[7]
Writer/director Sergio G. Sánchez serves up a melancholy, twisted tale about a young man (George MacKay) who must look after his three younger siblings when their mother dies. The siblings (Mia Goth, Charlie Heaton, and Matthew Stagg) hide themselves away in their dilapidated old mansion for fear the outside world will find them and separate them. Their only friend is a young librarian (Anya Taylor-Joy) who falls in love with MacKay. But she’s also being courted by a greedy lawyer (Kyle Soller) who knows the siblings’ dark secret — that they fled to America from England to get away from their serial killer father. When Soller’s character tries to exploit that information, Marrowbone takes some genuinely surprising twists and turns that had me on the edge of my seat.
While this film’s climactic revelations may strain your suspension of disbelief, it makes for some pretty gripping, highly emotional storytelling toward the end. The casting is solid all around, with MacKay ultimately carrying the film on his shoulders. Goth, Heaton, and Stagg are each endearing in their own ways, and Taylor-Joy serves as our window into this ‘other world’ they live in. We experience the twists and reveals through her eyes.
Marrowbone is the sort of film where the last ten or fifteen minutes make you go back and reassess everything that came before. I already liked everything that came before, so the third act surprises were just icing on the cake for me. Most of all, I found the isolated setting and pitiable characters very appealing. And as far as mysteries go, it’s a pretty compelling one. I, for one, could never have predicted the interesting way it resolves itself.
With Nicola Harrison and Tom Fisher.