THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA*

Writer-director Matt Winn doesn't know what his film THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA is meant to be. Scabrous social satire on the superficial and selfish metropolitan elite? Deeply felt drama about a fragile woman barely mourned by her so-called friend? Caper comedy?  What we end up with is a little of all three and none of it satisfying.

For the most part, this film reads like a stage-play in a single location, with more or less unlikeable characters dealing with a contrived set-up.  That set-up is that Tom and Sarah (Alan Tudyk and Shirley Henderson) need to sell their beautifully appointed home fast to avoid bankruptcy. They announce this while hosting their good friends Richard and Beth (Rufus Sewell and Olivia Williams) as well as their unwanted surprise guest Jessica (Indira Varma).  Jessica proceeds to flirt with both men, decry the success of her new book, criticise both women for leading superficial pathetic lives, before committing suicide in the back garden. Obviously the remaining four adults should call the police. But what if that skewers the sale of the house?

At this point the film could have gone very dark and very funny, and the jaunty jazzy score makes us think it might. Sewell threatens to go full Armando Iannucci with comedy swearing but then the film reins him in, and inserts some moral qualms, and then limply concludes its brief running time.  I might have given it another star for a lovely cameo from Anne Reid as a nosy neighbour but had to dock it a star for being so condescending to its audience as to use flashbacks.

THE TROUBLE WITH JESSICA has a running time of 89 minutes and was released in the UK in April 2024.