Mysterious Creatures

Mysterious Creatures (2006)

Made for British television, Mysterious Creatures is one of those emotionally brutal familial films (Nil by Mouth, The War Zone, Brimstone & Treacle) we’ve come to expect from our cousins over in Old Blighty. You’ll be clenching your fists in frustration at the characters, vacillating between wanting to pull your teeth out, shout at the screen or weep uncontrollably.

It is no secret that much of the television from across the pond tends to be more artistically daring and thematically adult than the sensationalist youth market drivel and gimmickry that pours out of American sets. TV Films like Mysterious Creatures would never be conceived of here, let alone broadcast, without a radical change in the viewing habits of our culture.

Based on a true story, the film relates the difficulties facing an elderly couple (Timothy Spall and Brenda Blethyn) as they deal with their mentally challenged adult daughter (Rebekah Staton). Now thirty-two years of age, the daughter has become a physical and emotional albatross around their necks. She is diagnosed with atypical Aspergers Syndrome, a mild form of autism that causes her anxiety, the inability for empathy, socially inappropriate behavior, germ phobia, feelings of alienation and suicidal tendencies.

The parents are at their wit’s end. They have tried to institutionalize her with little success and have been putting up with her volatile and demanding behavior for twenty-four years. The daughter insists on eating only gourmet food and has such a maniacal shoe fetish that her father has resorted to embezzling from his postal business to support it. Her constant threats of suicide, erratic tantrums in public and projections of guilt prompt them into further infantilizing her.

The parent’s failed attempt at a double suicide opens the film.

Sunny, eh?

Writer Gwyneth Hughes (Five Days) and director David Evans play a clever game of shifting the audience’s allegiance between characters, ultimately ripping your heart out with the accepted tragedy of it all. Their four pronged premise spreads plenty of blame around for the sad state of affairs. First, to the psychologists and Social Service professionals who continually balk at getting to the heart of the daughter’s mental instability, then misdiagnosing it when they do take a stand. Next, to the solicitor who takes the case of the finally committed daughter and gets her released, despite knowing that it may not be for the greater good of anyone.

The parents also shoulder much of the responsibility. They have pampered the daughter, submitted to her irrational demands, allowed her to run roughshod over them emotionally and financially and, in turn, by not setting boundaries, constricted her growth as an individual and slowed the healing process.

Lastly is the daughter. And here is where the filmmakers succeed brilliantly. She may not be mentally challenged at all. She may just be the most selfish, self-centered, socially inept asshole on the planet. All her behavior points to the fact she is an atrocious human being. She has been so reclusive and catered to her entire life that what we are seeing may not be the symptoms of mental illness but simply the personality quirks of an overindulged brat. Then again, she could be mad as a hatter.

Spall, Blethyn and Staton are all on their game. Spall and Blethyn have cut their chops with this sort of dysfunctional family horror before through much of their work with Mike Leigh (Life is Sweet, Secrets & Lies). Staton is so perfect at being horrid and repulsive that her performance borders on one of those career crushing roles that forever pigeonhole an actor (see Steve Railsback as Charles Manson in Helter Skelter).

In the end, it is the sad, bittersweet relationship of the parents that gives the drama life. Their grave, “chin up” laughter, resigned melancholy, and general fondness for each other is the much needed heart of the film.

It is that very heart that has the mother- realizing her daughter’s all encompassing hold over her- delivering the line, “The only way I’ll get rid of her is to get rid of myself.”

It’s the same tragic, self-sacrificing game she has been playing all along.