The Keeping Room (2015; Daniel Barber)

GRADE: C-

By Daniel Barnes

Set in “The American South, 1865”, Daniel Barber’s pompous and lifeless The Keeping Room opens with a quote from the Civil War’s rampaging General Sherman: “War is cruelty.” Under Barber’s heavy-handed direction, it’s also tedious and inert, as the film halfheartedly stokes a glacial, almost imperceptibly slow burn that never gives off any heat.

Brit Marling and Hailee Steinfeld play sisters living a meager, man-less existence with their black servant (Muna Otaru), while a couple of Union soldiers played by Sam Worthington and Kyle Soller indiscriminately rape and pillage a path towards an inevitable standoff.

The Julia Hart script strives to introduce feminist elements into a revenge genre text, but Ms. 45 it is not.  This is indulgent, draggy, ponderous stuff, with some risible attempts at building suspense and a litany of squandered opportunities.

None of the key performances are convincing (Marling especially goes dress-up play-time broad) except for the newcomer Otaru, who gets a great scene where she relives a horrifying childhood memory, while also explaining the film’s mysterious title. It’s powerful stuff, but hardly worth the effort of slogging through Barber’s morass.

Read more of Daniel’s reviews at Dare Daniel and Rotten Tomatoes, and listen to Daniel on the Dare Daniel podcast.