THE RULE OF JENNY PEN

4 stars

Vertigo Releasing. Cinemas. Out Now

Geoffrey Rush plays Stefan Mortensen, an uncompromising and irascible judge who suddenly has a stroke, whilst overseeing a case, and finds himself at Royal Pine Mews – a care facility where he is surrounded by old folk he doesn’t care for. He becomes increasingly irritable with the situation as he thinks he will soon be leaving. Director James Ashcroft cleverly juxtaposes how Stefan sees his condition with the reality of his situation. He finds himself sparring with both the residents and the staff using his intellect and language to score points whilst struggling with how he has ended up there. It’s clearly not much of place, as one of the patients there literally sets themselves alight whilst Stefan looks on, unable to help. 

He then finds himself targeted by of one of the other occupants, one Dave Crealy, creepily played by John Lithgow – who carries around a strange dementia doll, the Jenny Pen of the title. Crealy seems to have the run of the place, and uses this access to terrorise the other folk, who reusable to fight back. It soon becomes a battle of wits between the two men, as the judge starts to investigate the background to his tormentor, finding out how he is able to enter other rooms, especially at night.

Menacing and often cruel, Crealy uses his doll as part of his spiteful machinations – so much so that I thought that there might be a supernatural underpinning to the story. Of course nobody believes him when Stefan complains about what is going on.

Based on a short story by New Zealand writer Owen Marshall, Director Ashcroft and co-writer Eli Kent previously adapted another of his tales in COMING HOME IN THE DARK (2021).

Exploring the affects of old age, the film is carried by two excellent performances by Rush and especially Lithgow, who has a knack of being both friendly and nasty at the same time! This is being tagged as horror but it is really a psychological drama. Whilst it is gripping, as the story unfolds, I did feel ultimately it didn’t actually add up to much.

As someone dealing with older parents, one with dementia, this is quite a difficult watch and hardly paints a rosy picture of one’s twilight years. 

This is initially getting a cinema release (I assume in select theatres) and will later be on Shudder.

Steve Kirkham