Rating: 4/5
Celie is a single mother, exhausted by long hours. Her job requires she give up time with her daughter, Lila, who feels neglected. She is a nurturing, empathetic presence in delivery rooms.
Rose is matter-of-fact, uncaring of her coworkers’ emotions or child problems. She is not without ethics. She doesn’t know how to navigate them sensitively.
Rose goes to the bar and, under the pretense of a handjob, collects a man’s sperm and a blood sample.
At home, she feeds her pet pig, Muriel, some asparagus and gives Muriel a blood transfusion. She then takes the semen sample and inseminates herself.
Celie goes to pick up Lila at her friend’s, but her friend and Lila are missing.
Lila comes into the morgue, having died of bacterial meningitis. Rose notes that organ failure may have occurred before brain death.
Celie tries to see her daughter’s body, but Rose tells her it isn’t there. She follows Rose home, and finds Lila there. Alive.
— Your child's genetic makeup made her an ideal candidate for an experimental procedure I'm working on. — For meningitis? — For death.
This film does a remarkable job of drawing you into its established reality. The progression is logical, and the characters’ subjective motives make sense.
Rose and Celie both having a medical background helps tremendously. They don’t have to waste time explaining basic procedures, and their experience pairs well — Rose can handle the medical details, and Celie can perform the nursing routines for comatose patients. And when it comes down to it, they are both practical people.
Marin Ireland is so funny in this. She has a Herbert West intensity that drew me in.
Judy Reyes takes a wild premise and finds a human character. Her heart grounded this and warmed my heart.
The film explores the physical and psychological cost of motherhood and pregnancy.
The mistake the movie makes is the direction it takes with Lila. I won’t spoil anything, but it mixes up what is otherwise a potent metaphor.
Medical horror makes me quite uncomfortable, so this left me squirming throughout.
I wasn’t expecting to like this so much, but it got to me!