New York Asian Film Festival 2016 Review : Grace

Grace is a very hard movie to recommend. I went in knowing it was a thriller that involved kidnapping and jealously over Internet fame but boy, did they really undersell any sort of intensity this movie was hiding under its skirt. *Full spoilers ahead*

As a precursor, I've never been a fan of "torture porn”, home invasion, or revenge thrillers.  While they usually feature endings where the heroes eventual gain the upper hand, it's the whole process to get their that makes me uneasy in my seat.  I understand these scenes and story decisions are part of what makes the genre but sometimes what's depicted on screen seems to go too far just for the sake of shock.  If the writers and directors want to shock, then yeah, go for it. Just please make the story itself very compelling and make sure I want certain characters to pull through or meet a bloody end.  

Grace is about when social media obsession goes way too far.  The main character, Grace is a former Internet idol who has fallen hard from a shaming video posted online (more on this later). She teams up with her friend, Jack to kidnap fellow classmates Care and Ple who are rising stars in with their Facebook page that features their cute videos, photos, and fan fiction.  What starts off as a supposed cruel prank, blows up into bounding bodies, torturing victims, and a whole lot of objects being broken over people's heads.

To start with something positive, I loved the music in this movie. Anything containing Facebook posts or selfies had a very bubbly electronic feel while slower build up scenes had a new age John Carpenter sound. I was always looking forward to the music as it perfectly punctuated the sense of dread or the intensity of the film’s final chase. I looked through the credits for the composer or artists but I think I missed it...

As many have already pointed out, Apinya Sakuljaroensuk nails it as the blood hungry, psychotically driven Grace.  Her fits are erratic and down right scary.  Her enjoyment of torturing her classmates seems way too real and her performance definitely stands out in this film.  Later on when we're treated to flashback telling of her origins, you see a much softer and innocent side to her that you really want to sympathize with. Impressively the actress said about 60% of her lines were improvised so you can really feel she had hatred towards her fellow Internet stars.  Nutthasit Kotimaniswanich also plays her partner in crime Jack with a slow witted but equally foreboding darkness.  During his screen time you're not quite sure if he's mentally disabled or just a strange, perverted fan boy.  This makes him that much more dangerous and surprising when he shifts from regretting their actions to violent fits of killing.  Their victims do well with what they're given but it's mostly just being cute and adorable to later being tied up and tortured. 

What bothered me most about Grace are certain character decisions and story points.  During the middle of the movie we learn that a fellow cosplay friend decided to drug Grace out of jealously and then videotaped other boys raping her unconscious body. Thankfully you don't see the act but knowing what happens and seeing that look on her face just sells the pain and frustration.  So why doesn't Grace go to the police? Her friend actually posted it on her own Facebook page. Is there really no one who can help her with this? I don't know exactly how this might legally go down in Thailand but it just seems too cruel and unfair that this girl was able to get away with this. Flabbergasting me even more is this whole flashback comes right AFTER the character Jack rapes Care. And Grace videotapes the whole thing! I've never felt more uncomfortable watching a film and my head started to feel hot from how uneasy it all was.  We don't ever really see the direct act (they are supposed to be teens 18+ and Thailand’s censors wouldn’t allow it) but the slow motion head bobs from Jack and crying from Care sell the thing way too well.  I get that Grace wants her revenge but why did she choose Care and Ple? We don't really know them as characters so I didn't really care about their captivity. Yes this movie is called Grace, but choosing these two victims didn't make sense to me once the film was finished. It all just seems like a different story could have been told here and would have been more satisfying. Why didn't we get to see her kidnap and torture the girl who drugged her and posted the video on Facebook? Grace could have her revenge and we as an audience could decide whether she deserved all the physical torture Grace would be bestowing onto her. It could have played on our sympathies if it was going too far or not far enough. Maybe we'd want Grace to stop even though we knew how this girl humiliated her? Instead we're given two random girls whose only crime was Jack thinking that they were cute in what seemed like one line of dialogue.   

Grace is intense at times and definitely not for people who feel uncomfortable with gore, torture, or sexual assaults.  The performances are powerful and intimidating but the story choices make me question it all as I did above.  If the filmmakers were trying to warn us about the dangers of Internet fame and glamorizing those idols, I'm not sure it came across the right way to me.