We Have Always Lived in the Castle | Film Review

Hey Guys x

I can't remember when I first heard about this film. But it had been on my 'To Watch' list for so long that by the time it actually came out on the Sky Premiere channel, I had forgotten it existed. But because of the unique name, I recognised it and watched it as soon as I could.

Sisters Constance (Alexandra Daddario) and Merricat (Taissa Farmiga) live with their uncle Julian (Crispin Glover) on their family estate, in a town where one incident has made them social pariahs. But a visit from their cousin Charles (Sebastian Stan) changes the lives of these sisters forever.

Now, I went into this film not expecting a huge amount, because I didn't really know too much about it other than an interesting eerie trailer. However, I ended up being really disappointed by it.

The first thing I want to say, though, is that the best thing about the film was the acting. Every actor clearly threw everything they had at their characters, and the acting was the only thing that made it worth watching. It would be great to see what these actors could do with a different story, because they all had great chemistry.

However, my apprehension towards the film started right from the beginning because I couldn't tell what time period it was supposed to be set in. It feels historical, but parts of it look quite modern, and that took me out of the story for a little while.

The film gives you no clues about anything. Not about the time period, not about these characters, and not about where it might end up. This could have been really intriguing, but I found that I didn't care enough about these characters to start playing guessing games about their histories.
Having said that, I did enjoy the mysterious aspect of the film. Nothing is thrown at you, everything is teased in a skilful way. Which again would have been great if we were given more to work with in the first place surrounding these two characters.

However, the problem with this mystery is that the film moves slowly and never really picks up the pace. After getting over the novelty of the mystery, it starts to feel boring. I actually wrote in my notes that the overall product is boring enough to make you as the audience feel like someone owes you your hour and a half back, and that's the best way that I can describe how I felt when the credits rolled.

Overall, this is an interesting enough film to begin with, but quickly loses both it's way, and it's audience. It's not one you'll think about once the credits roll.

4/10

Lou