Love tale is chilly at the center
“The World to Come,” about two wives of emotionally distant farmers in 19th century upstate New York who find each other, strives for authenticity.
Its story unfolds from the inkstained, quilldipped diaries of Abigail (Katherine Waterston), who writes (and incessantly narrates) in flowery prose while maintaining only cursory communication with her husband, Dyer (Casey Affleck). It is photographed (in Romania, with the Carpathian mountains standing in for the Adirondacks) on 16mm film, giving the look a grainy, oldtimey feel.
But that authenticity only sticks to the surface. It looks like the 19th century, but it doesn’t feel like it. Despite an outstanding cast, which includes Vanessa Kirby and Christopher Abbott, the film by Norwegianborn director Mona Fastvold never takes off. It’s like those stiffly posed old photographs from the time period: You know they must have had personalities beyond the tintypes.
Abigail is reeling emotionally from the death of her young daughter from diphtheria and has stopped going to church, no longer a believer.
“I no longer derive comfort from the thought of a better world to come,” she writes, giving the film its title. Dyer shares in her grief, but stands remotely from it; he doesn’t quite know what to say.
Then into her life walks Tallie (Kirby, of “The Crown” and “Pieces of a Woman”), who visits often to get away from her intolerant husband, Finney (Abbott), who has definite ideas about the proper role of women that she does not share. (Dyer seems enlightened compared to this fellow.)
Together they sit and talk, idle chitchat gradually deepening to frank discussions of their fears and dreams. Inevitably, a forbidden romance blossoms, endangering them both.
There are many good things about “The World to Come,” which is based on a short story by Jim Sheridan, who cowrote the script with Ron Hansen.
Waterston (“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”) and Kirby bring an honesty to their performances, and even when the script feels underwritten, they fill in the blanks. Fastvold and cinematographer André Chemetoff put together a thrilling sequence in a blinding snowstorm, and JeanVincent Puzos’ production design, inspired by 19th century paintings, including that of Danish interior artist Vilhelm Hammershøi, is exquisite.
“The World to Come” is the second bleak, 19th century lesbianthemed drama to be released in the past three months, after Francis Lee’s “Ammonite,” about a pioneering female paleontologist, which starred Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan.
In general, it’s not the best idea to compare films, because each movie is made in its own special way, with its own objectives. But I can’t help thinking how authentic “Ammonite” felt, with its women convincingly applying their scientific expertise. It was a livedin movie that felt tactile.
Despite the terrific set design in “The World to Come,” the characters don’t feel at home in it; they do very little farm work, for example.
Still, Waterston and Kirby do achieve an intimacy that operates as a warm fire warding off the chilliness around them. It’s too bad we were left out in the cold.