I’ve always thought that Michelle Pfeiffer is pretty underrated as an actress, so when I first heard about the film Where is Kyra and how everyone seemed to be in agreement with this being the role that really gets to showcase her acting chops making this the “performance of her career” I was excited. Dark Indies are notorious for being those movies where actors are generally called to reach down within the depths of their soul to bring to life their aching and troubled character. So, needless to say I was pretty pleased to see Michelle be able to do just this, however, I was also extremely disappointed when this was only the case for the last 30 mins of the film.
Where is Kyra follows the sad reality of Kyra (Pfeiffer) after a divorce and the loss of her mother who was incredibly sick. As the film follows her descent into poverty we see the unfortunate lengths that her character is willing to go to just to be able to survive.
I wanted to love this film: The dark and ambient lighting; the desaturated and muted colors; the wide angled shots and framing that had Kyra taking up a small space on screen so as to drive home the point of how incredibly lonely and dull her world is; as well as the overall bleak tone for the film had me thinking “now, this is my kind of movie”. That first hour, however, had me feeling like I had been robbed.
Much of that hour for Kyra was spent showing her taking care of her mother, applying for jobs, having sex, and the occasional conversation between her and and her love interest, Doug, played by Keifer Sutherland. I understand that movies don’t always need to be this loud, boisterous, action-filled story; sometimes the quietness and subtleties of a character and their story holds so much more weight than any dialogue or over-the-top acting, but in this particular case much of the movie felt like it was just dragging on; like you were waiting for something to happen. Though, I can understand the lack of action, overall disjointedness, and lack of truly living in her life because she has more pressing issues to worry about like trying to survive, the result, at least for me, was pretty underwhelming.
After that last hour, however, I was hooked: there was tension, a clear conflict, emotion, stakes; I actually began to feel something for her character and I became invested to see how it would all unfold. I just wish that more of the film felt like that last half hour. Yes, this is a role that we don’t normally see Michelle Pfeiffer in, but when much of the story itself doesn’t feel like it’s amounting to anything other than to show just how shitty her life is becoming with each passing day it doesn’t make for an incredibly enticing film.
