When Christopher Abbott vacated his role as Charlie on “Girls” at the end of its popular second season, the projects he took on set himself apart from his peers. Gravitating towards stage work and indie flicks, Abbott developed a penchant for brooding, “difficult” parts at odds with the thankless boyfriend role he played for Lena Dunham. Each of these performances have been rife with palpable energy, but even though Abbott seems on the precipice of a breakout, none of these roles has put him over the edge. Nicolas Pesce’s Piercing is no different. In fact, the persona Abbott has developed over the last few years only undercuts the slivers of the film that happen to be interesting.
After the strong reception for his debut film, The Eyes of My Mother, this follow-up, based on the novel by Ryu Murakami, could have been an interesting turn for Pesce. Instead, it’s a hollow, intermittently amusing genre exercise that accomplishes little and somehow makes its short, 81 minute runtime feel like eons.
Abbott stars as Reed, a married man haunted by intrusive thoughts of stabbing his newborn baby with an ice pick. In an attempt to exorcise himself of these destructive urges, he sets out, with the blessing of his wife, to spend a night with a prostitute, to act out his malicious fantasy on her and clean his mental palate. But Jackie (Mia Wasikowska), the woman he hires for the night, is not at all what he expects. Unfortunately, the initial surprise in their interaction gives way to ennui almost immediately, as a premise that feels perfect for a short film is dragged out into a feature.
Murakami’s source novel is more of a psychological thriller and actually takes time, being a novel, to explore its lead’s psychosis and the cycle of violence in his adolescence that has led him down this path. But for his adaptation, Pesce plays Reed preparing to perform this heinous act like an awkward black comedy, with Abbott’s solemn persona making these scenes laughable in an utterly meaningless way. Sure, he has real screen presence, but it doesn’t fit the film’s inconsistent tone. Pesce’s stark style and the opening titles’ VHS-sploitation aesthetic imply a clever, experimental film that never comes, settling for mumblegore bullshit with less interesting dialogue.
Wasikowska is fascinating as Jackie, and perhaps a better script might have given her a character worthy of her effort. She has the chops and versatility to drive the film’s shifts in tone, but her particular brand of charisma needs a movie tuned to the right frequency to accentuate her skill. Instead, she’s trapped inside this Miike-lite nothingburger of a thriller. Piercing is a sharp looking picture with some killer music (among the needle drops is an immediately recognizable bit of Goblin from an Argento classic), but unlike its source material, there’s not enough under the hood to keep the viewer guessing, much less actually giving a shit.
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