“Sanctuary” | Dir: Zachary Wigon | ★ ★ ★ ★
Rebecca (Margaret Qualley) arrives at the Denver penthouse suite belonging to Hal (Christopher Abbott). The blond attorney, attired in a business suit, seems to be on a house call to complete paperwork before Hal officially takes over his recently deceased father’s successful hotel empire.
As Rebecca’s questions become more personal, and even intrusive, Hal becomes obviously upset. Why does the board need to know when he lost his virginity? It is not the questions that are upsetting Hal, but the fact that Rebecca has drifted from the script he has written for their BDSM role play.
From this point, as the power play in the confines of the hotel room continues, the audience has to guess whether the characters are staying to Hal’s script, or taking the power play to a dangerously personal level.
The film is a master class in acting and the turning point in this sexy psychological thriller is when Hal reveals to Rebecca that this is their last session. As well as paying her, he gives her an expensive watch as a thank-you present, but Rebecca insists that she is worth more than that.
“Sanctuary” is in inverted commas as it is the safe word, but Rebecca seems to have thrown the rules out. The audience sees their allegiances to the individual characters ricocheting back and forth as they taunt, threaten and provoke each other in a dance of control and submission.
The resulting parry becomes increasingly dangerous as the dominatrix fights for her survival and the man who enjoys being humiliated fights his self-doubt to remove Rebecca from his life and be able to step into his father’s shoes as CEO.
Through all the intimidation and ultimatums, there also seems to be a thread of a dysfunctional love story, and a little bit of dark humour creeps in as well. The film packs a punch at half the running time of some of the recent blockbusters and the ending is rewardingly unexpected.
Lezly Herbert
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