The Party's Just Beginning

Karen Gillan wrote, directed, and stars in The Party's Just Beginning, from 2018. Her directorial debut, she shows an interesting visual style, but the screenplay could have used some work.

Gillan plays a young woman in Inverness (also Gillan's home town) who is, frankly, a mess. She drinks to excess, has anonymous sexual encounters, and works a dead-end job at the cheese counter of a supermarket. She lives with her parents, but they are almost like strangers. She is devoted to a gay friend, who is in a relationship with a man who is still in the closet. She starts imagining him committing suicide, especially on a bridge over a railway, which she passes by on her walk home.

The Party's Just Beginning is unremittingly bleak. Gillan's character is completely at a loss. Her telephone number is close to the number for a suicide hotline, so she starts chatting with an older man, and he ends up counseling her more than she does him. She has a fling with a man (Lee Pace) who is in town on business, and they don't even know each other's names for several days (I've never quite bought this--isn't the first thing you do with someone is to introduce yourself?)

Gillan makes some interesting choices as a director. At times there is complete silence, which gives the film an aura of quiet desperation. She monkeys with the timeline, which at times is confusing, as we don't know if what we are seeing is real or imagined. But the use of color and light is dynamic and always intriguing.

As an actress Gillan is forceful. But I wish the script had given us more clues as to why she is the way she is. Also, something happens with her father--is he listening in on her calls with the old man? I wasn't sure. The film ended with me a little confused.

I do hope Gillan has more opportunities to direct.