**includes spoilers** This is a film about reaching for things which are hard to get, both physically and emotionally. On both counts you find that these ends are reach, but perhaps not by the most desirable means. Jessie's struggle to free herself is quite nicely propelled forwards by ideas arriving through the conversations with her imagined self, Gerald or the flashbacks, and the final means of escape is a teeth-gritting watch that does hark back nicely to the days of more visceral, physical effects. The bump in the road with this film comes with the true narrative behind the 'freedom' Jessie finds not only from the handcuffs, but also from the imposing males that have emotionally stifled her in life. Although this subject is not handled terribly, it doesn't carry enough weight in the relatively short runtime of this film for you to buy in to her new found empowered nature. This is also at odds with the reveal that 'the moonlight man' is actually real - a twist that might not have felt so averse to the tone of the movie if I wasn't presented with the suggestion that he was there to have sex with Gerald's corpse. Gerald however, may take solace in the fact that the dirty weekend he planned was not a total washout.
Review of Gerald's Game
