Movie Review: PROXY

Directed by Zack Parker, PROXY is a movie about a woman named Esther (Alexia Rasmussen) who is viciously attacked at the beginning of the movie.  She is almost to her due date and unfortunately the baby dies.  She is advised to join a support group to help her heal from her loss, so she eventually does.  There she meets Melanie (Alexa Havins), who has a tragic story of her own.  Esther becomes obsessed with Melanie, but ends up freaking Melanie out and she distances herself.  This just leads Esther to become more of a stalker.  It's while stalking Melanie that Esther realizes that there is much more to Melanie than anyone knew.

I don't want to give away too many details because one of the best things about this movie was all the plot twists!  There was one part that I thought was a smidge predictable, but the rest of it blew my mind.  The psychological aspects were amazing and well thought out!!  My husband and I watched this after watching August: Osage County and he said PROXY was by far a better movie.

Plot-wise, I'd agree, but my only issue with PROXY was the acting.  The three main characters, Esther, Melanie and Patrick do a great job, but the rest of the cast and non-key players are not that good.  It was a disappointment with Esther's girlfriend Anika, as she had a decent sized part.

I love this synopsis from the press release, "Unlike many of its contemporaries, PROXY sheds light on the dark side of motherhood - that children are not always perceived as little 'bundles of joy' in their mother's eyes, but rather as hindrances, as threats."  That sums it up quite a bit, but I still feel like we are left a little bit hanging in terms of motive with Esther's situation.  I'd like to have known more about it.  I think I kind of get the psychological theory behind it, but I would have liked it to have been a little more clear.

I'm a little late on the announcement, my bad, but:

PROXY Opens on April 18th in NYC at the IFC Center and on VOD, with Rollout to Follow