‘Baby Ruby’ Review
Stars: Noémie Merlant, Kit Harington, Meredith Hagner, Jayne Atkinson, Reed Birney | Written and Directed by Bess Wohl
Jo is a successful lifestyle entrepreneur who is happily pregnant and is awaiting the arrival of her first child. But soon after Jo welcomes baby Ruby home, something starts to feel off–even though she’s assured it’s all perfectly normal. Is something wrong with her? Is something wrong with Ruby? And why are the seemingly perfect neighbourhood moms so desperate to befriend her? As Jo fights to protect herself and her baby, she is plunged into a waking fever dream where everyone is a threat and nothing is what it seems. At last, she must confront the truth of her own darkness and contend with the ultimate human sacrifice: The one mothers make for their children.
Bess Wohl‘s Baby Ruby is certainly an ambitious movie and one that isn’t afraid to show audiences its true, wild colours quite early on. It never once tries to be anything that it’s not which is certainly a good thing. It’s a thriller that shows you that even having a baby can come with its consequences, although in this film, the consequences are quite unexpected.
Our protagonist starts to see some strange things and starts to hallucinate right away, and that’s probably my favourite aspect of this whole thing. It’s certainly paced quite well. At the end of the day, this movie didn’t manage to thrill me and put me in a suspenseful trance, but I must say that this is a highly respectable effort.
Wohl wastes absolutely no time getting right to the heart and soul of this story. At times, it can actually be a detriment to the characters though, because we don’t learn nearly as much about them as we should. Despite Jo being a solid lead, we really don’t get to know a ton of stuff about her, unfortunately.
Noémie Merlant is fabulous in the role, perfectly embodying a woman who just wants to live a normal life but is finding it increasingly hard to do so. After watching her in the amazing Portrait of a Lady on Fire and now this, there’s no denying just how incredibly talented Merlant is.
She really brings this movie up to a higher level than it otherwise would’ve been. The story isn’t all that interesting even if some of the visuals are great (except for one awful glitchy slow-motion shot) and despite having its moments of greatness, the film never managed to pull me in completely. There are some scenes that are fantastic, though these are mainly in the third act.
It’s a fairly forgettable movie, as well. Even if I had ended up enjoying Baby Ruby, it’s fairly likely that I would’ve forgotten all about it in a few weeks. This whole thing just feels like it’s missing a few ingredients for it to be a truly great thriller. Either way, I’m definitely curious to see what Wohl makes next because it’s clear that she has promise and potential.
Baby Ruby puts Noémie Merlant in an excellent starring role, but the film mostly fails to impress due to its bland story.
