''Alice, Darling'' is a 2022

psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a Film genre, genre combining the thriller (genre), thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film directed by Mary Nighy, in her directorial debut, from a screenplay by Alanna Francis. The film stars

Anna Kendrick Anna Cooke Kendrick (born August 9, 1985) is an American actress. Known for playing upbeat and endearing characters in comedies and musicals, List of awards and nominations received by Anna Kendrick, her accolades include nominations for an Aca ...

Kaniehtiio Horn Kaniehtiio Alexandra Jessie Horn ( Batt; ; born November 8, 1986), sometimes credited as Tiio Horn, is a Canadian actress and filmmaker. She was nominated for a Gemini Award for her role in the television film '' Moccasin Flats: Redemption'' and ...

, Charlie Carrick, and

Wunmi Mosaku Oluwunmi Mosaku (; born July 31, 1986) is a Nigerian-born British actress. She is known for her roles as Joy in the BBC Two miniseries '' Moses Jones'' (2009) and Holly Lawson in the ITV series ''Vera'' (2011–2012). She won the BAFTA TV Award ...

. ''Alice, Darling'' had its world premiere at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

on September 11, 2022, and was released in select cinemas on December 30, 2022, in Los Angeles at the AMC Sunset 5, before a wide release later in the United States on January 20, 2023, in

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (doing business as AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC) is an American movie theater chain founded in Kansas City, Missouri, and now headquartered ...

Plot

Alice is in a psychologically abusive relationship with her boyfriend, Simon. After taking a vacation with friends, she decides to reassess her relationship with Simon and attempts to break her

codependency In psychology, codependency is a theory that attempts to explain imbalanced relationships where one person enables another person's self-destructive behavior, such as addiction, poor mental health, immaturity, irresponsibility, or under-ach ...

. Simon allows Alice out for a rare evening at a bar with her two best friends Tess and Sophie. The women notice that she is distracted and flinches at each ping from her phone, and throughout the evening she constantly touches her hair. It is implied that Alice met Simon in Tess's circle. However, despite Simon's connection to Tess, he seems to be removing her from her friends. Sophie proposes that they should celebrate Tess's birthday at her parents' house up north, which Alice readily agrees to. Rather than tell Simon the truth, she tells him it is a work trip to Minneapolis. On the trip to the cottage, the trio makes a quick stop at a convenience store, where Alice spots a flyer for a missing girl, Andrea. The missing person case seems to consume Alice. The three women spend time together at the cottage, the rural town, and a lake near the cottage. Simon discovers where they are from reading Alice's emails and calls her, demanding she leave and return to him. Alice packs up but Tess hides her phone and wallet, while Sophie goes to the store as an excuse for Tess and Alice to spend time together. Tess tries to teach Alice to paddle board on the lake. When Tess jokingly rocks the board, Alice falls off and loses her earring, a gift from Simon. In a panic, Alice attempts to dive down and find the earring. Unsuccessful, she returns to the shore where she suffers further panic attacks, muttering the phrase that she "can't do another thing wrong". When pressed by Tess, they have an argument and Alice confesses that she hid their vacation retreat from Simon. Tess questions Alice's well-being. Alice cancels her plan to leave, and the next morning she joins the search party for Andrea. Somewhere near an abandoned cottage she finds lipstick and thinks it belongs to Andrea. Back in the cottage, the women repair their friendship and have a good time. Alice starts opening up to her friends, even at one point telling them that Simon never hurt her physically but eventually admitting Simon subjected her to emotional abuse. Alice stops responding to Simon's messages, leading him to show up unannounced with grocery bags in hand. That evening at a very tense dinner, Simon pulls out a newspaper showing the news that the body of the missing girl was found. Alice takes out the lipstick and says what she thinks about it. Simon condescendingly attempts to shut her down. The next morning, Alice packs and leaves the cottage with Simon, surprising her friends. On the way to the main road, Simon stops his car at a junction allowing a long line of cyclists to pass. Sophie catches up with the car and breaks the back windshield using a

maul A maul may refer to any number of large hammers, including: * War hammer, a medieval weapon * Post maul, a type of sledgehammer * Spike maul, railroad hand tool * Splitting maul, heavy wood-splitting tool resembling both axe and hammer People * A ...

. Alice gets out and locks eyes with Sophie, signalling to her friend that she does not want to go with Simon. Simon meanwhile demands for Alice to get back into the car, but she firmly declines. Tess steps in between Simon and Alice forcing Simon to give up. He walks back to the car and aggressively throws Alice's possessions out before driving away. The film concludes with Alice riding the paddle board and taking a dive into the lake.

Cast

as Alice *

as Tess * Charlie Carrick as Simon *

as Sophie * Mark Winnick as Marcus *

Carolyn Fe Carolyn Fe (born August 1, 1961) is a Filipino actress based in Montreal. She has released three full-length albums and an EP with the Carolyn Fe Blues Collective. Fe is also the recipient of 2018 Toronto Theatre Critics' Awards for Best Supportin ...

as Customer

Production

In July 2021, it was announced

, Charlie Carrick,

, and Kaniehtiio Horn would star in the film, with Mary Nighy directing from a screenplay by Alanna Francis, with

Elevation Pictures Elevation Pictures is a Canadian film distribution and production company owned by Black Bear Pictures. The company was founded in 2013 by Laurie May and is co-led by Noah Segal. The company made its debut at the 2013 Toronto International Fi ...

set to distribute domestically in Canada and

Lionsgate Lions Gate, Lion Gate or similar terms may refer to: Gates *Lion Gate at Mycenae in Greece *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the ancient Hittite city of Hattusa, now in Turkey *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the gardens of Hampton Court Pala ...

internationally.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

took place from June 21 to July 20, 2021, in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. The film doesn't hide the fact that the story is set in Toronto and surrounding areas, with location names and landmarks appearing clearly throughout the film.

Release

The film was released in a limited capacity on December 30, 2022, in Los Angeles at the AMC Sunset 5, before having a wide release on January 20, 2023, in

. It had its world premiere at the

2022 Toronto International Film Festival The 47th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 8 to 18, 2022. The 2022 festival was staged primarily in-person; a small selection of films were offered on the Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox platform, but this represente ...

on September 11, 2022. The film was released for VOD on February 3, 2023. It was released for

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

on March 14, 2023.

Reception

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{Metacritic film, alice-darling 2020s American films 2020s Canadian films 2020s English-language films 2022 films 2022 independent films 2022 psychological thriller films American psychological thriller films Canadian psychological thriller films English-language Canadian films English-language independent films Films about abuse Films set in Toronto Films shot in Toronto Lionsgate films English-language thriller films Films by English women directors