Body
USA 2015
Written by Dan Berk & Robert Olsen
Directed by Dan Berk & Robert Olsen
Watched on 20.09.2015

“Body” has an interesting concept, but towards the end, it derailed, and even before that, I had a couple of issues with it. For example, it felt to me like the three girls completely overlook the most obvious solution for their problem: Just get rid of the body. Granted, one could argue that those three petite women might have had a hard time dragging that heavy looking corpse into a car, but it would have nice if they would have at least talked about it – and discarded it as a viable option. There were also some rather predictable developments, like Holly’s boyfriend showing up (I understand that they had other things on their mind, but it would have been nice if at least one of them would have thought about him and written him a text to not come after all). And, of course, it went a little overboard towards the end, with the girls effectively turning against each other.

——————————– SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD ——————————–

What I liked, first and foremost, was the idea behind it. The three girls – unbeknownst for two of them – breaking into a stranger’s house, their clash with Arthur, him accidentally falling down the stairs, and then the question: What the fuck do you do now? Granted, I didn’t necessarily care for the solution they came up with (it seemed like their first reflex was to cry rape), and it was weird that they didn’t just simply clean up and leave (yes, they left fingerprints, but assuming they weren’t arrested yet, that wouldn’t have really mattered), but at least they talked about what a shitty thing this is to do to someone, so I was kinda ok with it. The movie got really interesting though with the revelation that Arthur’s not dead (yet) after all, but just very badly hurt and paralyzed. He begs them to call an ambulance, assures them that he won’t tell anyone what happened – and that’s where the movie really gripped me, where I felt like part of the group of these three girls, asking myself: What would I do in a situation like that? Thus, this part of the movie was my favorite. I also already liked the beginning of “Body”, with the relaxed christmas party and the three of them drinking, playing scrabble, and smoking weed. All three young woman have some nice chemistry together, and I loved all of their performances, especially Helen Rogers.

I also loved the dynamic of the team, with the crazy one, the good-as-gold one – both essentially strong-headed alpha-females – and then Mel, who often is the one to tip the scales when they have to come up with a decision, but who’s mostly a follower instead of coming up with ideas (or opinions) of her own. That part of the movie I found quite interesting. However, the catfight at the end was far too exaggerated for my taste, especially the repetition of a certain scene (the “scream”), which felt incredibly forced. I was about to give this movie only a slightly above-average rating – and then came the ending, accompanied by “Silent Night” (they actually start with the line “sleep in heavenly peace”, which gave a great, darkly humorous quality to the scene), and I slightly fell in love with the movie again. The whole ending was great in my opinion, I definitely didn’t expect it to end the way that it did. It’s still not as good as it could have been, and I can’t totally forgive some of the things that bugged me before, but despite our previous quarrels, me and “Body” kinda kissed and made up again at the end.
6/10

IMDB