Magpie takes place inside a marriage. It’s based on an idea the lead actor, Daisy Ridley, had. She produced the film and her husband Tom Bateman wrote the script. Daisy Ridley really wrung this one out with an uncomfortable look at a bad marriage and a clever and rewarding ending.
Magpie starts with Annette (Daisy Ridley) taking a video of her young daughter Matilda (Hiba Ahmed). Matilda is going to act in a movie. Annette’s husband Ben (Shazad Latif) – who is an obvious a-hole of a man from the first scene – will be taking Matilda to the set every day. Annette will stay at home with their infant son.
The family lives in a huge showplace of a home in the remote woods. It feels like a prison to Annette. She’s slowly drowning from being there all alone so much.
In the movie, Matilda will play the daughter of a beautiful and famous actress Alicia (Matilda Lutz). Ben promptly falls for Alicia and finds ways to be around her and begins secretly texting her. He thinks she’s as crazy about him as he is about her.
The drama in this film comes not from what you see happening but from what you don’t see happening. Annette senses what’s going on with Ben. She punishes him in passive aggressive ways and interferes with his ability to be around Alicia. She seems to be fighting to save her marriage even though Ben is a jerk of the highest order.
Some twists in the third act followed by a real banger of an ending are what make this film shine. The parts leading up to that reward were an uncomfortable and squirmy visit to a marriage in trouble.
I wasn’t always enthusiastic about Magpie, but by the end I was totally convinced of what a great story I’d just seen. Give it a chance, is what I’m saying. The actors were excellent, the music worked, the direction was clean and straightforward. This was a no-frills noir psychological mindf*ck.
You can see Magpie on Hulu.