The Woman (2011)

THE WOMAN  (2011)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Lucky McKee
    Pollyanna McIntosh, Sean Bridgers, Angela Bettis,
    Lauren Ashley Carter, Zach Rand, Carlee Baker
Word has it that when this movie screened at Sundance, some viewers could barely contain their disgust. And some didn't. It's about a lawyer who lives out in the country with his wife and three kids. One day the lawyer's out hunting in the woods and he comes across a savage-looking woman, apparently living in the wild, wearing rags and covered in blood and mud. So the lawyer does the sensible thing. He throws a net over the woman, drags her home and chains her up in the cellar, and for the next 60 or 70 minutes you witness the hellish social dynamics of this fucked-up family, along with the care and feeding and torture of the captive woman. It's extreme, even for an exploitation movie, but it could be significantly more graphic than it is. Except for one full-on bush shot, the nudity is fairly discreet, and in some of the more disturbing scenes, the camera cuts away, not showing you what's going on, but (maybe worse) letting you guess. I wouldn't recommend it to most people I know, but if you're a fan of transgressive cinema, and you've got the stomach for it, "The Woman" is worth checking out. Like it or not, the filmmakers plainly had an idea, knew what they wanted to do with it, and did. Sean Bridgers as the lawyer is just the kind of guy who could make most women want to commit murder, and Pollyanna McIntosh in the title role has a furtive, feral presence that can't be forgotten or ignored. Watch out. She bites.