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There is something bothering Alice. She’s underwater, watching the murky light and floating seaweed above her. She is not swimming back up for air—at least not yet. The scene is a precursor to something that will happen later in the movie “Alice, Darling,” but it’s also a visual metaphor for the character’s state of mind. In reality, she’s back on land, meeting her friends at a restaurant in the city. Although she’s in good company now, her mind is elsewhere. Below the surface of her smile, Alice ( Anna Kendrick ) is holding on to an abusive partner, Simon ( Charlie Carrick ), a truth revealed in a handful of uncomfortable conversations, guilt trips, and anxious behavior like pulling out her hair and panic attacks. Her relationship’s red flags are as clear as flashing billboard signs for her worried friends, but Alice looks past these warnings as if they’re her partner’s love language. Under the guise of a birthday getaway, her friends Sophie ( Wunmi Mosaku ) and Tess ( Kaniehtiio Horn ) stage an intervention for their friend sinking away from them: swim up and get out. Save yourself. 

Mary Nighy ’s feature debut “Alice, Darling” is a straightforward drama about getting caught in the undertow of a bad romance. The telltale signs seem obvious to outsiders like her friends and viewers, but for Alice, she’s still performing the mental gymnastics of justifying his controlling demands to her body, attention, and time and interpreting them as love and affection. She’s dug into a defensive position and unable to see the damage Simon’s behavior has caused her, how she fears asking for time for herself, how suffocatingly he clings to her skin.

Nighy balances these perspectives as generously as she can. Almost every exchange or nervous glance from friend to friend or lover to lover feels like a hostage negotiation. What should be tender moments between the young couple are often cruel rounds of verbal and emotional abuse. The tension of the situation is baked within every confrontational staging between the pair or how detached Alice looks and feels from her friends. Even when Simon isn’t physically there in the scene, the fallout of his presence is visually evident. It’s isolated Alice from those who truly care about her. 

The murkiness in Alice’s relationship carries over to the film’s aesthetics thanks to cinematographer Mike McLaughlin . Alice’s world looks a little less bright than the one her friends live in, as if she only ever ventures out on overcast days. There’s a warm tone to the girlfriend’s cabin trip to the woods, but something still looks off, like the peace and serenity of the location are somehow missing. In a move that overcomplicates the already tense drama at hand, Alanna Francis ’ script adds an element of danger to their trip through a subplot about a missing young woman. Alice becomes fixated on her, perhaps fatalistically so, and the mystery becomes an excuse for Simon to escalate his control over her. Maybe it’s to be a cautionary tale for Alice or something to entice her to escape, but none of this quite pans out as effectively as her narrative journey with her friends. 

As the movie’s namesake, Kendrick embodies the tortured feeling of holding onto someone harmful. Alice tells her friends, “He wouldn’t love me if he knew how bad I am,” justifying her mistreatment repeatedly to them and herself. Kendrick’s performance is a stunning departure from her usual bubbly screen presence. That persona fades behind the distracted stare of a person who has to calculate every pro and con of what they say before they say it. She is overwhelmed by the pressure and unable to swim up for air, an SOS which Kendrick communicates through a range of reactions, from catatonic vacant stares to succumbing to heaving waves of a panic attack on the bathroom floor. She’s committed to this story and her character. 

Kendrick’s performance is one of the strongest aspects of “Alice, Darling.” Under Nighy’s direction, they create an emotional portrait of someone on the verge of being lost to a warped distortion of love but who realizes they were surrounded by the real thing the entire time. For every cutting remark Simon makes at her expense, her friends are trying to rescue the person they knew before. That tension makes for good drama, but it takes the team’s sensitivity to make it feel as authentic as it does. It’s a relief when the credits roll, not unlike taking your first breath of fresh air after holding it underwater.

In theaters now. 

Monica Castillo

Monica Castillo is a critic, journalist, programmer, and curator based in New York City. She is the Senior Film Programmer at the Jacob Burns Film Center and a contributor to  RogerEbert.com .

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Film Credits

Alice, Darling (2023)

Rated R for language and some sexual content.

Anna Kendrick as Alice

Kaniehtiio Horn as Tess

Charlie Carrick as Simon

Wunmi Mosaku as Sophie

Markjan Winnick as Marcus

Daniel Stolfi as Officer

• Alanna Francis

Cinematographer

• Mike McLaughlin
• Gareth C. Scales
• Owen Pallett

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‘Alice, Darling’ Review: That’s What Friends Are For

Anna Kendrick stars in a drama about a woman in an abusive relationship who finds refuge with two girlfriends during a getaway.

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By Manohla Dargis

When the title character in “Alice, Darling” makes her entrance, she looks the picture of the thoroughly modern, liberated, happy woman. From the outside, Alice (Anna Kendrick) seems to have it all or almost, including a career, dear friends, a nice Toronto pad and an attentive boyfriend. Look closer, though, and you can see the fissures surrounding her smile. The longer you look, the more numerous and deeper the cracks appear, making the impeccable image that Alice presents to the world seem concerningly, precariously fragile.

I’m not a Kendrick completist, but I’m always happy to see her. A pleasant, personable, ever-so-slightly off presence, she is one of those performers who looks like someone you know or would like to. She’s a fine actress with natural charm, and part of her appeal is that she excels at playing characters who seem recognizably real. Kendrick looks like a pal, like someone you went to high school with, although maybe didn’t get stoned with because she comes across as so straight — that is, if you ignore that she can also seem awfully tightly wound, like someone who needs to keep it together, like someone who’s performatively normal.

The sense that there’s more going on under Kendrick’s likable persona works well for both her character and for this movie, a liberation story that tracks Alice as she struggles to break free of her emotionally abusive lover and her paralyzing fears. Like everything else in Alice’s life, her boyfriend, Simon (Charlie Carrick), looks good from the outside. He’s a successful enough artist who’s worried about his upcoming gallery show. He’s nice looking, too, though his behavior — how he looms over Alice, how he scowls, the contempt that creeps into his voice, the insults that he rains down on her — makes him very ugly. And still, she loves him.

The story revs up when Alice takes a trip with two friends from childhood, Sophie (a necessary and strong Wunmi Mosaku) and Tess (an amusingly spiky Kaniehtiio Horn). Together, they set off to the countryside where Sophie’s parents have a waterside house. The plan is to hang out and celebrate Tess’s birthday, and the trip gives Alice an excuse to get away from Simon, who haunts both her sleep and her waking hours. Mostly, though, it allows the movie to get down to its unsurprising business: Cue the warm looks and fond memories, the booze and pinpricks of unease, some face-offs and a reckoning.

Written by Alanna Francis and directed by Mary Nighy, “Alice, Darling” has a jittery, intriguing premise that evokes classic gaslighting films. Alice’s rotten relationship and her inability to accept the truth about Simon stirs up tension and makes you feel something serious is at stake: You’re worriedly on her side from the start. Once the story moves to the country, though, it downshifts as it becomes a female friendship tale and the movie stalls. One issue is that the characters simply aren’t persuasive as a unit, and despite the performers’ efforts, their interactions never find the flow that comes with longtime intimacy, even when things have gone south. These women just don’t make any sense together.

