A Kind of Kindness, from Yorgos Lanthimos, director of cult classics The Favourite and Desperate People, is a brutal examination of the painful sacrifices we make to get what we want. The film asks: Are we controlled by our desires? And how much control do we give to those who hold the keys?
The film opens with the synth-fueled Eurythmics rendition of “Sweet Dreams Are Made of These,” on which Annie Lennox’s voice urges, “Some people want to use you/Some people want to be used by you.” “Kinds of Kindness” ends with Emma Stone dancing feverishly to Cobrah’s “Brand New Bitch.”
In the course of these two light-hearted moments, spanning nearly three hours, Lanthimos delivers a trilogy of stories, each with a different plot, all using the same cast, including longtime Lanthimos favorite Emma Stone, star of “Poor Things,” Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons and Margaret Qualley.
The first fable, called “Death of RMF,” follows Plemons’ businessman Robert as he becomes consumed by the orders of his boss, Raymond Dafoe, who decides when Robert eats, sleeps, and has sex. We never learn why Robert is so obsessed with pleasing his boss, and maybe that’s the point: Lanthimos is critiquing the all-too-common lust for wealth and status.
The second story, “RMF is Flying,” follows Daniel, a police officer also played by Plemons, as he investigates whether his recently returned wife, Liz, has been replaced by an imposter after being lost at sea. Daniel enlists Liz (played by Stone) to carry out some brutal missions to verify her identity. In one scene, she chops off a finger and eats it for dinner. In another, she cuts out her own liver. It’s gruesome.
In the final story, “RMF Eats a Sandwich,” Plemons’ Andrew is part of a cult obsessed with bayou purity. Guided by a prophecy, he and Stone’s Emily search for a girl with the power to bring the dead back to life. The story continues with a strange sauna ritual, Qualley’s twins, and resurrection.
If these stories, filled with rituals, sacrifices and prophetic dreams, sound a little sacrosanct, that’s no coincidence. Not only does Kindness contain Biblical references, such as the parable of the prodigal son, but the entire film is also a meditation on God and his followers. Some characters become like gods to those around them, such as Raymond, the boss, and Daniel, the policeman. The people in their lives, Raymond’s employees, Daniel’s wife, are driven insane by their mania to please. What will we do to please those we worship?
In addition to the religious allegory, visual and conceptual elements that tie the film together include the games of power and control, as well as moments of dark humor. Each story contrasts the surreal with the everyday. In the final story, for example, Stone drives a purple Dodge Challenger to find a veterinarian who has the power to bring the dead back to life. Dressed in everyday clothes, the characters embark on a medieval-style adventure against the backdrop of New Orleans.
Violence, of course, is a constant theme throughout the film; its characters treat both sex and violence with destructive flippantness, operating in a world that bears a startling resemblance to our own. The absurdity of Kindness mirrors our own existence, a world that may appear more solid on the surface, but it’s just as corrupt as the world of Lanthimos’ morbid fable. At least, that’s what the film claims.
As a fan of “Poor Things,” in particular, it’s tempting to chalk the film’s brutality and debauchery up to the lofty genius of Lanthimos’s imagination — the brutal rapes, the plethora of female nudes (and especially the paucity of male nudes), the orgies, the mind-blowing violence — but in the end, it’s perversion masquerading as intellectualism. Strip away the Bible references and avant-garde undertones, and the film is just chilling depravity.
Maybe I’m looking at Kinds of Kindness in all the wrong way, I told myself. Maybe I’m being too rigid. But Lanthimos doesn’t really develop any of the film. The whole spectacle seems to unfold on the surface of a surrealist dream with no real center. The film never really moves beyond the first twists of each storyline leaving them pretty disjointed. It’s a strange, eerie world. Not just one without rules or logic, but without depth.
Lanthimos fans might say the film expresses a kind of nihilism that resonates today. It’s a boring story. Nothing makes sense as the world lurches towards catastrophe. We are all savage animals made of flesh and bone. Frankly, I’m bored. I can’t help but feel that “Kinds of Kindness” is ultimately empty.
There’s a faint echo of life between the lines of A Kindness. Dig deep enough and you’ll find something about love, about striving to be loved and doing whatever it takes to get it. Stone gives a moving performance throughout, offering a glimpse of what A Kindness could have been if Lanthimos had managed to carve out a bit more humanity.
Instead, the film ends on a sombre note, with a line from Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams: “Everybody’s looking for something,” before Lanthimos makes it clear that we’ll never find it.
Rating: ★★★
