Cast: Robin Wright Penn, Abdel Keckiche, Sandra Oh Dir: Jeff Stanzler Rating: 1/5Taxi driver Ashade (Kechiche) picks up Phoebe (Wright Penn), a hot-shot executive from an MTV type music channel, late one night.Phoebe seems intense and overly interested in his life. Ashade tells her that his brother was picked up by Homeland Security, suspected of terrorism, and is being held at Guantanamo Bay.Ashade has been left to look after his sister in law Heloise, who is living in America illegally, and her child.Phoebe drops hints that she has contacts with powerful people, who might be able to help him out, The couple form an uneasy bond like Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx in Collateral – but Phoebe isn’t all she seems.Sine 9/11 a string of filmmakers have attempted to address the issues that currently exist in America in this age of terrorism and Sorry, Haters is also trying to do this.
It attempts to highlight America and Muslim tensions in the post 9/11 era by looking at issues of religion, faith, culture and terrorism.
Sorry, Haters does start out as a promising look at the above. It sets itself up to depict a woman’s fight against the persecution of innocent Muslims in America. But instead it sadly descends into a jumbled, unbelievable mess.
Phoebe is a deeply troubled individual, she names 9/11 as one of her favourite days, who has no intention of helping anyone. She twists people’s thoughts and actions and suffering in a bid to cause chaos yet no explanation is given as to why.
We never discover what drives her to lie, or about her past or what drives her, besides her deep obvious psychological problems.
This could have been a thought provoking, political drama about false imprisonment, racial tension and a country living in fear.
Instead Stanzier delivers a film which makes zero sense and provides no answers to the questions that it poses.
It’s hard to understand why an actress as talented as Robin Wright Penn signed up for this project.
However she does deliver a great performance as a troubled, alienated and frightened Phoebe it’s a shame that the character, in the context of the film, makes no sense.
Helen Earnshaw