MOVIE REVIEW: This Tempting Madness
Images courtesy of Vertical Entertainment
THIS TEMPTING MADNESS— 3 STARS
In one of the final scripted lines of This Tempting Madness, after all the dust has settled, the main character narrates how “delusion is alluring.” Throughout the eighty-something minutes leading up to this moment, the movie made us feel that very assertion with its depiction of skewed realities. At this coda point, as we’re exhaling, the tingle of doubt is still very much there. The fact that a movie’s revealed secrets linger in such a way is an excellent sign of success from the feature-length debut of writer/director Jennifer E. Montgomery.
LESSON #1: WHEN DISCLAIMERS HOOK US— There’s a chance Montgomery had us from the jump, when the foggy pre-credits text slowly came into focus with the three statements:
Inspired by actual events
Identifying details have been changed
The strangest elements remain just as remembered
The first one we’ve seen plenty of, thanks to the Law and Order universe, a zillion wannabe reality-bending TV crime shows, and even the softer variety of inspirational true stories given screen treatments. The second one is pure CYA. However, that third one is the chin-rubbing clincher. How strange are we talking about, because what is remembered and what is not is the vital hook of This Tempting Madness.
The luxurious Mia, played by Bridgerton starlet Simone Ashley, has survived a gruesome fall from an airport venue balcony, something shown with bone-crushing sound effects and razor-sharp editing between the slow-motion flutter of her decadent orange evening gown and the actual impact speeds to punch the viewer in the ears and eyes with the violent ramifications. She wakes up in a hospital after suffering a significant brain injury, severely breaking her jaw in multiple places, and is immobilized by a mangled knee. The woman is lucky to be alive, but the immediate mystery is how and why this happened.
The mental damage, coupled with the lack of camera footage from the balcony point of the incident, means no one knows what exactly transpired. One thing, for certain, is that her husband, Jake (Austin Stowell, currently starring on CBS’s NCIS: Origins), isn’t among those surrounding family members assembled at her bedside, including her parents (Zenobia Shroff of Ms. Marvel and fellow TV actor Amol Shah) and very involved brother, Ajay (the third-billed Suraj Sharma, all grown up from Life of Pi). He’s been arrested and detained for attempted murder. This news pains Mia, whose initial memories depict a loving relationship between her, Jake, and their daughter, Aurora (Niya Brahmbhatt).
LESSON #2: CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT YOU REMEMBER?-- Following those pre-credits messages, Mia’s internal monologue plants the doubt for This Tempting Madness right away. During those slowed moments of the fall and her in-and-out hospital consciousness through a bevy of surgeries, her thoughts utter the statements of “our minds are so fragile,” especially when control is taken away. When Mia is finally discharged and sent home by herself, the bouts of emotional outbursts and Jake-centered hallucinations increase, worrying her and her family.
Alas, with each of Mia’s feverish and poignant episodes—enhanced by an eerie choral score merged with electronic instrumentation by composer Rebekka Karijord—more frightening details surface, and more threads of Montgomery’s web (co-scripted by cinematographer Andrew Davis) tangle the plot. Ajay continues to push his sister to sever all links to Jake. The dutiful lead investigator, Detective Colton (Mojean Aria of The Enforcer and Reminiscence), keeps a close eye on safety and fallout as the unsolved case becomes more precarious. All the while, Mia is continuously fascinated with the bold idea of reconnecting with Jake.
LESSON #3: WHERE IS THE MANIPULATION COMING FROM?--- Much of This Tempting Madness is witnessing Simone Ashley process the external and internal stresses of her enigmatic character. She puts the pieces together with frayed wires and bent mental tools, and a bloody knee scar she won’t let heal. The pressure from family and the separation from her daughter weigh on Mia, as they should be the people to trust. However, more of her own dark thoughts and curt interactions cloud everything, introducing the notion that she may be as at fault in matters as others. Manipulation is undoubtedly present, and the guessing game—for both Mia and us watching—becomes trying to figure out where and who it’s coming from.
On many levels, and not unlike the Sydney Sweeney holiday season hit, The Housemaid, This Tempting Madness would have fit right into the thriller landscape 30 years ago, when tawdry stories like The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and Sleeping with the Enemy used to prey on pearl-clutching domestic fears of dangers coming from within seemingly stable household settings. Back then, that same class of movies would, especially if they had a stunning beauty like Simone Ashley in the lead, be superheated with more erotic elements to become more twisted in the vein of Basic Instinct or Fatal Attraction. With those extremes, wildly entertaining or not, comes convolution and often shark-jumping preposterousness.
Shrewdly, Jennifer E. Montgomery borrows a taste, dab, and dash of several of those successful old elements to balance the movie’s gleaming production design sheen with enough specks and stains of proverbial dirty laundry to stay taboo and intriguing. Simone Ashley’s shifting allure of evocativeness and conviction deflects predictability and shields the suspense very well, even if the rest of the cast cannot shake their tropes and witnesses and puppeteers at times. Some may argue that This Tempting Madness does not reach a radical enough tipping point to contend with that previous era of thrillers. Possibly, but Montgomery chose the wavelength of paranoia over titillation and distilled her own disturbing vibe just fine.
LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1400)
