Swallow                               4 stars

Swallow is a difficult movie to describe. It may be a thriller turned horror movie about female empowerment in an environment controlled by men. It does concern a little known psychological disorder called pica. Hunter Conrad (Haley Bennett) is a newly married housewife whose husband is a rising star in the corporate world. Hunter is put on display in 1950’s wardrobe in a lavish, isolated house where she is expected to be the perfect wife and home decorator. The husband, Richie, is very controlling and her in-laws are judgmental toward her. The pressure only grows when it is learned that she is pregnant. It is then that the mental illness surfaces as Hunter finds satisfaction from swallowing inanimate, inedible objects and then “recovering” them. She does all this in secret trying to get greater satisfaction with more and more dangerous objects. I felt the movie gave a realistic feel for why someone would seek to cause harm to themselves when there was little they could do to control the world around them. I heard about the film when the pandemic was just starting and finally picked it as one to watch. I feel it fits in well with what we were facing in 2020 when events were controlling what we could and could not do. Haley Bennett gives an excellent performance as the housewife who is dominated by the men around her. Eventually, some additional context is offered to help explain this mental condition. There are some scenes that the squeamish may have a little trouble with, but there is no violence in the film. The film received well deserved favorable attention at film festivals before getting its brief theatrical run when Covid struck.