Peacock

Peacock


My basic synopsis: John Skillpa (Cillian Murphy) leads a fairly normal life in the small town of Peacock. He eats his breakfast, he goes to work, he comes home and goes to bed. What's not so normal is that he changes personalities entirely in the morning and evening into "Emma". When a train accident exposes Emma to the town of Peacock, it can only spell trouble for his small piece of normality.

My thoughts/my take: Cillian Murphy is brilliant as John/Emma Skillpa. He makes an extremely believable woman, and as John, he has an amazingly broken sort of persona that makes him at once a sad character and one you can't quite like. He reminded me very strongly of Norman Bates in Psycho, and since he was also a crossdresser with multiple personalities, I suppose the shoe fits.

The movie is confusing; sometimes John is actually in control while he's dressed as Emma and vice-versa. What's more, certain background points are alluded to but never explained, such as John's abuse by his mother and his relationship with Maggie (Ellen Page), a young mother who prostitutes for extra money now and again.

The performances make this movie, to be sure. The plot is meandering and confusing, the shots are good but not anything that wowed me. Cillian Murphy steals the show, particularly as Emma, but the supporting cast are all phenomenal as well. Susan Sarandon's nosy neighbor is very real-feeling, and Ellen Page's Maggie is extremely flawed, though surprisingly real as well. (No Juno crack wit here; Maggie is a dredge of society, a young mother with no ambition other than to get the hell out of Peacock.)

Maggie is the biggest plot device, with her young son and her rough life. The relationship between John/Emma and Maggie is the main focus of the film, but it just doesn't quite fit. While I would recommend this film to actors for a study on playing two characters at once as well as mental instability, otherwise I found it depressing and lackluster.

Entertainment value: Low-Medium. It's not a particularly happy movie and it's slow.
Scare value: None, lol, unless seeing Scarecrow from Batman in a dress scares you.
Realistic?: Fairly. The characters are all very real, living and breathing sorts. Which makes most of them also rather unlikable.
Violence/Gore: None.
Sex: There are mentions of it and one scene that references something pretty awful, but no actual sex is to be seen.
This movie is for: Die-hard Cillian Murphy fans, acting students.
Films like it: Psycho, sort of. I genuinely can't think of anything else that's close.

IMDB Entry on Peacock
Trailer