‘Bad Behaviour’ Movie Review [Sundance 2023]: Jennifer Connelly Isn’t Able to Save This Dramatic Misfire
Writer/director Alice Englert makes her directorial debut at the Sundance Film Festival 2023 with the unfortnately misguided Bad Behaviour. An impressive cast headlines the comedy-drama, but the storytelling is such a monotonous slog that it’s difficult to connect with any of the shallow material behind the nuanced performances. There’s a good movie buried somewhere here, but the traces of it rarely make themselves known.
‘Bad Behaviour’ finds a former child actor seeking enlightenment
Lucy (Jennifer Connelly) is a former child actor who makes a trip into the middle of nowhere to seek enlightenment from a guru, Elon Bello (No Time to Die‘s Ben Whishaw). She’s prepared to spend the silent retreat in a beautiful mountain resort with other wealthy volunteers who are also interested in some soul-searching. However, Lucy is about to explore pieces of her past that won’t be so easy to relive.
Before going off the grid for the retreat, she reaches out to her stunt person daughter, Dylan (Alice Englert), who she has a very complicated relationship with. Lucy wants to let her know that she’ll be unreachable, but that she’s concerned about her in the midst of filming a dangerous fight scene. Later, the mother gets paired with a young model/DJ/influencer named Beverly (Dasha Nekrasova) in a roleplay exercise that goes horribly wrong.
Misery loves company
Bad Behaviour speaks on the poor decision-making of its lead character that perpetually digs her into a deeper hole of trouble. She has difficulty abiding by the no-technology retreat rules, but it all comes to a head when Beverly shows up. Lucy already felt alienated from the group, although it’s her dynamic with the new arrival that ultimately spells out a much greater degree of trouble for her.
Elon asks his new followers to share a shame or a secret with the group, which allow the audience to learn quite a bit about these characters. Englert’s screenplay isn’t quick to reveal who any of these people are, allowing their participation to speak for itself. Beverly talks about her fear of losing her youth that she deems to be “currency.” Once she runs out of it, she’s afraid what that will mean for the rest of her days. Meanwhile, Lucy simply refers to the shame that, “Sometimes, I’m just a c***.”
The progressively stranger exercises in Bad Behaviour all speak of enlightenment, which is a word that Elon begins to stray from. This retreat ultimately forces Lucy to recall her youth and the trauma that came with it, resulting in horrendous nightmares. Her greatest anxieties come to the present with the troublesome relationship with Dylan, who can’t quite find the words to express how she feels.
‘Bad Behaviour’ is a tedious disaster
Bad Behaviour‘s greatest asset is in its performances. Connelly turns in stellar work, digging deep emotionally into the role and making it feel nuanced. Lucy is incredibly unlikable, but Connelly gives the character peaks and valleys. Whishaw’s talents are wasted in such a small role as Elon, but he still manages to play the character with a fitting, ominous charm. Englert herself plays Dylan with an authenticity that brings the character to life.
Unfortunately, the writing holds its performers back. Englert’s screenplay finds sincere moments between Lucy and Dylan toward the film’s conclusion, but by that point, it already long lost its audience with pacing that painfully drags. Its own message is diluted by its inability to emotionally connect.
Bad Behaviour is a tonal mess, spreading itself thin across several themes, failing to explore any of them to any degree of satisfaction. Englert has a lot of ideas that she wants to tackle here, but none of them translate into a very compelling narrative.