The larger problem is that there’s not enough here — in story terms or in the filmmaking — to sustain even the movie’s 90 minutes. Sophie and Tess exchange puzzled looks amid the perfunctory staging and camerawork as Alice retreats and lashes out, including at herself. She briefly gets caught up in a search for a missing local woman, a grim subplot that’s presumably meant to serve as a cautionary tale but mostly comes across as padding. The filmmakers also fold in many flashbacks of Simon berating Alice, which make his emotional abuse incontrovertible but do little to bring her into focus. Kendrick looks suitably unhappy, and while you feel for her character, you mostly wish that this actress were in a better movie.

Alice, Darling Rated R for partner emotional abuse, self-harm and violence. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis has been the co-chief film critic of The Times since 2004. She started writing about movies professionally in 1987 while earning her M.A. in cinema studies at New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

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‘alice, darling’ review: anna kendrick transfixes in a chilling portrait of abuse.

The actress plays a young woman coming to terms with the sinister nature of her relationship during a weeklong trip with her friends in this gripping drama from Mary Nighy.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

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The uptight friend, the quirky leading lady, the semi-rebellious college radio DJ who harnesses the melodic potential of red solo cups: These are the roles Anna Kendrick has been relegated to for most of her career, an eclectic mix of largely comedic vehicles. Even after the actress nabbed an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in Up in the Air , she seemed, still, more likely to portray a Beca than a Natalie.

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It’s through Alice’s compulsions — pulling strands of hair, winding them tightly around her index finger, obsessively counting calories — that we see the cruelty of her relationship. Nighy prefers suggestion to explanation. Through brief flashbacks, expertly intercut by editor Gareth C. Scales, we understand that Simon, a mercurial painter, has ingrained himself into Alice’s psyche. He haunts her — so much that when Sophie and Tess invite Alice to spend a weekend at Sophie’s cottage, Alice tells Simon she’s going on a work trip. She rehearses the lie while he fetches coffee and pastries from a cafe, her recitation communicating another level of fear and desperation.

On the drive to the lake house, Alice can’t stop thinking about Simon. The lie gnaws at her each time her phone chimes with a text message from him. His seemingly straightforward wish for her to have a safe flight becomes fodder for her anxieties. Another text asking her if she’s thinking of him feels not only suspect, but sinister. Simon’s frenzied communication style — marked by the frequency, timing and tone of his messages — is calculated and coercive; it keeps him on Alice’s mind even, and especially, when she tries to free herself.

What is clear is that physical distance and time away from Simon help Alice gain perspective about their relationship. But it’s not an easy process. A few days into the trip, Tess and Alice get into a devastating fight that leaves both unsure about their friendship. Sophie, dutiful and maternal, forces a confrontation by hiding Alice’s phone and leaving the women alone to chat. One of the most absorbing parts of Alice, Darling is watching Alice, Sophie and Tess interact with each other throughout the weekend — to witness the frustrating moments of misunderstanding and the triumphant ones of clarity. Kendrick, Mosaku and Horn sustain a natural rapport, which makes investing in their friendship easy. We silently beg Sophie and Tess to see beyond the surface of Alice’s angry eruptions and tendency to isolate. We want Alice to feel safe enough to confide in her companions.

Their strained conversations and tender moments are guided by Owen Pallett’s menacing score. The tense, undulating music is the closest we get to feeling Alice’s constant sense of impending doom. Mike McLaughlin’s unsentimental cinematography helps maintain the plaintive mood.

Without her phone, Alice loosens up, and that makes her talk more about her relationship to Simon. Hearing the anecdotes of the insults, complaints and accusations he throws at her reinforces the thoughts of Tess, Sophie and, by extension, the viewer on the depth of abuse. Alice, Darling is a portrait of contrasts. By steadily constructing an impression of how abuse impacts Alice’s behavior in the first half, Nighy adds an urgent layer to the character’s changes in the second half. Alice indulges in sugary food, takes shots at Tess’ birthday party and rejects her friends’ offer to return her cellphone.

The third act of Alice, Darling is particularly arresting in how it uses the previously built tension. Having not heard from Alice, Simon uses more extreme tactics to see her and try to restore the toxic dynamic. But Sophie and Tess have helped Alice reconnect with herself, fueling her with love and strengthening their bond. This proves to be Alice’s saving grace, giving her the permission and power to imagine a life without Simon.   

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‘Alice, Darling’ Review: A Nervous Anna Kendrick Plays a Woman Trapped in an Abusive Relationship

In an impressive serious turn, the typically radiant 'Pitch Perfect' star shrinks before our eyes, embodying someone so brainwashed by a controlling boyfriend that her besties are forced to intervene.

By Dennis Harvey

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A few minutes into “Alice, Darling,” audiences may be reminded of how 2020’s “The Invisible Man” opened: Anna Kendrick creeps out of bed at dawn, taking pains not to wake the partner we briefly assume she’s about to flee. But whereas that Elisabeth Moss vehicle was a monster movie given heft by its abusive-boyfriend backstory, director Mary Nighy’s feature debut puts a woman’s difficult exit from a dangerous relationship front and center. This is a quietly powerful drama about psychological manipulation and damage, receiving a year-end qualifying run at the AMC Sunset 5 in West Hollywood on Dec. 30 before expanding to AMC theaters nationwide on Jan. 20. 

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Alanna Francis’ nuanced script threads in a subplot about a missing young woman in this rural area, suggesting elements of murder mystery we anticipate might lead into more genre-oriented territory. That actually proves a red herring; “Alice, Darling” may frustrate those expecting its denouement to be reached by more violent or melodramatic means than those the filmmakers devise. 

But the focus here is not so much on the object of Alice’s terror as it is the emotional bedrock of friendships Simon has (naturally) done his best to distance her from, and which may yet prove her salvation. While the word “intervention” is never spoken, that is this movie’s de facto gist: how people who really love you will take the risk of telling you who is only pretending as much, to your evident harm. Breaking a destructive codependency is so hard, sometimes others must strike the first severing blow for you.

It’s a strong role for Kendrick, whose character may seem less than fully defined, but then that’s part of the point — Alice’s boyfriend has insidiously worn away any part of her personality that doesn’t prioritize him. Kaniehtiio Horn and Wunmi Mosaku are both very good as that rare screen thing, BFF figures with palpable inner lives of their own, rather than just being satellites to the protagonist. Carrick is careful not to make Simon a conspicuous monster. To the extent that we see him, he’s charming and attractive enough of the time that we understand how Alice got sucked by degrees into a relationship operating much like a slow-acting poison. 

If the film could have used a stronger sense of catharsis at the end, it is nonetheless all to the good that Nighy and Francis exercise such judicious prior restraint. That keeps “Alice, Darling” from any sense of contrivance, the silent worry in Kendrick’s every gesture maintaining sufficient tension despite the lack of overt thriller devices. The thoughtful assembly is complemented in particular by Owen Pallett’s piano-based original score and Mike McLaughlin’s handsome but unshowy cinematography.

Reviewed online, Dec. 29, 2022. In Toronto Film Festival (Gala Presentations). MPA Rating: R. Running time: 90 MIN. 

