Sunday, 30 April 2023

Millie Lies Low (Michelle Savill, 2021)

 Millie (Ana Scotney) is an architecture student moving up in the world - she has just won an internship to work at a prestigious New York firm. 

Following a panic attack, she flees the plane.


Hiding out in Wellington, she keeps up the pretence that she has arrived in the Big Apple while she wrangles funds for a new plane ticket.


Will her ruse succeed? 





Ana Scotney is a great actress.


I first saw her in The Breaker Upperers, where she stole the show. 


Co-written by Savill and Eli Kent, Millie Lies Low gives her a prime showcase for her talents.


As the title character scrabbles to get her life back on track, she is forced into increasingly ridiculous situations to maintain her ruse.


Of course, these plans end up backfiring, forcing her to finally confront the issues she has hidden away.


While Millie reckons with her life choices, she is given an opportunity to observe what her friends think and feel about her when she is out of the picture.


Co-written by Savill and Eli Kent, Millie Lies Low may be pitched as a comedy-drama, but it is paced like a thriller.


Backed by a pulsing score, and handheld camerawork which lurks behind the titular character, or observes proceedings from a distance, Millie Lies Low packs more tension than most true thrillers.


Its greatest success is the way it elucidates the divide between our digital public-facing personae, and our private selves. And it does so without preaching or obvious signposting.


In the eye of the storm, Ana Scotney anchors the movie with an exposed, crumbling performance. She is onscreen, in close up, in scenes mostly by herself - and she holds the frame.


A fine drama, Millie Lies Low is elevated into a genuinely moving character piece by Scotney.


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