Despite what the lamest slobbering, whiny Star Wars fanboys obsessed with their hatred of the Star Wars sequels may say: Daisy Ridley is a damn good actress.
About a year ago, I found myself engaged in an argument with a raging Star Wars fanboy over this very fact where he said something to the effect of, “Well if she’s such a good actress then why hasn’t she been in anything recently?”
Never mind that the industry was still experiencing fallout from Covid delays.
Never mind that we had just entered both a WGA and SAG strike.
Never mind that she had already met with Lucasfilm and been announced as the lead for another Star Wars film.
Never mind all of that because 2024 has quietly been Daisy Ridley’s year.
Between The Young Woman and the Sea, Sometimes I Think About Dying, and now Magpie, Daisy Ridley has put out a trio of films that aren’t the ones you’ll see smashing box office records, but they are films that showcase her acting prowess.
In the psychological neo-noir thriller Magpie, Ridley plays Annette, the mother to Matilda, a young child actress starring in a film opposite Alicia, a beautiful Italian actress who has recently been the victim of a sensitive video leak. Attending Matilda on set is Ben, Annette’s husband who, in the absence of intimacy with Annette (presumably due to her post-partum) finds himself quickly connecting with Alicia. As Ben and Alicia spend time on set together, Annette begins to suspect that something may be going on between them.
And while Annette’s baby sleeps, Annette only has time to think.
And think she does. Annette spends nearly all of her waking hours either thinking about what could be happening between Ben and Alicia, or doing everything that she can to come between potential interactions between the two.
And while the film kind of drops it about halfway through, the early portion of the film seems to be really focused in on Annette’s disconnect from Ben out of postpartum and their gender roles within the family. Ben is a writer who works from home and while Annette is currently at home with their baby, she is itching to get back to work.
During one scene, Annette meets with her boss about coming back from maternity leave where the the film, especially through Yates’ direction, makes it clear that not only is the baby causing a rift at work, but it’s a rift with her work as well. Oddly, the film drops this and any postpartum subtext almost immediately once the relationship between Ben and Alicia starts to heat up, which is odd because most films in this vein would use Annette’s postpartum depression as a way to play the audience make us question her sanity.
Instead, Yates sidesteps that by giving us those scenes entirely through Ben’s POV, making him responsible for his actions rather than us seeing what Annette assumes could be happening. It’s a smart choice since the former option is done so often and tends to stereotype newly postpartum mothers as “the crazy one”.
As mentioned, Ridley is excellent but Shazad Latif plays Ben with such effortless sliminess and Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz plays Alicia with just the perfect touch to where the agency of all of Ben’s actions remain squarely his own.
It’s a film where even though you may think you know what Annette is going to do about the situation between Ben and Alicia, the Yates’ direction does enough to constantly have the audience second-guessing their assumptions, but playing by the rules the entire time.
It’s my favorite kind of movie to stumble across — a lean 90 minutes with strong performances and a final shot that had me grinning. Good stuff.
RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
Brandon Toks Movies 
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