• Production: (Canada) A Lionsgate release and presentation of a Babe Nations Films, Elevation Pictures production in association with Ontario Creates, Castelletto Films. Producers: Katie Bird Nolan, Lindsay Tapscott, Christina Piovesan, Noah Segal. Executive producers: Sam Tipper-Hale, Anna Kendrick, Laurie May, Adrian Love.
• Crew: Director: Mary Nighy. Screenplay: Alanna Francis. Camera: Mike McLaughlin. Editor: Gareth C. Scales. Music: Owen Pallett.
• With: Anna Kendrick, Kaniehtiio Horn, Charlie Carrick, Wunmi Mosaku.

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Alice, Darling

A young woman trapped in an abusive relationship becomes the unwitting participant in an intervention staged by her two closest friends. A young woman trapped in an abusive relationship becomes the unwitting participant in an intervention staged by her two closest friends. A young woman trapped in an abusive relationship becomes the unwitting participant in an intervention staged by her two closest friends.

• Alanna Francis
• Mark Van de Ven
• Anna Kendrick
• Kaniehtiio Horn
• Charlie Carrick
• 125 User reviews
• 240 Critic reviews
• 65 Metascore
• 1 win & 4 nominations

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• Trivia The book Alice finds and Tess reads to her by the bonfire is "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf.
• Goofs There's a sex scene towards the end of the movie between Anna Kendrick's character and her partner. When they're on the floor he clearly has bare legs. Next second right after he stands up he has black trousers on.

Alice : I know this sounds crazy, but sometimes it feels like he can read my mind and there's nowhere left that I can actually be alone.

• Connections Featured in On Cinema: Alice, Darling (2022)
• Soundtracks Klapp Klapp Artist: Hari Dafusia (as Dafusia) written by Periyagaram Sridhar Srihari Courtesy of Sorelle Sound Ltd.

User reviews 125

• edgarasstasaitis
• Feb 10, 2023
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• January 20, 2023 (United States)
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• Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Babe Nation Films
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• $4,000,000 (estimated)

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• Runtime 1 hour 29 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Alice, Darling Reviews

…a small but well-composed little film that brings a serious issue (gaslighting) into the sunlight with genuine care…

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 31, 2023

Alice, Darling is anchored by Kendrick’s performance — her practising how to broach the topic of the all-girls trip to Simon, that painful hair pulling and in a million other ways, she reveals Alice’s fear of this man who claims to love her

Full Review | Aug 27, 2023

With tremendous performances and important exploration into the impact abuse can have, Alice, Darling is worth the watch. However, it doesn't quite do enough for the story being told, which deserves a more poignant message.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 24, 2023

Anna Kendrick has played jittery women before, but her performance here is on another level altogether.

Full Review | May 28, 2023

The subplot in the film enriches the plight of its protagonist, excellently portrayed by Anna Kendrick. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 22, 2023

Alice, Darling is machiavellic within its overwhelming intelligence. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 18, 2023

It knocks you out, making you appreciate its rawness and its leading actress. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 18, 2023

Part of a necessary conversation, but only accomplishes so much on its own.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | May 8, 2023

What makes 'Alice, Darling' so engaging is the central theme of women supporting women, and just how powerful friendship and community can be.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Mar 15, 2023

... At times merely functional — a public-service broadcast on how to recognise nonphysical abuse. But Alice's bond with her two best friends is well drawn, and the trio's showdown with the boyfriend has just the right touch of melodrama.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 2, 2023

Anna Kendrick gives one of her very best performances in Mary Nighy's cautious thriller about the control we allow ourselves to be put under in the name of misbegotten comfort and routine.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 16, 2023

Take out all the red herrings in this 89-minute navel gaze, and you’re left with a 90s teen soap subplot featuring wholly unlikeable characters from stem to stern.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Feb 10, 2023

“Alice, Darling” sets out to shine an honest and earnest light on the issue of psychological and emotional abuse....Mary Nighy takes this undeniable potent subject matter and examines it from a distance, yet with remarkable clarity.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 9, 2023

Alice, Darling is a decent enough debut, sincere and heartfelt, shot competently, with an important message that isn’t quite matched by its quality.

Full Review | Feb 6, 2023

The multi-talented Kendrick can't save this well-intended project from being a stultifying bore.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Feb 5, 2023

Alice, Darling has Kendrick giving one of the finest performances in her career.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Feb 3, 2023

Alice, Darling isn’t fun, but it is intensely interesting. And the reason is Anna Kendrick.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 3, 2023

Mary Nighy ramps up the intensity, revealing the paradox of an abused woman who is smart, educated and financially independent but gives in to her abuser. Women in such relationships will relate to Alice, and Kendrick’s unhinged performance nails it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 3, 2023

The film wraps things up a bit too tidily at the end, but the power of Alice’s story remains undiminished.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 2, 2023

Alice, Darling brilliantly tackles the sensitive topic of abusive relationships

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Feb 1, 2023

• Entertainment

‘Alice, Darling’ review: An intense portrait of emotional abuse

Movie review.

It doesn’t take long for the tension to start seeping through everything in “Alice, Darling”: a finger twirling strands of hair in a stranglelike grip, eyes that never quite meet yours, incessant texts that only seem to make the situation worse. The tension is hardly subtle but unnerving nonetheless. It flows around Alice (a fantastic Anna Kendrick) like ink-blotted water, slowly pulling her down with no clear path to the surface.

You see, Alice is barely treading water in her toxic relationship with boyfriend Simon (Charlie Carrick), who has an insidious skill for verbally tearing down Alice no matter what the reason. It’s clear from the start there’s almost nothing healthy going on here, but Alice stays, making excuses and justifying his actions, even to her closest friends.

We don’t really get to know Alice or Simon in the past; there’s almost no backstory to be had here, no way of understanding who Alice was before being constantly lashed by Simon’s withering critiques. But we do get to know her in the present, and that she does have people in her life who want to help her.

The crux of “Alice, Darling” stems from a girls trip out of the city with Alice, Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku) and Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn), whose birthday they’ll be celebrating at a lakeside cabin. Shouldn’t be an issue for Alice to spend a week with her closest friends, right? It doesn’t take but a few minutes before we see Alice coming up with lies to find a reason to be gone from her controlling, needy boyfriend for so long. But she does manage to tag along for Tess’ birthday, even if the mere thought of upsetting Simon can send her into a panic attack.

The tension that was so present at the beginning of the film doesn’t dissipate even as Alice and her friends are unpacking groceries and clothes at their idyllic cabin. Her friends worry, and what starts as a simple getaway morphs into a less-than-subtle intervention.

And here’s where the film shines: Tension abounds (those panic attacks don’t stop just because Simon isn’t on-screen), but director Mary Nighy grants space for these women to discover what they mean to each other now, in the present. We see how Sophie and Tess have their own personalities outside of Alice, and how the three interact both with and without the specter of Simon. It’s clear they share history, even if we’re never really told what that entails. Kendrick, Mosaku and Horn all give lovely performances, helping to anchor this traumatizing tale with a sense of camaraderie that speaks to the strength that friendship can offer.

“Alice, Darling” is a bit of a slow burn, despite what its trailers would have you believe. It’s tense drama over tense thrills, though there’s a subplot of a missing girl (the metaphorical link to Alice is, once again, not very subtle) that’s woven into the interpersonal drama between Alice and those closest to her. The message is clear: Maybe what’s lost can never be found, but then again, maybe it can be, even if it doesn’t look the same as it did. Maybe, with her friends by her side, Alice can find a way to surface from the water that’s been dragging her down.

