Widowed mother Holly is radically tested when her teenage daughter Betsey experiences a profound enlightenment and insists that her body is no longer her own, but in service to a higher power. Bound to her newfound faith Betsey refuses to eat, but loses no weight. In an agonising dilemma torn between love and fear, Holly is forced to confront the boundaries of her own beliefs.
Chuck says:
Echoing Jeff Nichols’ criminally underseen “Take Shelter,” Ruth Paxton’s “A Banquet” is a portrait of a family in turmoil, a mother at odds with her daughter who contends that she has been chosen for a hire calling, a claim none of them take seriously to their peril. Sienna Guillory is the parent in question, a single mother attempting to recover from her terminally ill husband’s suicide. Reeling, she and her two children, Betsey and Isabella (Jessica Alexander and Ruby Stokes), are trying to put their lives back together and are on the right track, when a mysterious incident occurs. At a party with her friends one evening, Betsey wanders off to a wooded area and comes back dazed, contending that she’s been chosen for some higher purpose.
Confused, the young woman finds that she no longer has any desire to eat and no matter how long she goes without consuming food, she loses no weight. It goes without saying that this becomes a matter of great concern for her mother, who eventually finds herself at her wit’s end when all of her efforts to help Betsey fail.
Paxton is very deliberate in her pacing, the story proceeding in drips and drabs, at times very little in the way of significant narrative movement occurring. No, she’s much more interested, and adept, at creating a sense of dread, one that steadily and slowly mounts until the film reaches its surprising conclusion. Whether Betsey has, in fact, been chosen for a higher purpose is the question that looms over the entire movie and for the patient, an answer is given. Whether you’ll be able to see “A Banquet” through to the end depends upon your tolerance for ambiguity and storytelling that flirts with inertia.
2 1/2 Stars
