A seamstress weighs up her options when she stumbles across the chance to
potentially commit the perfect crime.
Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Freddy Macdonald
Starring: Eve Connolly, Calum Worthy, John Lynch, K. Callan,
Caroline Goodall, Thomas Douglas
Movies about super intelligent characters often fail to convince
because they're clearly not made by super intelligent filmmakers who
possess the ability to think as smartly as their fictional
creations. Sew Torn is a comic thriller about a very smart and resourceful young
woman, and it works because its first time writer/director, Freddy Macdonald, is clearly a mad genius himself. It's not often I find myself
thinking "that's something I haven't seen before" while watching a new
movie, but it's a thought that crossed my mind at several points in
Macdonald's debut, which is an expansion of his 2019 short of the same
name.
From the opening scene we realise we're in the hands of a highly
imaginative filmmaker. Our young heroine Barbara (Eve Connolly)
wakes in the home attached to the haberdashery business once run by her
late mother, and which she has now taken over with failing results. Part
of the business involves the creation of "talking portraits,"
hand-stitched portraits that play greeting card style recordings when a
string is pulled. To remember her mother, Barbara has rigged up her home
with dozens of these portraits of herself and her mom, complete with
recordings that bring back memories of happier times.
Despite now having only one customer, Barbara almost forgets her
"mobile seamstress" appointment to fix the wedding dress of prissy
English woman Grace (Caroline Goodall). While doing so Barbara
drops a button, vital to hold the gown together, and just to spite Grace
she flicks it down an air vent. It's an act Barbara immediately regrets
as Grace demands that she return to the store and fetch a new
button.
Driving back to her shop, Barbara stumbles across what will become the
inciting incident for a trio of Run Lola Run-esque alternate timelines: the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong,
with two wounded men lying prone beneath their crashed motorcycles, a
pair of guns out of their reach, bags of cocaine strung around the road,
and a briefcase filled with cash. Surveying the scene, Barbara mentally
weighs up her choices: "Perfect crime, call the police, or drive
away."
As Sew Torn goes on to detail the impact of all three decisions, it becomes
something of an anthology film with three very distinct short films all
featuring the same characters. In all three cases, Barbara finds herself
making an enemy of Hudson (John Lynch), the mobster father of one
of the injured men. Other oddball supporting characters pop in and out,
like the dotty local sheriff (K. Callan), interfering busybody
Oskar (Ron Cook), and of course Grace, who remains steadfastly
determined to get her dress fixed.
Sew Torn is set in Switzerland, where Macdonald grew up, but it's an
alternate reality version of that Central European nation where everyone
speaks English for some reason. The stunning alpine backdrop, gorgeously
captured by cinematographer Sebastian Klinger, adds much
production value and won't fail to draw comparison with the Coen
brothers' Fargo. The Coens are clearly an influence on Macdonald's blend of crime and
comedy and it was Joel Coen who advised Macdonald to develop his short
into a feature. Another influence would appear to be the Coens' early
collaborator Sam Raimi, with Macdonald devising manic set-pieces that
create the feeling that you're watching a live-action Tex Avery
cartoon.
The real thrill of Sew Torn is how ingeniously it implements its heroine's special set of
seamstress skills. In each of the three scenarios Barbara comes up with
wildly inventive ways to use her embroidery and stitching talents to get
herself in and out of danger. Not since The Human Centipede has a needle and thread been deployed in such creative fashion.
The ways in which Barbara creates Rube Goldberg devices from string
really have to be seen to be believed, and if they ever decide to make a
screen adaptation of the classic video game 'Spy vs Spy', Macdonald has
to be the one to direct it.
In a largely silent performance, Irish newcomer Connolly excels as the
sort of eccentric young woman who consistently finds herself
condescended to by people who don't possess a fraction of her
brainpower. Her Barbara is the Roadrunner to Hudson's Wile E. Coyote,
and Lynch is effectively repulsive as an arrogant villain in love with
the bad jokes he repeats across all three timelines.
In Macdonald, Connolly and Klinger, Sew Torn introduces three new talents who are sure to set Hollywood alight
in the coming years. Whether they'll ever get the chance to work on
something as boldly original as this again remains to be seen, but for
now they've created a striking work of filmic embroidery with nary a
stitch out of place.
Sew Torn is on UK/ROI VOD from
March 31st.