With Anna Kendrick, Wunmi Mosaku, Kaniehtiio Horn, Charlie Carrick. Directed by Mary Nighy, from a screenplay by Alanna Francis. 90 minutes. Rated R for language and some sexual content. Opens Jan. 19 at Pacific Place 11.

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Alice, Darling review: Anna Kendrick draws on her own experiences in a poignant abuse drama

Director mary nighy delicately exposes how internalised and invisible the experience of narcissistic abuse can be, article bookmarked.

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Alice ( Anna Kendrick ) doesn’t see herself as a victim of abuse. In fact, she insists she isn’t. Why then when Alice and her friends (played by Kaniehtiio Horn and Wunmi Mosaku) come across a poster for a missing girl presumed to have been killed by someone close to her, can she not shake off the spectral feeling of connection to this total stranger’s tragedy? After all, she says to her friends and herself, it’s not like her boyfriend (Charlie Carrick) “hurts me or anything”.

What Alice can’t yet see – and what forms the core revelation of the understated but poignant Alice, Darling – is that abuse is not always a single action. It lives and breathes within her relationship with Simon. It is the ever-present, sickly dread that resides in the pit of Alice’s stomach, which dictates that she must cater to Simon’s every whim and sexual advance out of fear of what he may do otherwise.

With Alice, Darling , director Mary Nighy (daughter of actor Bill) delicately exposes how internalised and invisible the experience of narcissistic abuse can be. It’s one that, for Alice, at least, exists almost entirely within the confines of her phone. She stares at it, dead-eyed but fixated. When will the next text from Simon arrive? What will it mean? And what might it secretly demand? Behind locked bathroom doors, Alice compulsively tears her hair out and bundles it into tiny, wiry balls of shame.

Nighy does, occasionally, revert to the standard symbols of sad women. One day, I hope cinema will move on from the image of female protagonists submerged in bathtubs, drowning in their own oppression. Alice, Darling remains striking, however, thanks to how subtly Alanna Francis’s screenplay presents the warning signs of Simon’s behaviour. We see him return from the crowded, lauded opening of his art show only to declare it “a complete f***ing trainwreck”. The unspoken expectation being that Alice will tend his ego and reassure him of his genius.

Kendrick has been candid when speaking about the film. The actor recently revealed that she drew much of her performance from a recent experience of her own . Her affinity with the material is especially evident in how authentically she renders Alice’s dissociative spells. There’s that glazed-over look in her eye and the bodily tension of someone trying to crawl inside of themselves.

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It’s particularly refreshing to see how uninterested Kendrick and Nighy are in making Alice saintly. She’s prickly and argumentative when confronted about her relationship. When a friend softly points out her patterns of disordered eating, Alice shovels handfuls of chocolate into her mouth like a stubborn child. The film wouldn’t work, either, without Horn and Mosaku, who find that same space for imperfection in their performances as loving friends who don’t know quite how to help. That is the ultimate, noble-hearted dream behind Alice, Darling – that there’s a friend out there, maybe even an Alice, who will see this film as the wake-up call they need.

Dir: Mary Nighy. Starring: Anna Kendrick, Kaniehtiio Horn, Charlie Carrick, Wunmi Mosaku, Mark Winnick. 15, 89 minutes

‘Alice, Darling’ is in cinemas from 20 January

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Alice, darling, common sense media reviewers.

Friendship shines in mature toxic relationship thriller.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

If you can't trust your gut, trust your friends.

Sophie and Tess are ride-or-die besties who will d

Main characters and director are all women. Alice'

A weapon is used to startle but not to harm. Viewe

Plot revolves around a couple who live together. S

Strong language includes "bulls--t," "c--t," and s

Drinking throughout, including a scene where chara

Parents need to know that Alice, Darling is a psychological thriller starring Anna Kendrick as a woman named Alice who's wrestling internally with her romantic relationship, which is taking a toll. She's on edge, self-harming when things get too stressful. The story explores coercion, emotional manipulation,…

Positive Messages

Positive role models.

Sophie and Tess are ride-or-die besties who will do anything for their childhood friend, Alice. Sophie is respectful, while Tess is blunt and an advocate for herself. They're both comfortable in their own skin, which is a strong contrast to Alice herself.

Diverse Representations

Main characters and director are all women. Alice's best friends, who are depicted positively, are Black (Wunmi Mosaku) and Indigenous (Kaniehtiio Horn) and offer body type diversity.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

A weapon is used to startle but not to harm. Viewers are unsure of a character's safety. A subplot revolves around the search for a missing teen. Psychological abuse. A character self-harms.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Plot revolves around a couple who live together. Sex scenes include bare shoulders, thrusting, rubbing, kissing, moaning. Sexting photos of cleavage. Characters are seen showering together. Conversations about orgasms, the ethics of having sex dreams. Jokes about "d--k pics."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Strong language includes "bulls--t," "c--t," and several uses of "f--k."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Drinking throughout, including a scene where characters bond by getting drunk (they're hung over the next day). Negative character smokes. Joke about cocaine.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Alice, Darling is a psychological thriller starring Anna Kendrick as a woman named Alice who's wrestling internally with her romantic relationship, which is taking a toll. She's on edge, self-harming when things get too stressful. The story explores coercion, emotional manipulation, and control. Even more, it's about love -- and here that means the love of good friends who won't let go, even when they're being pushed away. There's a subplot about a missing girl in the vacation town that Alice and her friends are visiting. A couple of sex scenes show bare shoulders, thrusting, rubbing, kissing, and moaning. Sexual content also includes sexting photos of cleavage. Adult characters drink a lot and joke about sex, orgasms, and cocaine. A negative character smokes. Strong language includes "f--k," "c--t," and "d--k." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 2 parent reviews

Alice, Darling': A Distorted Mirror to Society

What's the story.

In ALICE, DARLING, Alice's ( Anna Kendrick ) life revolves around her adoring boyfriend, Simon ( Charlie Carrick ). But during an off-the-grid girls' retreat with her two best friends, Sophie ( Wunmi Mosaku ) and Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn), Alice starts to see that her relationship may not be as perfect as she wants to believe.

Is It Any Good?

Written by Alanna Francis, this is a film that has potential to save lives -- or at least, save some from years of trauma. Because while some viewers may experience first-time feature director Mary Nighy's quiet, lakeshore cabin film as a lulling, non-thrilling thriller, others may recognize their own relationship on the screen in Alice, Darling , and it could be a five-alarm wake-up call.

Kendrick has shared that she'd recently escaped a similar situation when she decided to star in and executive-produce this drama, and her lived experience fuels a believable performance. Alice is a woman in crisis who isn't fully aware of it. She knows that Simon, a successful artist, loves her, and she loves him. Yet she also knows that something isn't right -- and it's gnawing at her. He's not physically abusive, although he does get frustrated with her -- but that's normal, right? Yet Alice's every breath is full of nervous anxiety. And every time Simon's name is mentioned, Alice's friends exchange a "look." Nighy doesn't give viewers the full scope of Simon, just glimpses, leaving viewers to wonder whether Simon actually is a bad boyfriend. Like a lake, the evidence is murky, but, as the story gets closer to the surface, things become clearer. Older teens may have enough life experience to truly understand what's going on with Alice and tuck her into a pocket of their mind, where she can stay until or unless they find themselves or a friend in similar circumstances.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the idea of trusting your gut instinct. How do viewers see Alice's body and mind telling her something is wrong, even if she can't find the reason?

