Resurrection is a bit all over the place in its tone & pacing, but it's sufficiently tense, having multiple interpretations to offer, and underlined by an outstanding Rebecca Hall performance. Andrew Semans layered scripting & direction coupled with Hall's nerve-wracking performance constitute the soul of the movie. Where it slightly falters is in its sudden and not-so-smooth transition from what seems like a typical stalker-thriller into something much deeper and psychologically affecting. This is primarily because the film doesn't ask you to suspend disbelief in its first act, and then all of a sudden, it does. But the more I pondered over the whole thing, the knots began untangling themselves.
Margaret (Hall) has seemingly had a very troubling past, detailed over a stunning, single-take monologue that hits you out of the blue. But before even this happens, we sense her trigger. She "sees" her former abuser at a conference and her mind goes down a rabbithole. For 21 years, Margaret has somehow managed to subdue her traumas, having found solace in her teenage daughter, and the occasional fling with her married co-worker Peter. The return of David Moore (Tim Roth) becomes too much for her to handle. Her demeanor changes (reflected in how she acts overprotective of her daughter and the indifference shown to the friendly intern), and some of those ugly memories keep resurfacing in the form of nightmares.
We can interpret the entirety of the final act in multiple ways. The perspective that made most sense to me, is perceiving David as a long-gone traumatic imprint that revists Margaret from time to time. The hints were in the first act itself - the tooth that Abbie shows her mum; later, we see David missing a tooth when he smiles. David successfully manipulates Margaret into doing difficult tasks (which he calls "kindnesses") even when he's not around or watching. He is, apparently, also a key factor in Abbie's "accident". Is he an omnipotent presence? The question remains.
Yes, of course, it's all happening inside Margaret's head. Her PTSD is forcing her to manifest these episodes, slowly blurring the lines between real and imagined. She only seeks sex from the co-worker and nothing more, probably due to her past relationship with David. She only feels in control when she's advising her intern to get out of a bad relationship, but the rest of the time, David (who's probably still stuck in a corner of her mind) is "controlling" her. The final glowy, dream-like sequence is indeed her mind trying its best to supress the trauma, even for a little while. The anti-climactic gasp at the end only reinstates that!
Margaret (Hall) has seemingly had a very troubling past, detailed over a stunning, single-take monologue that hits you out of the blue. But before even this happens, we sense her trigger. She "sees" her former abuser at a conference and her mind goes down a rabbithole. For 21 years, Margaret has somehow managed to subdue her traumas, having found solace in her teenage daughter, and the occasional fling with her married co-worker Peter. The return of David Moore (Tim Roth) becomes too much for her to handle. Her demeanor changes (reflected in how she acts overprotective of her daughter and the indifference shown to the friendly intern), and some of those ugly memories keep resurfacing in the form of nightmares.
We can interpret the entirety of the final act in multiple ways. The perspective that made most sense to me, is perceiving David as a long-gone traumatic imprint that revists Margaret from time to time. The hints were in the first act itself - the tooth that Abbie shows her mum; later, we see David missing a tooth when he smiles. David successfully manipulates Margaret into doing difficult tasks (which he calls "kindnesses") even when he's not around or watching. He is, apparently, also a key factor in Abbie's "accident". Is he an omnipotent presence? The question remains.
Yes, of course, it's all happening inside Margaret's head. Her PTSD is forcing her to manifest these episodes, slowly blurring the lines between real and imagined. She only seeks sex from the co-worker and nothing more, probably due to her past relationship with David. She only feels in control when she's advising her intern to get out of a bad relationship, but the rest of the time, David (who's probably still stuck in a corner of her mind) is "controlling" her. The final glowy, dream-like sequence is indeed her mind trying its best to supress the trauma, even for a little while. The anti-climactic gasp at the end only reinstates that!