Andrew Burnap, Brandy, Brandy Norwood, drama, Kathryn Hunter, Max Eggers, movies, Neal Huff, reviews, Sam Eggers, The Front Room
September 20, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Max Eggers and Sam Eggers
Culture Representation: Taking place mostly in an unnamed U.S. city, the dramatic film “The Front Room” (based on Susan Hill’s short story of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one African American) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A pregnant university professor experiences a personal hell when she is on maternity leave and has to be the caregiver of her rude and incontinent stepmother-in-law, who wants to take control of the professor’s unborn child.
Culture Audience: “The Front Room” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Brandy Norwood and don’t mind watching a mindless and boring movie about family turmoil.
“The Front Room” is a dreadfully dull drama pretending to be a suspenseful horror movie. There’s nothing scary about this forgettable flop, which has repetitive scenes of Kathryn Hunter as an obnoxious and shrill elderly woman who speaks in tongues. Hunter portrays an intrusive stepmother, who moves in with her stepson and his pregnant wife and immediately wants to dictate how they should live and take control of the unborn child.
Written and directed by brothers Max Eggers and Sam Eggers, “The Front Room” is their feature-film debut and is based on Susan Hill’s 2016 short story of the same name. You can tell that this movie was based on a short story because there isn’t enough of a plot to fill a feature-length film. All you need to know about the movie is that it’s about a married couple who become inconvenienced and later emotionally tortured by the heinous relative who moves in with them, in order for the couple to get an inheritance that they desperately need.
“The Front Room” takes place in an unnamed U.S. city but was actually filmed in New Jersey. In the beginning of the movie, viewers learn that spouses Belinda Irwin (played by Brandy Norwood) and Norman Irwin (played by Andrew Burnap) are expecting their second child, which they know will be a girl. Belinda is about eight months pregnant in the beginning of the movie. The couple’s first child was a boy named Wallace, who was a stillborn baby.
Belinda (who is an anthropology professor) and Norman (who is a public defender) are still grieving over the loss of Wallace. Adding to their relationship woes, Norman and Belinda bought a house and are worried about how to pay the mortgage because Belinda did not get the tenure promotion that she thought she was going to get. Belinda has also been on an extended maternity leave. Financially, things have gotten so dire for the couple, Belinda tells Norman that when she went to buy groceries, her credit card was declined.
During all of this marital strife, Norman gets a phone call from his estranged stepmother Solange (played by Hunter), who tells him that Norman’s father Lawrence is dying. Norman (who has no siblings) has not seen or spoken to Lawrence and Solange for years, long before he and Belinda started dating. Norman tells Belinda that Solange is a religious fanatic who was abusive to him when he was a child. For example, Norman says that Solange would degrade Norman and force Norman to pray for hours if he didn’t finish his meals.
Norman (who is white) doesn’t come out and say the word “racist” to describe Solange, but he tells Belinda (who is black) that Solange wouldn’t approve of them a couple. Norman seems to be conflicted over whether or not he should visit his dying father. Before he can make that decision, Norman gets a call from the family’s clergyman Pastor Lewis (played by Neal Huff), who informs Norman that Norman’s father has died.
At the funeral service, Solange is first seen in a way that’s completely overdramatic and hokey. She’s dressed head to toe in a black veil and sits silently in a chair like a foreboding wraith. Unfortunately, when Solange starts talking, it’s hard to get her to shut up. Solange, who talks in an overexaggerated Southern accent, has a raspy voice and has most of the stereotypical physical characteristics of being like a witch. But instead of a broom, she moves around by using two canes.
Pastor Lewis tells Norman that Lawrence’s dying wish was for Solange to move in with Norman and Belinda. Norman is immediately against this idea. But there’s a catch: In order for Norman to get the sizeable inheritance that Lawrence left for him, Norman must allow Solange to live the same household. Norman warns Belinda that Solange will turn their home “into a church,” but Belinda convinces Norman to let Solange move in with them because Norman and Belinda need the money.
The rest of “The Front Room” is just a mishmash of scenes showing Solange becoming increasingly unbearable and doing a lot of howling, screeching and babbling along the way. The babbling includes Solange speaking in tongues when she prays. Solange’s degradation campaign starts with Solange giving criticism to the way Belinda has decorated the house with African heritage art, which Solange thinks isn’t Christian enough. Solange eventually insists that Belinda and Norman’s unborn daughter should be named after Lawrence, so Belinda reluctantly agrees to name the child Laurie.
Solange also makes racially offensive comments and assumptions about Belinda, such as assuming that Belinda had poor, uneducated parents, when in actuality, Belinda’s parents were both academics. Belinda was raised by a single mother because Belinda’s father died shortly after Belinda was born, not because of Solange’s wrong assumption that Belinda’s father was a deadbeat dad who abandoned the family. During one racially charged conversation, Solange proudly admits that her father was in the Ku Klux Klan.
But the most annoying part of “The Front Room” is how the movie tries to make Solange’s incontinence into “gross-out” body horror (including closeups of feces, urine and vomit), when it’s really just what many people with this health issue experience. Any hospital or nursing facility has multiple patients with the same issues. While Norman works outside the home, pregnant Belinda has to stay home and be a caregiver to Solange, who treats Belinda like a lowly maid and housekeeper.
The back-and-forth bickering and power struggles between Solange and Belinda get tiresome to watch after a while. Belinda starts to have bizarre hallucinations, such as seeing Solange breastfeeding Norman, with Solange having several breasts. At one point, Solange screams to Belinda that Solange is the real mother of Belinda’s unborn child. The conflicts between Solange and Belinda eventually become physical. You know where all of this is going, of course.
Hunter is a talented actress in other roles, but her over-the-top performance in “The Front Room” becomes so ridiculous and loud, it will make viewers laugh and/or get irritated at the absurdity of it all. Norwood gives a mostly two-note performance: sad and angry. Burnap isn’t given much to do in his role as passive Norman, who is as bland as bland can be.
Edith Piaf’s “No Regrets” is used as a coda song for what is supposed to be a shocking part of the movie’s climax. However, there are no surprises in “The Front Room,” which is a weak, uncreative and trite movie. The only “surprising” thing about the big reveal at the end of this time-wasting junk is that what happened in the reveal didn’t happen sooner in the story.
A24 released “The Front Room” in U.S. cinemas on September 6, 2024. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on September 24, 2024.