Discuss how the filmmakers choose to keep it unclear whether Simon is a bad guy or a good guy. How do you think Simon might tell this story to his friends? What does that tell you about getting just one side of any story?

Are drinking and smoking glamorized here? Are there realistic consequences? Why does that matter?

Do you consider Alice an unreliable narrator? What does that mean? What is "gaslighting," and does it apply here?

Do Alice and her friends look like friend groups you might see in real life? Why is diverse representation in the media important?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 30, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : February 10, 2023
• Cast : Anna Kendrick , Wunmi Mosaku , Kaniehtiio Horn
• Director : Mary Nighy
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors, Indigenous actors
• Studio : Lionsgate
• Genre : Thriller
• Topics : Friendship
• Run time : 90 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : language and some sexual content
• Last updated : August 25, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Alice, Darling review – compelling female friendship thriller

A woman with a controlling boyfriend and her two friends hatch a plan in Mary Nighy’s impressive psychological drama

O n a girls’ holiday with two of her oldest friends, Alice (Anna Kendrick) has little to say. And when she does speak, it’s in the voice of someone else – her emotionally abusive boyfriend, Simon (Charlie Carrick), is so controlling that he’s in her thoughts and pulling her strings even when they’re apart. But gradually, with the support of Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) and Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku), Alice comes to realise that her relationship is not a healthy one.

What’s impressive about this psychological thriller, the debut feature film from director Mary Nighy , is how tuned in it is to the dynamics of female friendship. While there’s a certain slackness to the storytelling – the film sags a little in the middle – the relationship between the women is fully persuasive. This is a friendship that goes deeper than words and instead plays out in loaded glances and body language that builds a rampart to repel the truly horrible Simon.

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Alice, Darling film review: Anna Kendrick paints an affecting portrait of emotional abuse

Director mary nighy does great things with anna kendrick in alice, darling, despite a clichéd script.

Alice, Darling ’s Simon Lowe (Charlie Carrick) has the body of an athlete, the charm of a salesman, and the English-accented, rarely raised voice of a romance-novel-ready sensitive guy. He’d never hit a woman, or force himself on one in the manner one associates with physical assault. Yet he’s an abuser nonetheless, and perhaps a more insidious one than the kind of openly violent lout whose offenses are overt. He never beats the body, but he batters down self-esteem and manipulates empathy, leaving his girlfriend Alice (Anna Kendrick) so emotionally destroyed that he doesn’t have to say or do anything; the fear of how he might react is enough to keep her on edge forever.

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Like a constant gardener, Alice must tend to Simon’s neediness around the clock. Heaven forbid she not respond to a text, or regularly send him a cleavage selfie for reassurance that she still wants him and still stays in starvation-shape for him. Ignore his neediness, and he’ll convince her she’s the abuser, failing to support him and deliberately sabotaging his life. She hurts her own body worse than he ever would, wrapping hair tightly around her fingers till they bleed. And there’s a real question of what free will she has to say no to anything, from sex on down.

While the marketing sends mixed messages, this is not just a narrative of suffering. Most of it concerns Alice’s attempt to escape, if only for a while, on a vacation with pals Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku) and Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) to celebrate the latter’s birthday. Knowing full well that a girls-only trip won’t fly with Simon, who’ll angrily claim she’s choosing friends over him, she lies and tells him it’s a business trip, a position she can better defend against his arguments without emotional investment. But it’s only a matter of time before he finds out, and in the meantime, will Sophie and Tess realize what’s going on with their friend?

Anyone who’s known abuse victims would pick up on what Alice is sending out, even without foreknowledge of her story. She makes excuses, she tries to back out of everything, and when called on any of it, forcefully makes grand gestures of overcompensation, like suddenly and visibly stuffing her face to “prove” that she’s not forced to be on a punitive diet. It’s easy to see why some involved thought Alice, Darling was worth a one-week, awards-qualifying screening to see if Kendrick could score nominations. The acting is solid across the board, with Mosaku and Horn making the stalwart friends far from perfect, even a little needy in their own ways, and Carrick occasionally revealing the deep insecurity that fuels his terrible behavior—after a grand opening of his art show, he rages that “nobody” showed up, because the sizable crowd didn’t include the important people whose approval he was craving.

One might expect great work with actors from director Mary Nighy, whose father Bill is himself an awards favorite this year. Unfortunately, Alanna Francis’ script is overloaded with clichés that could easily deter awards voters. Character named Alice to denote that she has fallen down a metaphorical rabbit hole? Check. Footage of her swimming underwater, suggesting she’s psychologically drowning? As predictable as the eventual, inevitable follow-up of her emerging from the water to symbolize rebirth. Female friends singing loudly along to the car radio to blow off steam? Yep. Faces reflected in the light of fireworks to indicate a moment of spontaneous joy? You know it. All that’s missing is a montage of trying on different outfits, but editor Gareth C. Scales doesn’t seem like the type who’s down for that—he’s more expert at showing us how Simon manifests in Alice’s head at all times, even when he’s nowhere nearby.

To the extent that the movie is a thriller, it pulls that aspect into the final act, when Simon shows up in person again, pushing his luck by being himself in front of Alice’s friends. It’s only then that everything comes together, making Alice, Darling feel like a sort of emotional revenge flick. If you’re going to put an audience (via the main character) through the wringer, the catharsis had better be worth it. Earlier in the film, Nighy introduces a subplot about a local missing girl that’s meant to awaken Alice to parallels with herself; it never really amounts to much, but the suspenseful elements featuring Simon absolutely do.

As a frequent director of TV and of shorts, but a first-time feature helmer, Nighy feels like she’s finding her way in a new format. She’s got the hard part down, pulling off effective emotional beats even when the story seems to be operating on screenwriting 101 paradigms. All that remains is to find a script that’s up to the rest of it.

( Alice, Darling opens nationwide on January 20.)

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‘Alice, Darling’ Review: Anna Kendrick Gives Her Best Performance in Weak Abusive Relationship Drama

Ryan lattanzio, deputy editor, film.

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Lionsgate releases the film in limited theaters on Friday, December 29 with expansion to follow on Friday, January 20.

While not quite the taut thriller it’s been billed as, “Alice, Darling” centerpieces Anna Kendrick in her best performance since “Up in the Air” made her a star (and Oscar nominee) in 2009. Kendrick is in every scene of Mary Nighy’s drama about a woman (Alice) whose reality comes crashing down over the course of a girls’ trip to a lakeside cabin: The reality is that she’s in an abusive relationship with a Newcastle artist named Simon (Charlie Carrick), who has a chokehold on her every move and decision, from her whereabouts to what she’s wearing.

“Alice, Darling” runs out of emotional impact despite a lean 89-minute running time that already feels too long, though Kendrick capably carries her character’s emotional arc from self-deception and denial to revelation and escape.

The movie opens with a close-up on Alice’s face, appearing pensive while floating underwater. It’s the sort of vaguely metaphoric shot we know will serve as a bookend, and it eventually does as the movie wraps up. Cut to Alice in the city, meeting her friends Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn of “Letterkenny”) and Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku, “Lovecraft Country”) for dinner. Tess has a birthday looming and so proposes the idea of a cottage trip; it’s immediately obvious that Alice is thrown off by the idea, though we’re unsure why.

