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Florence Pugh in Midsommar: Trading One Cage For Another
I’d be the perfect horror film character.
I would totally go and write in a desolate hotel for the winter. If I lived in 1630 New England, there’s no doubt my parents would accuse me of witchcraft, due to my hippie-dippie tendencies. And hell yeah, I would venture to a remote part of Sweden to visit a mysterious Scandinavian cult…. err, I mean community.
I could write an entire post about the fantastically scary aspects of Midsommar, but to me, it’s so much more than a horror movie. It’s a deep, ugly look at a sensitive woman’s grief. It’s about loss. It’s about family. And for those reasons, anyone could watch Midsommar and see what I saw — a story about life as you know it being swept away.
Spoilers ahead.
Of course, I’m seeing the story through Dani Ardor’s eyes. Dani, played by my future best friend Florence Pugh, is strong, but vulnerable. She’s smart but easily swayed. When we meet her, she’s where many of us have been — in a crumbling relationship.
She’s barely hanging on to Christian, (Jack Reynor), her boyfriend of almost four years. Christian is a stressed-out PhD student without a topic for his dissertation which of course, does not help his flailing relationship with Dani. In a scene with his three close guy friends at the start of the film, we learn that he’s almost completely detached from their relationship, but still indecisive about ending it.
(There’s also talk of a trip to Sweden, but that doesn’t come into play until later.)
Christian pulling away isn’t Dani’s only problem, however. Her sister is having problems again.
I don’t want to get too personal, but I am familiar with the impact mental illness can have on a family. When Dani worries about her sister’s mindset, after receiving “another scary email,” I empathize with her. It makes Christian’s cool, dismissive demeanor (“You let her do this to you, Dani,”) so off-putting and unforgiving.
The situation with her sister is escalating, but Christian has heard it all before. He’s used to being a bucket for Dani to pour her feelings into. He’s drowning in it and he’s done. But of course, my sympathy goes to Dani. I am also a person who feels too much. I often…
