Resurrection

Rebecca Hall anchors this twisted psychological horror/thriller as a woman visited by a specter from her past, who pushes her to mimic the abusive behavior she thought she'd escaped.

In her every role, Rebecca Hall projects a combination of intelligence, strength and elegance. Though she’s quite the chameleon of a character actress — one of the finest working in film today, for my money — I can’t imagine her playing a crude or dimwitted person.

It’s like trying to think of Samuel L. Jackson as a shy wallflower: something between the physicality of the performer and the windows of the soul preclude going to places too different from their core. For Hall, her fierce gaze contrasts with a long, lithe body to suggest women who are resilient and strong-willed.

In “Resurrection,” she plays a familiar type for her: a strong, smart single mother who seems very much in control of her little corner of the world. An executive at a biotech company, Maggie commands the respect of her peers. The movie opens with her sitting in her corner office giving life advice to a young intern (Angela Wong Carbone), telling her not to accept a love interest who cuts her down with jokes.

At home she is a loving mother to Abbie (Grace Kaufman), who’s about to turn 18 and go off to college. Maggie gives her enough freedom to make her own decisions and mistakes, but is on the ball, texting her to always know Abbie’s whereabouts and who she’s with.

She calls Abbie “Smidge,” an affection that is somehow both loving and slightly belittling.

Her only other relationship, if you can call it that, is with Peter (Michael Esper), a married coworker she calls up for sex whenever Abbie is not around. As in everything, Maggie calls the shots, from her position (on top) to when it’s time for Peter to skedaddle.

So we’re surprised when Maggie goes into panic mode at a conference upon spotting a man in the audience. He’s physically unimposing, 60ish, a bit craggy-faced and with a little pot belly common to men in their middle years. Yet it flings this Valkyrie of a woman into full-on flight-or-fight mode, running all the way home in a sweat.

This, we will learn, is David Moore, played by Tim Roth. They had a romantic relationship many years ago when she was about Abbie’s age. We can only guess from her behavior what it was like for her, but it’s clear this was the watershed moment in her life when she left behind the scared girl she was and became the woman of mettle she is.

Maggie gradually begins to break down, grows paranoid, is convinced David is stalking her, though he seems to do little but live in a run-down hotel and eat meals at the same seedy diner, going to remote park benches to sit and gaze. The film was shot in Albany, which here seems a dank mix of urban claustrophobia and upscale energy.

She stops going to work, lies to Abbie and Peter about her doings, shows up everywhere disheveled and out of sorts. What’s more, she starts to become very controlling toward others, unconsciously replicating the abuse she suffered more than 20 years ago.

Eventually David and Maggie’s confrontation comes to a head. I don’t want to tell you too much about it, because I think the teasing out of their former relationship is where much of the film’s appeal lies. I’ll just say that David is operating under an extreme type of delusion that Maggie has worked hard to escape, but his reappearance in her life begins breaking down the protective walls of reason she has built around herself.

Writer/director Andrew Semans has crafted a twisted psychological thriller that flirts with some of the conventions of horror. We feel great empathy for Maggie, but also revulsion as her behavior starts to mirror that of David, who himself begins as a figure of pure malevolence and evolves into something quieter and gentler, not empathetic but not altogether alien.

Hall is terrificly expressive, gathering many contradictory elements into the frame of her character. What could have been a straight vengeance arc instead turns into something darker and more interesting, as Maggie absorbs David’s controlling energy and projects it onto those she loves.

It’s quite possible this is how David himself began down the path that led him to where he is. Shivers.

I also really liked Kaufman as Abbie, who’s able to add little notes of savvy and shrewdness to the role of the typical bored teen who can’t wait to shuck off her parent’s yoke. I’ll give her the highest compliment: she reminds me a little of Hall.

“Resurrection” is a strange, weird, wonderful movie that may not bring everyone who starts to the end of the ride. It’s one of those films that’s not so much frightening as giving birth to a pervading sense of anxiety. It left me unnerved, and deliciously so.