Meanwhile, the very dashing waiter keeps making eyes at Alice, and for a minute you think this might be the meet-cute that eventually winds Alice up into a not-so-cute toxic relationship. Not so. Alice mentions Simon, her longtime boyfriend, and his upcoming art show. Tess, an aspiring but far less successful artist herself, is less supportive about Simon. Is it because her friends aren’t in happy about the psychological damage he’s inflicting on Alice? By the end of the film, we discover how very little they knew.

That’s because Alice, as anyone locked in a Stockholm Syndrome-like relationship marked by gaslighting, verbal abuse, and control, is adept at compartmentalizing the person she is with Simon and the one she is out in the world and with her friends. In the restaurant bathroom, she sends a snap of her cleavage to Simon at his behest, signaling just the kind of sway he has over her even in moments where she’s with other people.

Back at home, she finds the waiter’s number on the receipt in her pocket, and not only rips it up, but also washes out the ink before throwing it in the trash, implying that Simon is the kind of guy who probably goes through the garbage looking for evidence like this.

While Alice clearly isn’t in any kind of therapy, and isn’t even honest with herself about what’s going on, she’s found one coping mechanism: trichotillomania. In moments of crisis or anxious unease, she pulls out strands of her hair by the roots, taking no pleasure in the self-destructive act, but using it as you would drugs or alcohol to cope with stress. These are hard-to-watch moments, but Kendrick, ever a game comic actress and rarely given a dramatic leading showcase, effectively conveys her character’s inescapable mental torment. Later, in the shower, Simon sneaks up on her for sex she’s all too willing to comply with despite her unsettled mood.

Everything comes crashing down during the girls’ trip, which Alice has lied to Simon about under the pretense of needing to go on a last-minute business trip. His texts are relentless, and his surveillance makes it difficult for Alice to relax with Tess and Sophie. Meanwhile, in the background, a local girl has gone missing — a red-herring device that might provide some shades to Alice’s character but that ultimately goes nowhere. Alice, rather than catch up with her friends, heads into search parties with the locals.

The movie, from here, precedes to meander until the inevitable, as Simon shows up at the cabin after Alice repeatedly ignores his increasingly menacing missives. Her friendships are already fraying over the course of the short trip, despite some nice sing-song moments to Lisa Loeb and nostalgic reminiscences of better times. When Tess does get to the bone of what’s happening to Alice, it’s gutting: “He wouldn’t love me if he knew how bad I am.”

Kendrick has said that she drew from her own experiences in a toxic relationship to channel Alice, and that shows: It’s a performance of understatement and quiet melancholy, and she rarely goes into full freakout moment outside of the bathrooms she shuts herself in to scream and pull her hair out. “Alice, Darling” makes the case for Kendrick as a dramatic actress, especially when she’s carving out her own material on personal terms (she’s also an executive producer here).

The script from Alanna Francis, however, could use that level of focus. Alice’s journey is a compelling one as she finds her way back to herself, but the movie feels overlong in its second act. While Francis and director Mary Nighy (who’s helmed on HBO’s excellent and underseen “Industry”) surely didn’t want to make a film totally about Alice and Simon’s dynamic (as he gets relatively little screen time), “Alice, Darling” could have benefited from more tension.

Visually the movie lacks in visual imagination, with cinematographer Mike McLaughlin and Nighy mainly directing via coverage shots when not in close-up on Alice, and they don’t contribute to what feels like a true cinematic experience on the big screen. (“Alice, Darling” has the feeling of a decent streaming movie.) Still, Kendrick makes the case for why she belongs in more dramatic roles that allow her to shed her normally peppy usually cheery onscreen persona. We know how good she is, and we’d only love to see more.

“Alice, Darling” premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. It will be released theatrically by Lionsgate at a later date.

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Alice, Darling Review

An intimate but devastating look at the toll of emotional abuse..

Alice, Darling premieres Jan. 20 exclusively in AMC Theaters.

Films about psychological abuse within relationships run the gamut of effectiveness. The scale goes everywhere from the lowkey cheesy Lifetime movie approach to the recent The Invisible Man (2020) kind of terrifying. But sometimes the more intimate approach can pack the biggest emotional wallop, as is the case with director Mary Nighy’s debut feature, Alice, Darling. Essentially a character study of the impact that gaslighting and manipulation by one partner over another has over time, writer Alanna Francis, Nighy, and star Anna Kendrick, as Alice, together paint a raw portrait of what being under a quietly conniving thumb in an isolating relationship looks like. While at times uncomfortable and bleak, Alice’s story is ultimately hopeful and important in portraying what a victim of mental abuse goes through inside and out.

Unlike other abuse stories that often feel compelled to hang their narratives on dramatic inciting incidents or heinous acts, Alice, Darling instead tracks the minutiae that takes up so much space in Alice’s life with her artist boyfriend, Simon (Charlie Carrick). In an established relationship, it becomes immediately clear that Alice is driven to distraction by their dynamic. There are plenty of subtle tells from Alice twirling her hair with painful intensity around her index finger to her immediate Pavlovian response to his constant texts during a rare dinner with her best friends from childhood, Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) and Sophia (Wunmi Mosaku). There’s almost an invisible weight that sits on Alice’s pinched shoulders that she casually blames on work stress, or her own copious flaws to deflect the increasingly piercing glares of her concerned friends. She agrees to go on a girl’s week away to the woods at Sophie’s family cabin to celebrate Tess’ birthday, but we find out that Alice has to conjure a sudden “work trip” to get Simon to agree to time away from him.

Like an addict, Alice initially doesn’t fare well sequestered away from Simon. It’s apparent this is the first time she’s been away from him for any extended period which gives her the opportunity to think about the everyday casual grievances that Simon does to chip away at her self-esteem, her own desires, and any sense of peace she has about herself. Nighy uses some highly effective techniques to get us under Alice’s skin, framing everything in close up, with an almost disarming intimacy that puts us in her hyper fixated space. As Alice allows herself some bucolic peace, Nighy disrupts it by deftly inserting snippets of memories where Simon consistently takes his disappointments out verbally on Alice; sexually coerces her in overbearing ways that she can’t reject without repercussions; or nudges behavioral changes regarding her weight. Each has quietly shifted Alice to orient her whole self to Simon’s needs, and the managing of him becomes her 24/7 existence.

What ensues is Alice’s slow unpeeling by Tess and Sophia. Their once close relationships have suffered from Simon’s imposed isolation, and they serve to remind Alice who she used to be. All three women are exceptional in portraying the realness of these long-term friendships, with all its history and hurts. It’s a testament to their talent that nothing that ensues amongst them is explosive, aside from Alice’s panic attacks. Change and truth happens via talks while chopping wood, or paddle boarding or during the morning after a night of drinks and dancing. It’s in these commonplace moments that Alice comes back to herself, as her friends become increasingly appalled realizing exactly how much they’ve missed what’s happening right under their noses. It’s those quiet epiphanies that the film does best, exposing what a gradual pulling away does to a person and their circle.

What's Anna Kendrick's best movie?

