the family way
Matt Smith’S cult in the act…
CHARLIE SAYS 15 film OUT 29 JULY DVD, Digital HD
Ahead of Quentin Tarantino’s Manson-dabbling Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood (in cinemas 14 August) comes this female-slanted look at the notorious cult group whose flower-power beginnings turned homicidal in 1969.
Focusing on the life imprisonment of three of Manson’s female acolytes and their interactions with a sympathetic feminist teacher, Karlene (Merritt Wever), director Mary Harron (American Psycho) tries to understand
how and why intelligent women so aligned with Manson’s murderous manifesto. Though sensitively explored, the answers are hard to come by.
Via flashbacks we see the need for love and freedom that seems to drive naïve Leslie (Hannah Murray) to join ‘The Family’ – and the abusive, contradictory, sexist and racist Manson (Matt Smith, uncanny), whose hippyish message of “letting go of the ego” hides a drive for fame, control and personal vengeance.
But because none of the real-life women (two of whom are still incarcerated) were involved in the film, motivation remains frustratingly opaque. We’re left, like Karlene (who did participate), to merely marvel with dread at Manson’s destructive hold.
While it’s refreshing to see a feminine perspective on a diabolical historical event that is generally viewed via the male figurehead, there’s still a pervading sense of exploitation in seeing these murders being reenacted once again. An evocative primer, then, for newcomers to the facts, but despite cracking performances (notably from Merritt and Smith), Charlie Says adds nothing new to this well-documented moment of human horror. Jane Crowther