Kristin Davis hires wrong nanny in ‘Deadly Illusions’
It’s tricky deciding what kind of cheese “Deadly Illusions,” a thriller starring Kristin Davis and Dermot Mulroney streaming on Netflix, is exactly. Soft and overripe, from the look of it. When is its cheesiness intentional and when is it clumsy?
From the movie’s title sequence to its final scene, the movie appears to wink at the genre, but to what end? Think too hard and “Deadly Illusions,” written and directed by Anna Elizabeth James, may prove vexing. What is it saying about class? About trauma? About how women view each other?
But why trouble when we could sit back and giggle at the story of Mary Morrison, her near-perfect family and innocent nanny hired to keep an eye on Mary and husband Tom’s young’uns while Mary dives into her final novel in a bestselling series.
Mary writes books with titles like the one this movie boasts: menacing yet vague. When the film opens, she’s retired to her compound of a home to be a stay-at-home mom.
Davis brings a kind of nervous energy to Mary. It’s not fair but accurate to think of her as her “Sex and the City” character, Charlotte, with a pinch more smarts and gravitas.
Alas, her publisher wants just one more from this scribe. Charlotte stands her ground even when a new assistant to her editor pokes her rather hard about her privilege.
When Tom confesses that they could use the extra dough, her fate is sealed.
The film plays with the “illusion” part of the title early on. Mary reminds best friend Elaine (Shanola Hampton) that part of the reason she doesn’t want to take on a new book is she’s not herself once she begins writing. Is that a warning that the worlds of fiction and fact might meld?
Elaine puts her in touch with a high-end child care outfit. After a montage of interviews — some nutty, some sad — Grace comes into their lives.
Fact and fiction do appear to entwine, enough so that we can’t tell when Mary is imagining events or if they actually happened — like steamy dalliances with Grace. The soft-core girl-on-girl tease feels like a throwback, more “Red Shoe Diaries” than “Basic Instinct.”
Greer Grammer does an able job of being too good to be true. The leads keep us guessing about their decency. Is Mary breaking boundaries? Is Tom going to seduce or be seduced? Is Grace a Trojan-horse sitter? That’s what Elaine suggests.
Grace is as blond as Mary is brunette, and there’s a “who’s innocent, who’s exploiting” tango built into interactions. There are times to doubt Grace’s persona and other times to worry for her. Somewhere coursing beneath this film is either a brilliant dark comedy or a knowing, unnerving riff about the power dynamics of two women, wary and drawn to each other.