Less successful is a side story involving a missing girl that Alice finds herself drawn to helping find. It’s never fully fleshed out as necessary to the story, aside from serving as an on-the-nose cautionary tale and a resource for future manipulation Simon tries to use against Alice. The film would have been fine without it and perhaps benefited from pruning it altogether to spare the scattered focus that doesn’t quite fit. But overall Nighy has a firm hand with the rest of the story, capturing incredible tension in the mundane that is made menacing by Simon’s intensity and brazenness. You walk away from Alice, Darling with the sobering certainty that watching someone fall apart in the wake of that relentless focus, and their scramble to navigate it, is as chillingly effective as any showy horror film out there right now, and will linger just as effectively.

Alice, Darling is a quiet and harrowing look at how a psychologically abused person can lose themself within a toxic relationship. Anna Kendrick strips away all of her typical charisma and bubbly charm for a deeply emotional and vulnerable performance. Her Alice allows audiences to see what the victim of gradual, destructive reconditioning by a partner looks like, from the subtle to the anxiety riddled. It’s not an easy watch, but Alice, Darling is an important one that will have you thinking about the signs of abuse we all may miss with our own family and friends.

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Alice, darling review: anna kendrick excels in piercing, sensitive drama.

Luckily, though, Alice, Darling is a respectful and piercing character study that also serves as an excellent showcase for Kendrick's talents.

Anna Kendrick might be best known for her comedic and musical roles, but with her latest feature, Alice, Darling , the Oscar-nominated performer reminds viewers she has some seriously impressive dramatic chops. Directed by Mary Nighy, the new film is an intimate, unsettling examination of a woman and the effect her increasingly disturbing relationship has on her life. Considering the plot, it would've been easy for Nighy and screenwriter Alanna Francis to take a more heavy-handed, frightening approach. Luckily, though, Alice, Darling is a respectful and piercing character study that also serves as an excellent showcase for Kendrick's talents.

On the surface, Alice (Kendrick) has it all: A solid job, two best friends to gab with at wine bars, and a sexy, attentive boyfriend, Simon (Charlie Carrick). However, from the way Alice carefully rehearses what she's going to say to Simon to her tendency to compulsively pull her hair out, it soon becomes clear there's more to the story. When Alice's friends Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) and Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku) invite her on a girls trip to a beach house for the week, Alice's carefully constructed facade of a perfect relationship starts crumbling around her. Soon, it becomes a question of whether Tess and Sophie can save Alice from a situation she's unwilling to acknowledge.

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As Alice, Darling shows, abusive relationships don't always leave visible bruises. The script doesn't show its hand right away, with Francis instead choosing to slowly unravel the horrors of Alice and Simon's relationship. The signs are there in moments where Alice is alone, which means Kendrick must bring the audience into Alice's inner life with minimal dialogue and action. She does it exceptionally well, and it isn't long before the audience is on Alice's side, eagerly waiting for the moment where she escapes Simon's grasp. There's something to be said about a film that puts a spotlight on emotional toxicity. Not many viewers might recognize Simon's tactics as abuse, and Alice, Darling treats the topic with the sensitive touch it requires.

Francis opts to juxtapose Alice's situation with a plot involving a girl who has gone missing in the town where the women go on vacation. When this thread reaches its midpoint, it gets a bit harder to justify. Its inclusion is one of the weaker elements of Alice, Darling . It is perhaps the closest the movie gets to being obvious with the themes it aims to explore. In the end, though, Francis and Nighy manage to stage the plot's resolution in a way that gives a clear, unsettling impact. Additionally, it doesn't take too much away from Alice's journey and the development of the relationships that matter the most here — the ones she has with her friends. Alice, Darling doesn't give quite as much development to Tess and Sophie, but Horn and Mosaku's performances go a long way in fostering the impression of a deep, strong friendship. Mosaku's kind, compassionate Sophie tugs at the heartstrings as she tries to get through to Alice, while Horn gets to dig into some of Tess' pricklier traits as the character pries deeper into Alice's baffling behavior. Alice, Darling paints a wonderfully realistic portrait of female friendship.

Unquestionably, though, Alice, Darling 's high point is Kendrick's performance . Most of the actor's best moments come through when Alice is on her own, though she plays off the other cast members well. Kendrick portrays Alice's delicate and anxious fear with impressive deftness, and in the moments where Alice seems to let loose and reconnect with the person she was before, the audience really feels how special those instances truly are. As the infamous Simon, Carrick portrays his subtle manipulations in a way that elicits deep unease. To his credit, also, he doesn't push his performance into an over-the-top caricature of an emotionally abusive boyfriend. Carrick keeps things on the right edge of normal, thus forcing viewers to truly step into Alice's shoes as they confront the damage he has wrought.

Alice, Darling knows when its story is done, coming to a close after just an hour and a half. Though this leaves its eponymous heroine's future ambiguous, Nighy leaves viewers with a sense of what will happen to her going forward. In a way, the uncertainty of how Alice will move forward is just as powerful as all the elements that came before. Save for some awkwardness with the missing girl subplot, Alice, Darling is a delicate look at a delicate subject, and with Kendrick's devastating performance at its center, it is certain to spark conversation among audiences.

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Alice, Darling opens nationwide on Friday, January 20 exclusively in AMC Theaters. The film is 90 minutes long and rated R for language and some sexual content.

Alice, Darling Review

20 Jan 2023

Alice, Darling

This may be her debut, but director Mary Nighy knows how to build tension. The sight of Anna Kendrick ’s Alice twisting her hair so tightly around her finger that she cuts off her circulation makes it clear, in the opening moments of this film, that something is deeply wrong in her life. But what that something is, and how it affects her, only emerges gradually. The result is far more powerful than many showier efforts on the same subject.

This is a slow-burning drama, almost a thriller, anchored by a faultless performance from Anna Kendrick.

From the outside, Alice’s life looks good. She lives in a luxurious city centre apartment, dresses well and has a rising star artist boyfriend in Simon ( Charlie Carrick ). But as she goes out for drinks with her friends Sophie ( Wunmi Mosaku ) and Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) she lets her guard down just a little, and we get the first hints that all is not well in her relationship. When she frantically tries to destroy a note slipped into her pocket by a handsome waiter, it’s clear that Alice and Simon are not quite the dream couple they try to appear. During a week away with the girls, the cracks begin to widen between the real Alice and the life she’s been living under Simon’s controlling shadow.

The insidious truth of Alice’s situation only gradually becomes clear to her, and it’s similarly parcelled out to the viewer as the camera trails her in intimate close-up as she tries to keep Simon happy. This is a slow-burning drama, almost a thriller, anchored by a faultless performance from Kendrick and punctuated by a quietly monstrous turn from Carrick, as a man who thinks he’s entirely reasonable. But it’s ultimately the warmth of Mosaku and Horn that lingers in the mind, as the women who wake Alice up and stand with her against the omnipresent spectre of male violence.

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Alloy entertainment ups elysa koplovitz dutton to evp, theatrical film production, toronto review: ‘alice, darling’ directed by mary nighy and starring anna kendrick.

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Alice , Darling follows an abuse victim as she comes to terms with the end of her relationship. The script was written by  Alanna Francis and directed by Mary Nighy . The film stars Anna Kendrick , Kaniehtiio Horn, Wunmi Mosaku and Charlie Carrick.

