Honey Bunch feels like traveling back to the ’70s. From the cinematography to the costumes, design, and dialogue, this movie knows who it is. That’s the number one thing that I took away from this sci-fi thriller after I screened it at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). And that absolute faith in itself, is the reason why I like the movie even if I didn’t like the actual plot.
At the heart of this movie is a married couple played by Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie. Glowicki plays Diana, a woman who wakes up from a coma with memory loss. And Petrie plays her husband Homer, the one who is taking her to these mysterious treatments at a remote facility. And as the procedures intensify it becomes very clear that before they got to this remote facility, their marriage was on the rocks.
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Honey Bunch exploring the complexities of marriage comes from the minds of the directors and writers Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli. During a Q&A at TIFF they mentioned how they wanted to explore the ups and downs of marriage and what you do when things are at their worst. Do you move on? Or do you lock in because during those moments that’s when you need to have the most faith or do the most work for your marriage?
In my opinion, I think that the two characters should get a divorce. They’re not honest with each other even though they are looking out for each other. And within this sci-fi thriller they cross some boundaries that I wouldn’t be able to come back from. And the only reason why I think maybe they should stick together, is that they are the epitome of the AO3 tag “Freak4Freak” and would be saving the rest of humanity from each other if they stay together.
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Besides the leads, there is a really strong performance by Kate Dickie and Julian Richings that grounds Honey Bunch more than the lead married couple. Dickie and Richings play Farah and Delwyn, two helping hands at this remote facility. And there is such a genuine love and empathy between them that counteracted the vitriol, weirdness, and instability of Diana and Homer. I loved them, who they were together, and who they were apart.
And if I were to give any advice to someone watching Honey Bunch when this movie eventually hits Shudder, it’s to pay attention. There is a method to the madness of these two directors. And if you’re not actively paying attention, you might be confused by the end of the movie and not agree with how things turned out. But like I said earlier, this is a movie about what you do when things get difficult in a marriage. And things got really complicated for Diana and Homer in Honey Bunch. But I don’t think they would change a single thing that happened when this movie ends in the iconic freeze frame before the credits.
Honey Bunch screened at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
