Clock 2023

Oh wow… There are so many things to unpack in this movie… Maybe even a little too much? The only reason Clock deserves to be watched is for Dianna Agron’s performance. The emotional journey Ella, her character, goes on is phenomenal. Agron took a badly written, badly directed movie and still managed to make it feel real and raw. That being said, the movie had great potential. The anguish of women not wanting children but being told they should is very real. The pressure put on women is enormous. I hated seeing Ella being gaslighted and manipulated, but I loved her comeback at the end and her reclaiming all the power back.

The movie is spooky and freaky at certain moments, but I hate how the scenes are put together. It just didn’t seem like a good montage to me… They are trying to build suspense and go back to explain narratives, but it’s just useless. Like at the doctor's appointment. We don’t see the doctor giving Ella her cell number, only for Ella to show it to the camera later when she is in the study after the fight-ish with her husband about children. It was completely unnecessary to keep that information from the audience the first time, and the flashback just adds to the feeling of the scenes being poorly mashed together…

Also, for the betrayal to come from her husband when she thought he was her only ally is both a great plot twist and a bad choice… The story didn’t need to sacrifice his role as a good partner to make the plot advance. It would have been great to see a truly supportive husband… His betrayal would explain how he didn’t see her downfall (being both her husband and a doctor), but it did not make sense to have him as a villain… He seemed supportive at first; he seemed to be able to read her body’s cues when she was uncomfortable, like when he touched her feet under the table to show support, only to learn that he played and manipulated her like everyone else. It seems wrong to me… And unnecessary… The woman doctor didn’t have to be in on it with him for the plot to happen…

Finally, so much could be said about the story itself. It was a great attempt at exposing a real issue: the pressure put on women to procreate and the trauma that can have lasting effects on many generations (a genocide in this storyline). It was a good idea to use symbols such as the clock, the tall woman, and the spiders. It somewhat tied the story together. But like I said, it was an attempt because, to me, it did not end up being well executed. I feel like the movie tried to do too much, to talk about too many important subjects and issues, and ended up doing nothing. It also barely touched the jealousy of her lesbian friend having to take action to get pregnant instead of only having to "spread her legs". It barely acknowledges the fact that she could have murdered her friend’s baby by hitting her belly with a book or by the way she destroyed the nursery. They added storylines to advance the plot, and it was too obvious. Why wouldn’t her friend call the police after being attacked while about to give birth? Only to give Ella the time to go kill her dad. The storylines were too obvious in their purpose, making me unable to just enjoy the movie and be freaked out… I feel like the movie was neither a great thriller nor a great psychological thriller. They tried to mix elements to make it spooky for the sake of it and elements that needed more thought and introspection to find spooky, but it ended up just not being spooky at all.