Alice is a cheerful, kind young woman who meets her two friends Tess and Sophie at a restaurant. As they share stories about life, her phone starts buzzing with messages. She writes to her boyfriend Simon, an artist wrestling with doubt about her talent. If she doesn’t comfort and entertain him, Simon becomes capricious and brooding, wondering if it is even possible to step away from the moment and feel heard by his lover during a lively get-together with friends.
When she has catered to Simon’s every whim in the past, Alice decides to break the pattern once. Tess invites the group on a week-long countryside trip to celebrate her upcoming birthday. Alice agrees and tells Simon she must take a business trip that is really a lie. A few days later, the polished surface of the friends’ lives begins to crack, and so does Simon’s grip on reality.
Alice Darling marks Mary Nighy’s feature film debut at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2022. The independent psychological horror about coercive behavior drew strong reviews and earned 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. Yet, audience reaction was more mixed, around 43%. Viewers often seemed unsure what they were watching, even as critics recognized a careful, capable work that deserves attention.
Many viewers find the film hard to pin down. It is a slow burn about mobbing and the toll of harmful behavior, and some find the execution uneven. Still, Mary Nighy demonstrates a clear talent for directing a story that holds back on obvious answers while guiding viewers through a tense, intimate crisis.
The film unfolds with clues in the first half: Alice dodges the next message from Simon, responds with warmth, then worries she might do something that upsets him. She feels a rising unease that she cannot quite explain, and at moments she regresses into old patterns, even feeling sick after a tense exchange. She hides secrets and waits for the right moment to break away from friends and confront the cycle that keeps turning between victim and tormentor.
Even the scenes with the partners in Alice’s circle feel grounded and true, thanks to simple, precise choices about how Tess and Sophie react. They begin unsure, then recognize what is at stake and improvise a path to safeguard their friend from harm.
Discussing violence on screen remains a challenge in part because censorship still shapes what audiences can see. Filmmakers who want to explore abuse face limits on how much can be shown, and audiences sometimes crave a more direct approach. Yet this film persists, choosing a restrained, observational approach that invites viewers to feel the weight of control and fear without sensationalizing it.
“Gaslight,” released in the 1940s, is often cited as a landmark in the portrayal of abuse and the origin of the term lying at the center of the genre. Other films have followed, sometimes shifting emphasis toward physical harm or overt melodrama. A more recent drama, “Resurrection” with Rebecca Hall, centers on the inner shock of a complicated emotional life after an unexpected encounter with an ex. These works illuminate how psychological trauma can unfold over time, sometimes with devastating clarity and precision.
Against this backdrop, Alice Darling remains focused on the slow, almost intimate revelation of a toxic bond. Anna Kendrick’s portrayal makes the weight of the relationship clear, carrying both personal injury and the sense that a larger tragedy hangs just beyond the next moment. The movie plays with a nesting-doll structure: each reassurance from the protagonist seems to invite a new wave of panic, bringing the audience closer to the moment of truth. In the end, the film also serves as a reminder to keep an eye on those around us and to be vigilant about someone in danger.[citation: Film reception and analysis]