Nancy is a thirty something temp, struggling to connect with a cold grey world and still living at home. Life consists of aiding her sick mother (Ann Dowd), flitting from job to job, and constructing intricate lies to help her feel unique in a world which feels oppressively alien. Until one day she starts to think maybe her mother isn’t her real mother at all and she might have been kidnapped from a couple many years ago.
The debut feature film from writer/director Christina Choe, is concerned not with demonising attention seekers, but ultimately empathising with them, and the scenarios which force people into such behavior. Nancy habitually lies to numerous different people, her shot-term coworkers, her mother, and people she meets online. One such online friend, Jeb (John Leguizamo) is responsible for persuading Nancy to keep a fictional baby she was planning to have aborted. When she finally meets him she wears a fake baby bump and feeds his need to help. Leguizamo is perfectly cast, often a lovable rogue or morally sound support, he bats off the expectation of Jeb being a creep. Again Choe’s film refutes the opportunity for traditional thrills or stereotypical tension; Nancy is entirely about its characters, never about the filmmakers’ desire to elicit a quick reaction. The people here are real and the struggles are real, gimmicks could risk portraying a traumatised girl as a horror film monster.
The film is an attempt to flesh out a type of character rarely treated with any legitimate understanding. Steve Buscemi is probably the biggest name in the film, but he is unnaturally reserved as potential father Leo, and it’s for the best. Buscemi’s stoicism is loud in its own right, but the focus is more on Nancy and potential birth mother Ellen (played by J. Smith-Cameron) to flesh out the narrative teased by Leguizamo’s character: attention seekers often fall in with attention givers, and the two feed each other’s hunger. It’s the saddest part of the film because by the end it makes perfect sense. A couple missing a child want desperately to believe that Nancy is that child, subtle changes in language show how quickly Ellen succumbs to the dream. Nancy’s desperation to fulfill someone else’s hopes, and save her from her own reality, crash head on with each other. Andrea Riseborough is phenomenal, and holds the film tightly without ever seeming try hard, especially in those final scenes.
Careful casting and writing has bred an extraordinarily naturalistic piece, but the even-handed approach to all twists and turns robs the film of drama. Minute moments of revelation should feel quietly effective but they just don’t. Its moments of discovery should shock or induce some dramatic tension, but they don’t. The sedate storytelling, low-key performances, and cold grey locations make the film feel dull and dour. Though it’s got heart in many of the right places, Nancy is too placid for its own good.
NANCY / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: CHRISTINA CHOE / STARRING: ANDREA RISEBOROUGH, STEVE BUSCEMI, ANN DOWD, JOHN LEGUIZAMO / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
