Cinema revolving around horror and thrill have quite a few anti-heroes to its name, a list that includes the characters of Hannibal Lecter and Patrick Bateman, but the most recent to this evil lineage is Clare Bleecker which is a sociopathic teenager character played by Bella Thorne in Mitzi Peirone’s second feature film, Saint Clare.
The movie is based on a teenagers novel Clare at Sixteen by Don Roff and it makes a futile attempt at merging a few tropes involving a typical misanthropist protagonist along with a gothic twist, southern noir and religious symbols incorporated. This leads to a film which had a great concept but fails in its execution due to a muddled storyline.
Appearing to have learned the importance of in-your-face statements from Joan of Arc, Clare regards everything she does as Divinely Inspiring, or, as she puts it herself, ‘I was born to do this. I am not afraid’. This mind-numbing statement outlines the characters journey through the film and its premise which is heavy on violence, self-realization and a disturbing questioning about God’s will. If I had to mention a highlight in the film, it would definitely be Thorne’s portrayal of Clare. Thorne is known for breaking the Disney image first by starring in Indie films, however this time, she plays a role that requires focus and determination. Thorne’s character ranges from an innocent Catholic schoolgirl to a remorseless killer targeting her city’s criminal underbelly.
There is no doubt that the character of Clare is a captivating one. She is no ordinary killer, as she likes to carry out what she sees as God’s will, eliminating people that she thinks require such punishment. The ethical nuance is where Saint Clare once again makes for its most interesting premise, allowing viewers to reconsider the morality of Clare’s deeds. Is she a vigilante or a crazed teenage girl? This is the context Thorne approaches, suggesting just the relevant duality in her performance: both wrathful and calm, punishing and calm a complex character, equally a perpetrator and a victim of violence.
Having first made her mark with the highly regarded first feature Braid, Mitzi Peirone is back in the director’s chair with style. The film is drenched in atmosphere, with cinematographer Nicolas Beauchamp depicting the warm and dark surroundings of a Southern small town America somewhere between sinister and seductive. Worded more bluntly, I highly enjoyed the film. There’s nothing bereft in the ways to be thrilled, scared and shocked as Peirone excels in capturing the viewers’ senses with strong onscreen imagery of the gothic horror genre. Religious symbols fill the landscapes of the film, highlighting Clare’s inner struggles while creating a distinctly dismal aura. The film gives an impression of being artistically rich and effectively utilizes its low financing to develop a cozy yet large universe. Perhaps it is due to the limitations imposed on other aspects of the film, but there are moments when the images look a bit out of place.
In terms of both visual appeal and the effectiveness of its leading actor, Saint Clare makes for a good watch. However the film’s problems lie in its narrative approach. It seeks to tell far too many stories which include religious fanaticism, feminist overtones, and societal indifference toward young women. Because of this, it becomes too diffused. The audience who is first taken for a tense character study of a young sociopath’s psyche will slowly start to ask themselves how this tight plot got so tattered over the course of the film.
In particular, one of the classic blunders, if not the sole blunder, of the film is its over explanation of certain plot devices, particularly the one surrounding the case of the town’s missing girls. Although it’s a story device that adds tension, it eventually becomes so big within the film’s context that it shifts focus away from the most interesting part of the film, which is Clare’s evolution. 90 minutes prove quite a short period of time to expand on these several threads and therefore, all of them remain superficial.
This is further complicated by the emergence of Clare talking to a phantom unregistered mailman, Bob (Frank Whaley), who may be a part of Clare’s mind or not. Although these scenes are somewhat useful in adding comic relief and shedding some light on Clare’s mind, in the end, they are just added on the film and it loses its steam in terms of comedy.
On top of this, the events of Saint Clare have actors with stares such as Phillipe M and have rather mundane conversations when their dialogue should allow them to tackle bigger narratives within the film. Often, it is the conversations between the characters that do not impress and do not make an attempt to deal with the broad moral issues the plot raises. This is sorely disappointing when you know that Rebecca De Mornay and Ryan Phillippe are around.
As far as the final moments are concerned, one would expect fireworks, but it follows an age-old pattern and prefers a similar closure that resolves everything in the end but does not even come close to delivering. Not only Arthur but the story initially goes in the right direction.
It’s hard to say how original the work featured in this film is. Claymation, which is primarily intended for younger viewers, most likely did not inspire Saint Clare; films such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Constantine, the Babysitter, and even an American Werewolf in London, all served as good sources of motivation for the production of a film intended for a younger audience.
In the end, Saint Clare is one of those interesting films that never actually seems able to achieve its fullest potential. While Bella Thorne’s performance as well as the direction by Mitzi Peirone help in making it an engaging watch, the film also has many ideas that are not very well controlled and thus make the film feel scattered and lack focus.
It is a film that, like its heroine, finds itself in between three different worlds part slasher, part suspense, apart social critique and yet does not quite fulfill comfortably any of them.
For Thorne’s fans and those who are curious about a dark character-based plot in Saint Clare there is enough to merit a look, but one can also be left with the feeling that if only the script were edited a little and there were some more action scenes, it might have turned out to be something special.
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