I’m still not sure what I think about Bad Behaviour and I kind of love it for that. Is that last part true though? I’m still not sure about that either.
Jennifer Connelly is Lucy, who we meet as she’s driving down the highway listening to a sort of mindfulness podcast, though she does not seem to be heeding the podcast’s advice about clearing her mind. She’s on her way to a retreat led by the man whose voice she’s hearing over her car speakers, Elon Bello, and much of what follows is Lucy’s experience at the retreat, where she continues to have serious trouble really letting herself let go. Part of this is her own fault, but part of it is that there’s probably no there, there. Elon is played by Ben Whishaw, nearly perfectly, as he is the sort of person who is clearly giving a very studied and fully constructed performance to the people at the retreat, but it’s one that’s designed to seem entirely genuine and in the moment. He pauses, as if he’s searching for the right word, when we know he’s essentially reciting a script he's written. He chuckles, as if he’s a little surprised by himself, but we know every beat is also part of that script. Remarkable, too, and probably more so, is Connelly, who plays a character who’s almost certainly a narcissist and also deeply, deeply insecure, but who isn’t only those things.
Director and writer Alice Englert walks a fine line between brutal satire and exact reality. It’s so close to the things people actually say and do that it doesn’t completely feel like Englert is making fun of it so much as depicting it, but it's also so close, and often very funny, that we can see there are no clothes on the emperor.
It’s hard to grab onto exactly what Englert wants out of this, but this must be by design. Should I laugh or be angry? Often the former, but sometimes both. This won’t work for everyone, and some people will very much hate it. But I found it worked for me. I think. I’m still not sure.
Bad Behaviour is on VOD June 18th.
