The Keeping RoomSurviving in war sometimes means becoming like your enemy and abandoning the familiar from the life before. Set at the end of the American Civil War, The Keeping Room is the story of three young women--Augusta (Brit Marling), her younger sister, Louise (Hailee Steinfeld), and their erstwhile slave, Mad (Muna Otaru)--struggling to survive since the time when all the other men went away to war, making do by hunting and gathering. But when a pair of advance scouts for the Union Army under General Sherman cross paths with Augusta, a bloody conflict between these men and women is inevitable.
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The Keeping Room is a tense drama, opening with a scene of dramatic violence, which underscores the looming threat approaching Georgia in 1865. The film also opens with a quote by General Sherman--echoed later by Moses (Sam Worthington), the leader of the two "bummers" scouting the area--acknowledging the "cruelty of war", claiming that "the crueler it is the sooner it will be over". It is a statement which is meant to rally the men under the general who employed scorched earth tactics to destabilize the Confederacy in "Sherman's March to the Sea", and if Moses and his depraved ally, Henry (Kyle Soller), are any evidence of, that the positions they must adopt necessitate that they abandon their humanity, operating as monsters, sowing terror and discord. The Keeping Room is not a political film, contrary to the setting, but it is about the social conventions and shackles that come with them, preventing people from being free from these institutions, to be themselves. It is less important that Henry and Moses are Union soldiers than that they are men who are driven to execute orders at the behest of others. By contrast, Augusta, Louise, and Mad are forced to survive by working together, discarding the prescribed gender and racial stereotypes heretofore ingrained in them and their lives before the war. Augusta has taken to hunting, although she still falters in her efforts, suggesting she was never formally trained to shoot; all the same, she is the one to rush into danger, to defend her surviving family when pressed. Louise struggles to abandon her perceptions of life before the war. She insists on wearing a pretty dress, even though it evokes painful memories for Augusta, and asserts she is tired of manual labor, claiming that Mad should do it as she was the slave; Augusta chastises her, observing that they all must do the work now. Mad is a woman who speaks with a soft voice, but understands that she is valued as a member of this tight-knit trio, integral to survival, and deserving of equal rights as a result. Near the end of the film, even when she is faced with devastating sorrow, her resolve and her grace is powerful, motivating the others to take the offensive. Forced to choose between maintaining the artificial conventions and behaviors fostered by sexism and racism, or survival, the choice is easy, and The Keeping Room give evidence to the foolishness of considerations for the former.
The Keeping Room is a more localized film about the Civil War, as opposed to a sweeping epic like Gone with the Wind. Most of the action takes place in or around the women's homestead, with a couple of scenes travelling between there and a neighbor's house or a nearby trading post. It is like a chamber piece, where the claustrophobic isolation and interactions between the three women reveals much. In this, The Keeping Room recalls Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers, save that the women in this film form a genuine bond with one another through their domesticity which makes them stronger together, rather than it being a battle of egos. After Louise is bitten by a raccoon, Augusta acquires medicine for her and tells her fevered sister a story about one sister risking her life for the other, as Augusta desperately wishes for the drug to save her, unsure whether she is even alive when Louise passes out. Shortly after, Mad and Augusta share a bottle of moonshine, and discuss a man Mad was in love with named Bill (Nicholas Pinnock), baring their souls to one another. These women are free from the monstrous cruelty surrounding them, as it is with Moses and Henry, their wretchedness born from inhumane fields of bloodshed and gunpowder, carting around their pet doberman, aptly named "Battle", who bears its teeth in a menacing, perpetual grimace. When the men lay siege to the home of the women, Augusta draws out Moses, who confesses that he is drawn to her spirit, a proclamation which does nothing to diffuse the unease his trespassing carries, nor does it excuse the savagery of Henry and his drunken rage. By their mere presence, the men infect the women with the spirit of violence, and the need to defend themselves violently in the face of certain death. The men give the women no choice but to engage them on their own terms, which in turn leaves the women forced to confront the horror of violence and the impact it has on their souls. The conclusion leaves a bitter feeling, since for all their strength and unity, their dedication and liberation, they are metaphorically absorbed into the same union which Moses and Henry represented. The Keeping Room is a cautionary tale about the dangers of losing one's self in the face of a mob, and about the irrelevance of exclusionary and arbitrary social norms which foster only negativity and hate.
Recommended for: Fans of a gripping thriller which addresses the devastation of war and incursion of violence into a community. It is also a localized period piece about family, challenging gender roles and attitudes about race.
The Keeping Room is a more localized film about the Civil War, as opposed to a sweeping epic like Gone with the Wind. Most of the action takes place in or around the women's homestead, with a couple of scenes travelling between there and a neighbor's house or a nearby trading post. It is like a chamber piece, where the claustrophobic isolation and interactions between the three women reveals much. In this, The Keeping Room recalls Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers, save that the women in this film form a genuine bond with one another through their domesticity which makes them stronger together, rather than it being a battle of egos. After Louise is bitten by a raccoon, Augusta acquires medicine for her and tells her fevered sister a story about one sister risking her life for the other, as Augusta desperately wishes for the drug to save her, unsure whether she is even alive when Louise passes out. Shortly after, Mad and Augusta share a bottle of moonshine, and discuss a man Mad was in love with named Bill (Nicholas Pinnock), baring their souls to one another. These women are free from the monstrous cruelty surrounding them, as it is with Moses and Henry, their wretchedness born from inhumane fields of bloodshed and gunpowder, carting around their pet doberman, aptly named "Battle", who bears its teeth in a menacing, perpetual grimace. When the men lay siege to the home of the women, Augusta draws out Moses, who confesses that he is drawn to her spirit, a proclamation which does nothing to diffuse the unease his trespassing carries, nor does it excuse the savagery of Henry and his drunken rage. By their mere presence, the men infect the women with the spirit of violence, and the need to defend themselves violently in the face of certain death. The men give the women no choice but to engage them on their own terms, which in turn leaves the women forced to confront the horror of violence and the impact it has on their souls. The conclusion leaves a bitter feeling, since for all their strength and unity, their dedication and liberation, they are metaphorically absorbed into the same union which Moses and Henry represented. The Keeping Room is a cautionary tale about the dangers of losing one's self in the face of a mob, and about the irrelevance of exclusionary and arbitrary social norms which foster only negativity and hate.
Recommended for: Fans of a gripping thriller which addresses the devastation of war and incursion of violence into a community. It is also a localized period piece about family, challenging gender roles and attitudes about race.