Earwig
Director: Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Writer: Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Geoff Cox
Based on: Brian Catling‘s novel
Cast: Paul Hilton, Romane Hemelaers, Romola Garai, Alex Lawther, Peter Van den Begin
Seen on: 13.10.2024

Plot:
Albert (Paul Hilton) is the caretaker of Mia (Romane Hemelaers). His biggest responsibility is fitting in her dentures several times a day, as they are made from her own frozen spit. The two live a lonely and ritualized life that gets disrupted when Albert’s employer calls him to announce that Mia is to be handed over.

Much like Innocence, Earwig is an atmospheric film that presents the surreal as a matter of course. But as much as I would have liked to, I couldn’t get into it as much as would have been necessary to make it really work.

Since I really enjoyed Innocence, I didn’t bother reading too much about Earwig before watching it, so I didn’t know what exactly was happening with Mia’s teeth, and without the info from the synopsis that her dentures are made from her own frozen spit, I couldn’t piece it together from what the film shows us. But I didn’t think it mattered much either way, and the vague horror of the contraptions Mia has to wear is still rather effective.

And yet, this seems to be part of the film’s overall problem, or why it didn’t work that well for me: it wants to be dream-like but it has too much clear structure and explanations at the ready (even if not always clearly spelled out) to really feel dream-like. I did like the themes it examines, of patriarchal control and violence, but I think it should have either been more associative or more structured. As is, it sits at the intersection and falls into neither category comfortably.

But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth watching. There are strong images, and excellent moments where the film manages to conjure up the dream state I would have wanted more of. Above all, the soundtrack is pretty much perfect and worth it on its own.

The film is definitely strong enough to make me want to see more of Hadzihalilovic’s films and to make me want to check out Catling’s novels. Because those should be right up my alley.

Summarizing: not as strong as it could have been but strong enough.