Watcher (2022)

While watching <b>Watcher</b>, I didn’t feel like this was anything necessarily original but still quite well made. I have really welcomed the return of a camera that either takes a deep breath, captures movement in a space, doesn’t jerk around or go crazy, and glides and moves patiently. And I think Monroe and a camera is a marriage made in heaven. Okuno clearly knew Munroe was born to be not only in front of a camera but followed by it. It isn’t just that she is captivating on screen, but Monroe is a fantastic actress. You feel that drag of being in Bucharest without friends or family while her man (Glusman of Gaspar Noé’s <i>Love</i>), in marketing at a firm, is always working late and often, not to mention, becoming increasingly frustrated with Romanian language leaving her in the dark. When her man and friends speak to each other, Monroe’s sense of isolation can be felt so palpably. Thing is I can watch Monroe walk through a supermarket even if she wasn’t tense, full of anxiety, and rightfully scared since Gorman’s presence just brings that out. You know, if the film had went a different route, I think that might have been interesting. What if Gorman wasn’t the actual killer, and he was just somebody who had creepy vibes? What if, instead, the serial killer was Glusman instead, the very man she loves and trusts more than anyone else? But the film chose to go exactly as predicted…Gorman is the serial killer decapitating pretty women in Bucharest near where Monroe currently resides and she makes sure he doesn’t do that anymore, even after he lays a knife slice to her neck as she bleeds all over the place, crawls on the floor, and recovers to walk to the door, having pulled the gun from a drawer in her dead friend’s apartment. Glusman now realizes Monroe was right all along, she was nearly killed, and he was a dick who may lose her forever.

There are a few key scenes that I found compelling. When a police officer is at their door with Gorman at his side, looking to bury the hatchet between them over “her stalking him”, and on the subway where he looks for an apology after she had visited his apartment (where his ill dad lives with him) with a guy knocking at his door. Not only those two scenes, but I found the film fascinating when Okuno has Monroe following Gorman, investigating him, later led to a sex club where he seems to work as a janitor. Anea, as the next door neighbor who speaks good English and befriends Monroe, is a breath of fresh air since she can serve as interpreter and comfort. The film really gets that across where Monroe is just seemingly on an island unto herself, and her performance always emphasizes this loneliness. Like when she is in the apartment, listless and without a sense of purpose. I do hope once her wound heals that she finds this elusive happiness missing from her life. I can’t imagine her relationship with Glusman will remain sound after nearly being killed and made to feel she was being a problem and delusional.

This was really a good looking movie. I kept thinking to myself:  "Okuno is really good. I like how the camera and editing always point us where we need to go and tell us what we need to know".Her camera and Monroe’s presence in front of it: I’d be game for them two together again. The story of this film, though, pretty much never threw me for a loop. It went where I expected, but I found Monroe always watchable.