' photographs. Jon's and Theresa's basement flat and back garden are ultra-modern and all clean lines while Kate's and Justin's flat is cluttered and dark (darker so with the hall light burnt out just before company arrives). Jon and Theresa have been trying to conceive for seven years – Theresa mentions in confidence to Kate that Jon's Chinese first wife was barren and thus unsuitable – while Kate and Justin were together for ten years and "just became pregnant." Jon is even benignly confrontational when asking why they did not have a child earlier, and bluntly suggesting that Kate was not able to have a child until she "felt able to love" while Theresa had always known she wanted a child. Of course, Kate and Jon are reined in by decorum, and Jon seems to mean no harm. As the evening wears on, an embarrassed (or afraid) Theresa sneaks more than the one glass the magazines say a pregnant woman can have with meals safely and takes a tumble down the stairs, having been frightened by Kate's cat in the darkened hall and tripped over the shoes the couple had left behind them on the mat. In spite of Theresa's bleeding, a violently defensive Jon rushes to get her away from the irresponsible couple, leaving the shocked and embarrassed Kate and Justin to putter around their apartment cleaning up, listening for signs of life below, and chastising themselves while parceling out some of the blame to Theresa's drinking and Jon moving her after the fall. The same line of thinking makes things even worse when they next meet the grief-stricken couple who have miscarried and are venting their anger on their previous night's hosts (who have also just returned from the hospital after a healthy sonogram). Theresa lies to Jon about her drinking, Jon places the blame on Kate's failure to replace the hall bulb, and Justin becomes defensive when Kate starts to relent on that point leading to Theresa's outburst of "You don't deserve that thing inside you!" Kate and Justin come home a few days later to a letter from Theresa informing them that she and Jon are returning to Frankfurt to mourn and that they will not return until "unless we can honestly say congratulations to you both and bless your new child with all the benediction it deserves." When Theresa and Jon do return after Kate has given birth to baby boy Billy – announced by the presence of their shoes outside their doorstep – the remorseful couple arrive in the midst of tension between Kate and her mother who she has learned has been badgered into visiting the baby by Justin, easing things between the couple as Jon provides a distraction for Kate's mother and Theresa provides the properly fawns over the newborn. Kate is reluctant to let Theresa hold her child as much out a sense of parental protectiveness as suspicion of ill will (even as Theresa confides that it is as much therapy for her), but Kate soon comes to rely upon Theresa to keep her company and to watch Billy when she must escape for a few hours what with Justin seemingly distancing himself with work; that is, until Kate starts to have cause for suspicion: sinister breathing on the baby monitor when there is no one there, accidents like an overflowing bathtub that Justin blames on her forgetfulness, spying Theresa taking photographs of Billy and possibly trying to nurse him, comes to believe that Theresa is flirting with Justin, and other things Justin attributes to her imagination and her emotional state (what with a family past wracked with mental illness including the suicide of her brother). Kate's attempts to expose a sinister plot lead only to embarrassment and seemingly kicking the still mourning Theresa and Jon when they are still down, causing Justin to be more concerned for his wife's psychological well-being than any threat of The Ones Below. After this Pinterian (more so than Polanski as some have drawn comparison) first act of substance and tension – writer/director David Farr got the inspiration for the story while directing a Pinter play on the stage and discussing parenthood with one of his actors – The Ones Below makes a good go of the overfamiliar "is she going mad or being gaslighted" angle thanks to Poésy's brittle performance and the less dimensional but suitably ambiguous work by Birn and Morrissey with Moore doing what he can with the rather thankless role of this type of story (whether Kate is imagining things or correct in her suspicions, Justin drops the ball either way). At some point, however, Farr loses faith in himself and the audience, and the film goes from being more French than British in its detached view of the sinister lurking within the mundane to more American in the Hand That Rocks the Cradle mold. The end result is still a diverting thriller, but one hopes that Farr will have a bit more faith in his audience. 
Video
Despite the opening BFI "Film Forever" logo, this film has been photographed in high definition video, but Magnolia's single-layer 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 sports an attractive and detailed image in the darker and muted tones of the younger couple's apartment as well as bright whites of the older couple's apartment and their bolder wardrobe choices (a contrast that deliberately makes the younger, happier couple seem rather dowdy). 
Audio
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is attentive to the increasingly paranoid worldview of the lead actress, listening to the sounds of passion, soft footsteps, and opening/closing door of the apartment below as well as increasingly more sinister sounds. Optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles are also included. 
Extras
Extras are not particularly satisfying, but brief enough that we can be thankful that Magnolia/Magnet did not try to re-edit the same comments into several more redundant Axis TV featurettes. In "Creating a Cinematic Moment: Under the Bridge" (2:59), director David Farr discusses how working out the climactic Steadicam reveal shot early on in production was the decisive cinematic moment that determined the shooting style of the rest of the film. He does not go into detail about the content of the shot so as not to spoil things but the featurette ends with the complete shot. In "Going Below the Story" (8:59), Farr and producer Nikki Parrott discuss the inspiration and themes of the film in a fairly generalized manner, and the same points are touched upon in "Behind the Cast and Characters" (8:59) by all four of the principal cast members from the perspective of their characters. "Car Stunt: Breaking Down an Action Sequence" (2:24) follows Farr as he discusses the staging of a stunt scene that did not make the film itself. The film's theatrical trailer (2:24) is also included. 
Overall
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