TMS Movie Review: Sanctuary
(Neon)
In his review for Brad Anderson’s The Machinist (2004), Roger Ebert notes that co-star Jennifer Jason Leigh has played a lot of prostitutes in her career, suggesting she’s intentionally choosing these type of roles over the obligatory, supportive wife/girlfriend/love interest. Leigh has confirmed as much in interviews, and I think a lot of actresses over the years have also embraced the same logic, thinking they can find more interesting character potential there. Contemporarily, Margaret Qualley has played a few sex workers in her semi-fresh career starting with Shane Black’s The Nice Guys (2016), then Claire Denis’ Stars at Noon (2022) and now Zachary Wigon’s Sanctuary.
Set in a hotel room for one whole night, Rebecca (Qualley) is a dominatrix who is hired by heir Hal Porter (Christopher Abbott) more for the domination than pleasure to fulfill his humiliation kink. We quickly learn this is a longtime arrangement between the two as money is no obstacle for Hal, especially since inheriting his recently deceased father’s hotel company; and Rebecca gets a power trip on his submissiveness as well. When Hal reveals that it’s probably time to stop these secret sessions when he starts actively running his family’s hotels, things take a drastic turn on Rebecca’s end.
(Neon)
I went into Sanctuary slightly intrigued. I pondered what Qualley might deliver this time with her latest prostitute adjacent part. But then something funny happened as the viewing went on. I realized Qualley, while talented and charismatic, doesn’t have much of a naturally demanding tone. Her speaking voice is mainly high-pitched. Unfortunately, this combined with the overpowering nature of the performance makes Rebecca come across more obnoxious than intimidating. I had similar issues with Qualley’s presence in Stars at Noon, and looking at her IMDb page, I think I still enjoy her most as ‘Pussycat’ in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), funnily enough. I admire her wanting some variety in her career as a younger actress, but maybe modern femme fatales aren’t a good fit for her as they are for JJL, Sharon Stone or Rosamund Pike.
Qualley’s performance of course, isn’t the only issue with Sanctuary though. Wigon writes Rebecca as an unreliable narrator through pathological lying; making it hard to care about what will happen since whatever she’s claiming will eventually be revealed as possibly not the truth. The movie also confirmed that I’m starting to get tired of movies shot like plays. While the single location can be a creative challenge for both directors and actors, the gimmick wears thin after a while even with Wigon making the most of his direction. Sanctuary might be intriguing to movie fans who want to see what Garry Marshall’s Pretty Woman (1990) mixed with David Fincher’s Gone Girl (2014) might look like. But personally, I wasn’t into it.