Sometimes, a film delivers the bare minimum of your expectations, and you just have to go with that. Nightbitch is tonally all over the place, not interested enough in its body horror element, less humorous than it tries to be, yet does feature a very real story about motherhood at its heart, and has Amy Adams doing the great work she knows how to do to deliver on it. That would generally make for a decidedly mixed bag of a movie. Still, it has just enough of a foul-mouthed edge to put it a bit more over the top than it would be otherwise.
Adapted from Rachel Yoder’s 2021 novel, this story functions as a feminist fable of sorts focused on a stay-at-home mom (Adams) who is adjusting to no longer working as an accomplished artist. With her husband (Scoot McNairy) constantly away for work, the mother (never explicitly given a name) must contend with her baby boy (Arleigh and Emmett Snowden). This means cooking, cleaning, and anything else that will keep the mother very tired and annoyed (in addition to loving and caring, as she hopes to show). Of course, all the stress still finds a way to come out, and in this case, it means the mother begins to transform into a dog sometimes.
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This film comes from writer/director Marielle Heller, who is coming off a solid set of features (Diary of a Teenage Girl, Can You Ever Forgive Me, and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood). Looking at the themes at play, the cast she’s assembled, and the nature of the story, Nightbitch feels like it would be in her wheelhouse, even if the body horror angle is a new addition to what she would be accomplishing. As it turns out, however, this is not a film really interested in the whole magical realism angle.
The movie indeed features a woman’s perspective, particularly one who has been pregnant and had a child, and there’s value in seeing stories about this subject being told. That said, even though this is coming as an adaptation, the “weredog” stuff seems more like an addition to add a neat hook for audiences (or financiers) than something truly essential.
Clearly, it’s far more provocative to call the movie/book Nightbitch and include the idea of transforming into an animal. Still, based on the movie I watched, I wondered what this aspect really added. Some moments intrigued me. One section was even quite tense, given the bloodiness involved. However, it’s not so much that I needed more dog-related stuff, but it wasn’t distributed in a way that felt like a proper match with the rest of the movie.
Maybe this would be less of an issue if the story being told, as a whole, was stronger. While this may be the sort of subject that doesn’t get enough cinematic attention, I have, frankly, seen movies like this done better in recent years. Tully, for example, felt like a more accomplished look at how to deal with post-pregnancy life, with plenty of detail concerning what it means to have to evolve as a person, giving up some aspects of a previous life in the process. That said, Nightbitch isn’t without merit for telling its story in its own way.
As noted, there’s value to these sorts of women’s stories that dig into details of what it is to be expected to have everything figured out as a mom while the world around them carries on and judges them simultaneously. Allowing Adams to strip away any real vanity and present herself in various unflattering ways paints a particular picture that dives into the reality of any normal situation without going too far over the top.
Other films could play this as satire, given how we see different characters in Adams’ life, whether it’s her oblivious husband or the other moms she meets during child activity sessions. Nightbitch, instead, isn’t beyond using these elements for comedy but still keeps the interactions grounded in some level of reality. The stuff with McNairy, in particular, becomes the most trying, as we are geared toward being as annoyed by him as the Adams’ mother character. Heller does all she can to mine some comedy out of situations, yet she still shows what real arguments can look like.
A notable credit for the film goes to how well the young son is utilized. There is never a choice made to have the son act out unreasonably. He’s so young, and naturally, the kid will do things that will upset the peace, but the film doesn’t make his action malicious, nor does it try to blame him for anything. Obviously, being so young, it’s not as though the twin boy actors are making significant choices as performers. Still, they are effective enough to note that they add a lot of goodwill to the film overall.
Still, it all comes down to how effective Adams is here, and even with the addition of behaving like a dog on occasion, she walks away from this film looking great. It’s a strong, multi-layered performance about a human woman and mother. She has her talents, some vices, and relationship issues that all come across as typical attributes. Sure, this film takes it a step further by showing a fantastical version of what happens when an unassuming but tired mother regroups in one of the wildest ways they could, but Adams is locked in on how to play it.
Along with Adams, it’s the value that may register more clearly to specific audiences that ultimately lets this film work as well as it does. Viewers with more experience in motherhood may be more inclined to want to recognize any film dealing with this subject under a different lens. That said, cinema should be able to inform anyone through how it achieves what it’s after, regardless of the subject matter. Whatever the case, Nightbitch accomplishes enough to satisfy, even if its bark is stronger than what little bite it ultimately has.
Nightbitch opens in theaters on December 6, 2024.
