Motherhood has been portrayed in various ways on screen, but few films will go to the same extremes as new drama Nightbitch. Amy Adams stars as Mother, a woman who has left behind a life as a successful artist in order to become a stay-at-home mum to Baby, a toddler with no shortage of energy. With her husband (Scoot McNairy) away for long stretches on business, she feels the challenges of solo parenting beginning to crush her. That is, until she unlocks a feral side of her nature that sees her become a dog at night.
It’s a weird premise, with some disturbing body horror that won’t be for the squeamish. However, unlike recent feminist hit The Substance, Nightbitch doesn’t have the gut-punch message beneath the surface.
Director Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me) veers quite awkwardly between the dark comedy of Adams’ overwrought trials and the surreal sight of the Oscar nominee sniffing and digging in a garden. The thread that connects the psychological impact of motherhood to this feral state isn’t strong enough, which is a pity. There is so much to say about the demands of parenthood on women, particularly those who feel some loss of identity if they have had to sacrifice a career but Nightbitch never really gets beyond surface sentiments.
What saves it from the doghouse is Adams, a fine actor who can bring the humanity out of any role. As Mother, her desperation and anger leaps from the screen, her eyes desperately searching for someone who seems more confident in what they are doing. Whether having family dates at a museum or tolerating a mother-child reading group, you can see the wildness growing inside of her. It’s a role that requires her to forgo some vanity, but even in the wildest scenes you’re always aware of what’s happening in her head.
McNairy does his best with a one-dimensional character, essentially there to draw Adams’ ire. Horror legend Jessica Harper (Suspiria) has a nice supporting role as a librarian who opens up Mother’s eyes to what may be happening to her. The Son, played by both Arleigh and Emmett Snowden, is an interesting take on the early, tantrum filled years of childhood. You can understand why his antics drive his mother to the edge, but the performance is also innocent enough to avoid any disdain.
Nightbitch is by no means a bad film – the disappointment comes from imagining what it might have been. The potential for a raw howl of rage against society’s conventions is squandered in favour of an entertaining but conventional walk in the park.
• Nightbitch is in cinemas now