Alice (Kendrick) has two besties, Tess (Horn) and Sophie (Mosaku). They are a tight trifecta, each at different points in their lives and careers. She is the only one with a boyfriend, Simon (Carrick). When the three friends get together, Alice dissociates because she’s often thinking about her boyfriend, but not in a loving way — more in a “he occupies my mind by force, and it depresses me.” You can tell this woman is dealing with some serious psychological abuse from her partner. She’s rail-thin as he encourages her disordered eating, has trichotillomania (the urge to pull out hair), and cries at the drop of a hat, and her friends are beginning to notice.

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The trio go on a weeklong vacation trip, and at first Alice is apprehensive, and eventually agrees to go after lying to Simon about it. He’s been encouraging her to get rid of her friends. That thought is sinking deep into her psyche to the point she’s subconsciously destroying her relationships. To get Alice to live in the moment, Tess takes away her phone. Not having to answer her boyfriend’s constant text messages opens a floodgate of feelings, and she uses this vacation to begin recovering from trauma.

The manipulation, deception and gaslighting in Alice, Darling are off the charts. Simon is obsessive to the point where he wouldn’t let his girlfriend be gone for a week without interrupting her hangout plans and making everyone uncomfortable. Nighy’s direction succinctly captures those type of stilted moments. The director gets up close and personal to show the viewer how he abuses her in real-time and it is jarring: he rotates between insulting her and love-bombing her in under 60 seconds. That type of thing messes with your head.

Kendrick, Horn and Mosaku are an electric trio. They bounce off of one another effortlessly, sharing a three-dimensional bond that reverberates throughout the film. It leaps off the screen.

Alice, Darling is all about character and examining interior thought and how that manifests outward when negative and harmful thoughts are kept inside. These ideas turn on you, making you think what’s happening is your fault. The point of Francis’ script wasn’t to create a film about victims and abusers — it’s about addressing your fears and utilizing your support system to do so. Not all abuse shows physical bruises or scars. Some things just hurt mentally.

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Home » Endings Explained

Alice, Darling Ending Explained – what happens to Alice and Simon?

We discuss the ending of the 2022 film Alice, Darling, which will contain significant spoilers and plot points.

The intense psychological drama Alice, Darling , starring Anna Kendrick and Charlie Carrick , follows the troubled relationship between Simon and Alice and Alice’s journey to rediscovering herself and becoming aware of the abuse she is undergoing.

After spending time with her closest friends at a remote birthday celebration, Alice starts to see what has been happening to her due to the nature of her relationship with Simon, but what exactly does happen to the couple?

There is also that subplot that involves the disappearance of Andrea Evans. What was that all about? Here is our interpretation and explanation of the oddly divisive ending to Alice, Darling .

Alice, Darling Ending Explained

By the end of Alice, Darling , we have a relatively clear perspective on the toxic relationship between Alice and Simon. The narcissistic Simon has been manipulating Alice and making sure that he is in control of everything she does.

Alice has received some tough love from her closest friends, who manage to get her to open up and talk about what is really happening in her relationship. After taking part in a search for the missing girl Andrea Evans, it seems that Alice’s story and Andrea’s disappearance are running parallel. Eventually, Alice stops making contact with Simon, and this loss of control of Alice forces Simon to drive to find her and her friends, leading to the film’s conclusion.

What happens when Simon arrives?

When Simon arrives, Alice seems to fall back under his spell, but when she decides to leave with him, her friends Sophie and Tess take exception, feeling that Alice is being once again psychologically manipulated by him. Sophie smashes the rear windscreen of the car the couple is in, and this action seems to make Alice suddenly come back to her senses.

She ignores Simon as he tries to make her leave again. Eventually, he admits defeat and throws Alice’s luggage out of the car, leaving in a mild rage over the events.

Why is Alice in the water?

The final scene shows Alice entering the water, a scene that seems to bookend the film, as we see a similar shot at the start. However, in the end scene, we see her breaking upwards through the surface. It seems to be metaphorically showing us that Alice has finally escaped from the prison that Simon held her in.

Alice was drowning in the same way while with Simon, but the intervention of her friends seems to have given Alice the strength to break free from “the water” and be able to breathe again, showing us that Alice is now back in control of her own life, not underwater, or hidden, alone and without voice.

What happened to Andrea Evans Alice, Darling?

Andrea Evans, the girl that has gone missing, is the subplot in the film and seems to mirror Alice, who also lost herself due to her relationship with Simon.

Alice is even seen taking part in a search for Andrea, but perhaps she is really looking for herself, who she believes has also been lost.

The subplot also shows us the relevance it has to Simon. He once again disrupts the narrative and shows the group a newspaper that reveals that Andrea is dead and they have found her body. This is representative of Simon interfering and taking control of a situation as if he wants to be the center of attention. Alice wants to find Andrea, but Simon cements the fact that she never will, leaving Alice even more despondent.

The audience is never given any real solution or back story for Andrea, and we never find out what really happened to her.

What did you think of the ending of the 2023 film Alice, Darling? Comment below.

Article by Louie Fecou

Louie Fecou joined the Ready Steady Cut writing team back in August 2018 as an Entertainment Writer and, since then, has published over 1,000 articles for the site. Louie has proven experience in various publications, print and online. To kickstart his journalism career, in 2013, he was a columnist and writer for The Irvine Herald Newspaper.

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Alice, Darling (United States/Canada, 2022)

A take-notice performance from Anna Kendrick (who drops the f-bomb more times than in all of her previous roles combined) can’t hide how threadbare and ultimately unsatisfying the narrative of Alice, Darling is. Written without much concern for logic and coherence, the movie wavers between being a drama and a thriller and, as is too often the case in situations like these, doesn’t work as either. And, although the movie addresses a serious subject (non-physical abuse), it fails to do so in a manner that is compelling or credible. The ending is artificial, a for-the-masses resolution grafted onto a film that deserves something grittier and more believable. To give them credit, at least director Mary (daughter of Bill) Nighy and screenwriter Alanna Francis don’t go the Fatal Attraction route, although a case could be made that such a trajectory would have at least been more honest.

Alice, Darling focuses on a girls-only escape weekend reuniting the childhood trio of Alice (Anna Kendrick), Tess (Kaniehiio Horn), and Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku). Once inseparable, the three have grown apart over the years and this occasion – Tess’ birthday – gives them an opportunity to reconnect by spending a week living in a secluded lake house. While Tess and Sophie successfully leave their real-world concerns behind, Alice is having trouble in that regard. After lying to her controlling boyfriend, Simon (Charlie Carrick), about her whereabouts, she finds herself caught between a paralyzing need to flee back to him and a desire to be as far away from him as possible. When they discover how dire Alice’s situation is, Tess and Sophie stage an intervention of sorts but, as Alice appears on the verge of breaking the unhealthy relationship, Simon shows up.

Lionsgate is giving Alice, Darling a limited last-weekend-of-the-year release in order to make Kendrick eligible for awards consideration. As good as she is in the role, it’s hard to see her being placed in the same company as Cate Blanchett and Danielle Deadwyler. That’s in part because her performance isn’t on quite the same level and in part because the overall production is forgettable. Although Kendrick is the best thing about the movie, her contribution doesn’t elevate Alice, Darling to better than a streaming pick.

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• Fight Club (1999)
• In the Company of Men (1997)
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• (There are no more better movies of Kaniehiio Horn)
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