SHIRLEY : Tuesday 14th July 2020.

'SHIRLEY', which was my first return foray out to my local independent movie theatre earlier this week following four months of cinema closures because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is Directed by Josephine Decker whose previous film making credits include 'Butter on the Latch', 'Thou Wast Mild and Lovely' and 'Madeline's Madeline' most recently in 2018. Based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Susan Scarfe Merrell, the film saw its World Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival in late January this year, went on general release on June 5th in the US, and here in Australia on July 9th. This biographical drama film charts a period in the life of acclaimed American  horror and mystery author Shirley Jackson who lived from 1916 until 1965 and who penned amongst others 'The Haunting of Hill House', is portrayed by Elisabeth Moss, who also takes a Co-Producer credit. It has generated mostly positive Reviews so far.

The film opens up with Rose (Odessa Young) reading the finishing pages of 'The Lottery' a short story by Shirley Jackson while abroad a train bound for Vermont, and then feeling horny grabs her husband Fred (Logan Lerman) and leads him into the toilet for a quick one.

Arriving at the home of Shirley Jackson (Elisabeth Moss) and her husband Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg) during a party, Rose announces to Shirley that they are invited house guests and will be staying for a week or so at the behest of her husband - a literary critic and Professor at Bennington College, in Vermont. Rose and Fred are to continue with their studies, with Fred working alongside Stanley to aid him with his research while he completes his dissertation. Shirley is far from welcoming of Rose and Fred saying that she does not like strangers around the house, and their initial interactions are frosty to say the least.

It doesn't take long before Stanley puts a proposal to Fred for them both to remain at the house for an extended period with free board and lodgings if Rose is prepared to help clean, cook, and look after Shirley throughout the day, on the basis that their last housekeeper just upped sticks and left without warning because of Shirley's mood swings, demands and unpredictable nature. Fred wholeheartedly agrees but Rose is more reluctant as it means that she'll need to drop out of college for the foreseeable future when she thought that she and Fred would both be studying on an equal footing.

Shirley is in the throes of depression, struggles with agoraphobia, suffering from writers block, and spending the majority of her time languishing in her bed all day with a cigarette in one hand and a stiff drink in the other. She is barely only able to surface at dinner time when Stanley and Fred return from their day at College and it's cocktail hour before dinner is served. Slowly, however, Shirley begins to warm towards Rose, and she begins tapping away at her typewriter working on a novel about a missing girl named Paula Jean Welden, that would go on to become 'Hangsaman', who disappeared from the Bennington College campus. Stanley meanwhile, is off to his philandering and controlling ways with young Fred in tow at College for most of the day, and plays the dutiful husband when he gets home at night just in time for cocktail hour, or well beyond it having stayed late to attend the 'Shakespeare Society'. However, it quickly becomes plain that Stanley's motives to get his wife writing again are more driven by the finances her next work will generate, and the kudos he reaps from being the literary critic of his wife's works.

Shirley and Stanley seem to bicker most of the time, sparring off against each other often with a subtle malevolence, but they also relish in belittling Rose and Fred over dinner for their own amusement and for which they offer no apology, and which only goes to show the young couple as lesser mediocre mortals in their eyes. Rose and Fred's relationship begins to deteriorate when Fred begins coming home late from College having attended the Shakespeare Society, and Fred starts seeing the influence that Shirley is having upon Rose. Furthermore, Rose is in the early stages of pregnancy - a fact that Shirley is able to 'sense', and blurts it out one evening over dinner much to the surprise of Fred. As Rose's pregnancy develops so Fred seems increasingly turned off by her ever expanding bump. Ultimately, Shirley tells Rose that there is no such thing as the Shakespeare Society at College, this is just a cover for meeting young female students that the men can take advantage off, and often do.

As Shirley's novel develops so her fascination with the disappearance of Paula intensifies. Shirley imagines Rose, and Rose imagines herself as Paula, the red head walking quickly through the woods wearing a red coat with her face blurred out, looking over her shoulder.

This all comes to head when Rose has had her baby and one day while driving in the car together with Shirley, Rose asks Shirley to stop the car. Rose gets out leaving Shirley holding the baby, and off Rose trundles at a goodly pace through the woods, leaving Shirley to traipse after her carrying the crying child. Shirley emerges at a clearing with Rose standing at the edge of a sheer drop, with Shirley begging her to step away from the edge. Is it Rose or Paula standing there, as the figure launches itself into the air. We then cut away to Rose and her baby, and Fred, departing the residence for good in a car, bidding their farewells.

The final scene sees Stanley critiquing Shirley's manuscript of what will be her latest novel, completed. She sits as the dining table dutifully, complete with facial ticks, tweaks and distortions, while Stanley reads the final pages. He rises out of his lounge chair in the background and approaches the table and sits in front of her. Brilliant he exclaims, her best work yet and a sure fire best seller, although he has made some notes as is his want in life.

This is Elisabeth Moss' film for sure - she excels in her portrayal of Shirley Jackson, even down to the dead ringer looks, the think rimmed spectacles, the mane of hair, her frumpy dress style and her seemingly never ending consumption of cigarettes and alcohol. The Director Josephine Decker while taking liberties with the truth, for example portraying Jackson and Hyman as childless when in fact they had four children, and her reliance on short stories and novels in the horror and mystery genre was in fact more successful in writing parenting books and children's works. Despite this poetic license, Decker has crafted an insightful film that lurches from gothic undertones to domestic drama to horror and back again with Young cast as the prefect foil for Moss as they tip toe through their evolving relationship without it ever really going anywhere, and Stuhlbarg as the bigoted womanising holier than thou acerbic husband. All that said, 'Shirley' is at times confusing, its plods along at times at a snails pace, and is more style over substance but is saved by Moss' stellar performance, her razor sharp dialogue, and her uncanny knack for inhibiting this character with a realism and believability that is worthy of an Oscar nod for sure.

'Shirley' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-