Susanna White’s Prima Facie is so heavy-handed in delivery, and so reliant on tyro methods of portraying internal conflict, that the film’s stronger elements get lost in the clunkiness.
Prima Facie is a prime example of a film where one creative choice almost single-handedly undermines everything it was going for. Its central topic is an important one – and morbidly timely given the recent imprisonment of convicted rapist Russell Brand. But in stubbornly committing to a style where internal thoughts and explosive speeches sell the emotions, the film cheapens its otherwise thoughtful intentions.
What’s doubly frustrating is the myriad of promising ingredients. Susanna White directs the film, with prominent credits including Andor and The Buccaneers. Writer Suzie Miller is adapting her one-woman stage play of the same name, which took the theatre world by storm when Jodie Comer played the one woman in question. There’s no shortage of talent on either side of the camera, and the harrowing themes are necessary to explore in our time of much-needed accountability. Pity the result proves so maladroit.
The story: Tessa (Cynthia Erivo) is on top of the world. She has risen to become one of the Old Bailey’s most promising junior barristers, ruthlessly overcoming the odds of her working-class background to stand out amongst a sea of privileged rich kids. This comes with a certain infamy, as she specialises in defending men accused of sexual assault. When Tessa is herself raped by her colleague Julian (Daniel Ings), she finds herself in an uphill battle to obtain justice, her belief in the system she loves becoming gradually shakier as the trial looms.
Cinema is quintessentially a visual medium, and therein lies the problem here. Prima Facie, the play was so powerful because of the way it utilised words as one woman externalised her complex emotions and changing relationship with a system she once so staunchly upheld, picking away at the cracks until the gaping holes in the foundation became clear as day. It’s a real-time disillusionment story. Prima Facie, the film tries to have it both ways, incorporating several visual techniques, only to weaken them through clunky dictations.
Voiceover narration sells the mental complexities and anguish of Tessa’s experiences. The plot structure is already flimsy, with the film’s first act playing more like an awkward rom-com than a devastating drama as Tessa and Julian attempt to court one another. The voiceovers give us a glimpse into Tessa’s mind as she sinks the hook during intense cross-examinations, or silently judges her elitist colleagues. Once the central sexual assault occurs (itself a chilling scene), those same voiceovers become nagging thoughts of uncertainty – “Am I overreacting?” or “What if they don’t believe me?”. That’s not to mention the foul-mouthed comebacks and character dissections Tessa wants to say to others but keeps to herself.
From script to screen, one fundamental rule holds: show, don’t tell. As difficult as it is to externalise the internal, be it mental health struggle or self-doubt, visual storytelling is key to selling cinematic feeling. It’s why Luke Skywalker gazing at the binary sunset in Star Wars is so moving – it tells us everything about his inner strife without uttering a single word. Prima Facie relies on voiceover narration to a frankly ridiculous degree. Not a single sentiment or theme is made richer because the audience is privy to Tessa’s internal dialogue. If anything, it sabotages Erivo’s otherwise terrific performance by taking away from her expressions and mannerisms. It’s the oldest form of handholding in the screenwriting book.
In the instances where the film does rely on visual storytelling, its imagery is rote if not outright puzzling. Throughout the film, Tessa refers to her elitist colleagues as thoroughbreds, and well-groomed horses appear on screen whenever she faces them. That’s a decent metaphor in itself. But then during the trial, when up against a slimy defence lawyer paid for by Julian’s wealthy father, sound effects attribute the lawyer (Elliot Levey) to a shark, which confuses the initial metaphor by suddenly changing up the animal parallels. Intense close-ups and alienating wide shots that show Tessa’s growing isolation as she nears the trial effectively convey the physical and mental toll of her experiences. Still, they lack flair or stylisation beyond shoehorned visual connections (e.g. to a broken clock) or the aforementioned overreliance on voiceovers.
Only once the trial commences does the film truly come alive. Tessa takes the stand, and the strength of Miller’s monologue writing erupts into being as Tessa, with decreasing patience, tries to explain what happened to her objectively, eventually exposing the patriarchal flaws of our current judicial system through righteous anger. Choice statistics highlight the urgency that comes with tackling violence against women – including particularly horrifying stats that make up the epilogue text. Erivo sells her character’s outrage, and the outrage of women everywhere, with visceral conviction, with the lack of voiceovers allowing her free rein in both visual expression and the spoken word. Even the picture’s more subtextual themes on the judicial double standards applied to the working class and the wealthy become quite blistering, if a touch cartoonish in places. It’s the film’s strongest portion by some distance, but it’s too little too late.
Had Prima Facie stayed within the courtroom setting, or even adopted a reverse 12 Angry Men format in its combination of dialogue and visuals, it might have worked. No one who’s sincere is underplaying the importance of cinematic stories like this, but the story still has to be cinematic at the end of the day. Prima Facie is so heavy-handed in delivery, and so reliant on tyro methods of portraying internal conflict, that its stronger elements get lost in the clunkiness. In an age when engrossing, heart-wrenching films like Black Box Diaries, How to Have Sex, and The Nightingale have come from similar subject matter, movies like Prima Facie acknowledge the urgency of their topics but lack the intricacy or deft craftsmanship to do them justice.
Prima Facie is showing in cinemas nationwide from Friday, November 13.
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