Nightbitch is adapted from Rachel Yoder’s novel, which I read a month before this film arrived in the UK; and one of the things that I was potentially disappointed in is that in the book and the film based on the premise of a woman turning into a dog, and killing a cat, it’d lean a bit more into body horror. But that’s not the case here – it’s positively restrained, in both the book and the film, has the commitment of a hallmark drama at times with the focus of a marriage torn apart as both mother and father struggle to cope with the demands of shared parenting, and mother is coping with that by discovering new hairs, sharper teeth, a heightened sense of smell and a tail growing on her. It’s played to complete commitment by Amy Adams, to her credit, who salvages such an odd premise.
The film’s short length, clocking in at under 100 minutes, helps. It covers most of the basis of the book but falls short when it comes to adapting its audacious ending; preferring instead to walk back rather than forward. I liked the pairing of Adams and Scoot McNairy, always reliable, and the talented Arleigh Snowden is adorable as the boy, innocently making his parents’ life harder and harder, at Book Babies, a session for mums to bring their kids to have songs sung to them and connect with other new parents, the Son loudly yells “FUCK” when introduced by his name. It doesn’t deter the parents from making friends with this new woman joining their club who has a background in the high arts, but Mother detests them – and can’t, at the same time, fit in with her old friends – the high art society that she left behind to move to the suburbs.
The exhaustion of motherhood and the 24/7 need to be around your child is fantastic. I really like how Marielle Heller uses this as a lense to look at marriage and doesn’t go for a louder, shoutier Hollywood approach and a messy divorce. In retrospect, keeping this film so firmly on the right track is a harder task than many might be ready for – the satire at the heart of the story never quite earns its target; and I think maybe – we needed more scenes with the mum embracing her role as the dog; or nightbitch. It feels like it’s over just as it’s properly getting started.
Rachel Yoder’s clever writing of the source material is a hard subject to adapt and I don’t think the book got everything right, but going with the expectations that this was not going to be a body horror this time helped and made me get on its wavelength more. However you can’t really have the embracement of the mythology without the body horror commitment – it feels half-hearted and tacked on, designed to appeal to the wave of NYT bestseller readers that sure this book earn such a following in the first place. So in that sense, I guess it works – and has found its target audience?
It feels a tad half-baked and the unique element about the brutal honesty of its depicition of motherhood wins all the plaudits for the right reasons, but its more unique elements aren’t quite as won over as it could have been, and whilst Nightbitch’s comic timing is perfect; the best gags were spoiled in the trailer, meaning they don’t really have the same effect when seen live. Yet importantly though – it’s a much better movie than the messy trailer would have you believe – and the fact that it holds together well given how largely unadaptable you’d expect the book to be is no small accomplishment; even if it feels like a tv movie designed for ABC of old on a Sunday afternoon.
