Review - The Royal Hotel
Directed by: Kitty Green
Written by: Kitty Green, Oscar Redding
Starring: Julia Garner, Jessica Henwick, Hugo Weaving
Running Time: 91 minutes
Rating: 3.5/5
If you’ve been hesitant to visit Australia, whether it be because of snakes or spiders or maybe shady miners that frequent a run down pub, then maybe this movie won’t be for you.
Director Kitty Green teams up once again with the consistently impressive Julia Garner in The Royal Hotel, a thriller that capitalizes on the ever-present sense of danger women often feel in their day to day life. This 91-minute film delivers in the promise of the premise and is able to effectively build the tension it needs to sustain itself. Where it’s weakest is in being able to flesh out the main characters and while at times, it wouldn’t matter who these women are because that specific sense of fear is mostly universal, there are other times when it does leave the audience with questions it’s never able to answer.
Jessica Henwick and Hugo Weaving help build the supporting cast of the film/staff of the eponymous hotel where they work (more specifically at the bar) and do a good enough job. The lesser-known, more-Australian cast are the true stars of the movie. Ursula Yovich is so in control of how her character comes off. Where she seems cold and standoffish initially, she’s skillfully able to maneuver that into a curt but compassionate Carol. But its truly the mostly male cast that carry the tension of the movie. They are the ones that do an incredible job of turning on the charm, and then quickly turning it off to terrifying effect.
Actually, one of the film's standout features lies in its ability to capture the mesmerizing natural beauty of its daytime settings, which serves as a stark contrast to the sinister turn the story takes as night falls. These moments of tranquil, sunlit beauty not only create a striking backdrop but also cleverly mirror the deceptive facades of the characters themselves. As darkness envelops the world on screen, it mirrors the hidden motives of the characters, leaving audiences spellbound by both the visual splendor and the psychological depth of the narrative.
In many ways this movie is effective. In fact, it’s become a more commonplace conversation that men and women do not seem to navigate the world in the same way. We don’t all feel the need to cross the street if we see people coming. Or fake a phone call, just in case. Or drop a location pin to a friend when you’re going to go through something potentially dangerous. Green evokes all those feelings by placing her two characters in remote Australia, with limited ways and opportunities to leave the hotel. What becomes a little more difficult to understand is what bonds the two characters together, who are seemingly so diametrically opposed in every single way. There’s of courses teases here and there your imagination can fill in, but it’s hard to think Hanna wouldn’t tire of Liv and her obsessive need to endanger herself and those around her pretty quickly. And that sensation undermin
All in all, the tension building skill that Green is able to conjure in The Royal Hotel is worth checking in, but just like Hanna and Liv don’t go in expecting perfection.
