'I'm Your Woman' Review
R: Violence and language
Runtime: 2 Hrs
Production Companies: Original Headquarters, Big Indie Pictures, Scrap Paper Pictures
Distributor: Amazon Studios
Director: Julia Hart
Writers: Julia Hart, Jordan Horowitz
Cast: Rachel Brosnahan, Arinzé Kene, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Bill Heck, Frankie Faison, Marceline Hugot, James McMenamin
Release Date: December 4, 2020 (Theaters) | December 18, 2020 (Prime Video)
In this 1970s crime drama, a woman is forced to go on the run after her husband betrays his partners, sending her and her baby on a dangerous journey.
Hollywood filmmakers have released several crime dramas in the last few years which vary in quality. For every masterpiece like The Irishman, you get a bottom-of-the-barrel project like Gotti. Despite their differences in quality, they share a similar formula: a ‘70s-era period piece about men who get into the crime business and become the top dog in their town. The formula has been used so many times that it can still feel derivative and lack flavor when done through a female perspective (2019’s The Kitchen). Julia Hart’s latest feature, I’m Your Woman, also tackles the genre from a female’s perspective. However, it stands out as a great character study of a mob wife coming to her own when the cards fall down on her husband.
Rachel Brosnahan plays Jean, a mob wife and a mother to a newborn baby. She is content with her lavish lifestyle in her stylish vintage house while her breadwinning husband, Eddie, conducts business. She doesn’t know much about his work and does her best to stay out of it. She’s just a simple mob wife who’s completely dependent on her husband. When Eddie betrays his business partners, a bodyguard named Cal (Arinze Kene) is tasked with protecting Jean and she is forced to go on the run with her baby. The more time you spend with her, the more you realize what kind of criminal world she was living in. Hell, even her baby plays an intricate part in the course of her life.
Hart nails the look of the essential ‘70s crime thriller. There is great attention to detail within the set designs and all of the locations have a distinct retro feel. The house that Jean resides in is as high-class as you’d expect, but everywhere else she goes contrasts the privilege that she’s used to. That said, all of the locations are beautiful and boast gritty cinematography by DP Bryce Fortner. The costume design also meticulously matches the era. It has a noir flair with a great modern sensibility as it subverses plenty of crime drama tropes in order to tell an enticing and well-written character study.
The film displays Hart's range behind the lens, for her camerawork makes you feel as if you’re with Jean for her adventure. Hart also delivers an exciting and tightly-edited car chase sequence that is well-choreographed and tense. There weren’t a ton of action movies released this year, but believe me when I say that this is the most exciting car chase sequence I have seen in a long time. Apart from getting the look of the era down, the script by Hart and her husband/writing partner Jordan Horowitz also matches the feel of the era, especially through its depiction of second-wave feminism in a subtle manner. It doesn’t bring gender to the forefront with dialogue, but with action and story. As Jean encounters more people who are connected via her husband, she begins to understand how to step out of the limited roles she’s been boxed in while finding her own power. One of the best characters that assists Jean is Teri (Marsha Stephanie Blake), Cal’s wife who harbors a secret about Eddie that not even Jean knows. Julia Hart might be the only white female filmmaker who knows how to make Black people look badass and can give them dimension without having to enforce a theme of race. I truly love how Cal and Teri are depicted and how they both handle their own (and each other).
I’m Your Woman has some of the most powerful performances of this year. This is a great leading solo performance by Rachel Brosnahan. She spends the first half of the film being so timid and on edge, but when situations get tense, she rises to the occasion and gradually finds her inner confidence. The story is primarily told through her perspective and as you watch Jean grow, Brosnahan pulls you in with her dominating performance. And this is coming from someone who has never seen The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
I genuinely adore this movie and it deserves to go down as the first great American crime drama of the new decade. I’m Your Woman is a great character study about a codependent wife living with rose-colored glasses who slowly learns that the life she leads is a lie and she must come to her own as an independent woman. It’s a smart and well-paced film that deserves to be seen. Hollywood did Hart dirty last year with Fast Color by releasing it literally a week before Avengers: Endgame. Honestly, this is a movie I’d love to watch in a theater and not on Prime. So, if there’s a SAFE way for you to view I’m Your Woman in a theater, I would highly recommend doing so. Otherwise, look for it on Prime Video this week. Is it one of the best movies of the year? Maybe. I think it’s good enough for a solid four-star rating.
