The interior of “Magpie” is encompassed with a lot of reflective surfaces such as glass walls and mirrors. Sam Yates states, that he is also a British theatre director alongside creating Magpie. He has an astounding reputation over there and even performed award-winning plays like VANYA with Andrew Scott. It’s not much of a surprise that he is the director of such a splendid movie. This self-production of Daisy Ridley alongside Tom Bateman has astonishing writing. Even though this is his debut film as a director, “Magpie” was a huge success, both as a marital thriller with noir settings and a chaotic psychological state analysis of an angry woman.
A marriage that is in trouble is suggested by their hairstyles. Annette’s hair is chopped off while the scruffy Ben (Shazad Latif) has a man bun. Combining short hair and a man bun does suggest angst. The couple relocated to the countryside from London when Annette got pregnant. Ben is a writer, but his last book, which Annette describes as “dense”, was not that successful. That’s disappointing. Annette used to be in the realm of publishing (though it appears from the way she pleads to her ex-boss not very high up the food chain) but is no longer. The sort of house they live in is the type whose inhabitants are an average couple who have a troubled marriage, in the type of melodrama thrillers. It is a modern-designed, spacious house fully furnished with great taste. With their combined salaries this house would be impossible for them to afford especially because she isn’t currently earning. However, “Magpie” is a kind of thriller, so a house that is out of this world is part of the game.
The whole country move situation looked simple in the start. He would have the liberty and quiet to write while she could focus on being a mother. But this particular decision does not work, as expected. Meet Annette she hamsters and screams and happens to be getting insane because she feels dizzy and invisible. They welcome their daughter Tillie ( Hiba Ahmed) who is five and their newborn son Lucas. Everything is seemingly fine, Except Ben, who is expected to write the next novel, cannot seem to see any reason to do so. Apart from an 8-month-long research endeavor that he undertook immediately after the arrival of Tillie, he has not written a single line. Ben is busy with his new life as a movie set guy and as a result, most of the photos are blurry because he spends time with a woman. Then his wife descends to mad. When Tillie is booked for a movie starring Salma Hayek, Ben becomes obsessed with her and the set located in Italy.
But that’s not all, of course. After talking to Alicia a couple of times, Ben gets carried away with the idea of being in a relationship with her (and enjoys pathetically that the tabloids are calling her the ‘mystery man’). Annette is sitting at home with an unhappy crying child. Suddenly, Ben goes into the bathroom while Alicia waits outside and begins to jerk off in the shower. It is difficult to define whether Annette or Ben is more obsessed with Alicia, Men, or Annette.
With all this Yates has fun and all the audience members are in sync with the little details in their emotional world despite the large bulk of their movement’s plot. Annette’s disintegrating mind clutching into a frenzied superwoman swings around the room and turns her more and more insane, so much so that she appears to have shattered a mirror just by standing beside it. Annette, who is already on the edge, jumps in shock when a bird hits a glass window. There are moments when ‘Magpie’ is downright weird, such as the borderline picture of Annette of a degree unreal, where her disorder may have been unchecked. The tone in which the film is narrated could lead one in that direction.
There’s something bigger happening here, and it’s the film’s true engine. One cannot excuse Ben’s leaving Annette alone to attend to the birth of baby Tillie and then go away for an entire year so that he can write this dull, dense book of his. Prehistoric man would indeed have understood the need for women who had just recently given birth, to be protected. Ben, an insufferably arrogant self-styled ‘modern’ man, leaves her to fight for the fending herself. She has never forgiven him for that and he has been a shadow of a man ever since. Ridley gets all these points at an even deeper level, and one can envisage that for her it is the only point. Annette begins to understand that Ben regards her as a kid, chastising her for being too emotional or raising her voice.
Ben spends the whole day lost in thought with his phone in hand, thinking about Alicia and Sam assumes that they’re ‘together’. When Sam is quizzed about his day’s activities, rather annoyed, he states that he “was with Lucas”, triggering a sense of disbelief in Tillie. Tillie is all too fascinated by Annette’s movie set, which is why she doesn’t think of returning for a while. She has the habit of tapping her head, right along with Ben, who easily zoned out into his thoughts. This leads Annette to believe they’ve done nothing on that day at all.
The most distressing and realistic part is when Ben believes he’s doing something for his son. To him, all of this is nothing in comparison to the time spent during parenting. And speaking of parenting, Sam thinks being a parent is commendable, and being a devoted husband is as well. Ben is a person whose cut should be avoided, more importantly, if he has a man bun.
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