Blush from Director Debra Eisenstadt (Daydream Believer) is a film of one woman’s life becoming quicksand. The more you struggle the quicker you sink. Starring Wendi McLendon-Covey (Bridesmaids, The Goldbergs) it follows Cathy’s boring daily suburban life slip through her fingers as everything around her slowly spirals out of control as she tries to keep a grip like someone trying to stop water escaping a sieve.
Blush (also known as Imaginary Order) is a very interesting drama, especially with the excellent performance from Wendi McLendon-Covey. You feel her struggle trying to keep things going, her family together and just get by without having crisis every 5 minutes.
She’s got a distant husband who she suspects maybe having an affair, not because of anything tangible, but because office gossip makes her paranoid. A daughter hitting her teens and in a effort to be a cool mom who cares, ends up creeping her out. Then she helps out her sister by looking after her cat while she’s away for a few days where she meets the neighbour Gemma (Christine Woods – The Walking Dead) who then spirals her life even faster out of control, with an amorous husband and increasingly obsessed son Xander (Max Burkholder – Parenthood, Daddy Day Care) who increase the risk of making her life an absolute car crash.
What Debra Eisenstadt has delivered here is a very solid darkly humorous at times drama that starts off really strong in the first half, the wheels come off a bit in the middle but then sort of pulls itself back together by the time the credits roll, much like Mclendon-Coveys character Cathy. It is really engaging for the most part, with a solid central performance. Some of the more crazy scenarios cause you to lose concentration on whats going on, but as Cathy tries to control once more by the end it sort of comes together in a twee way.
Blush does nothing groundbreaking, but it’s not by the numbers either. It feels like a TV Drama series condensed into 1 hour and 40 minutes, and it never feels like it’s dragging. The only bug bear is the character of Xander who’s reactions to Cathy are so over the top and increasingly implausible that you just want him to go away. How any adult would allow that behaviour isn’t entirely realistic.
But over all Blush is definitely one to take a look at if only for Wendi McLendon-Covey performance. It likely won’t stay with you much after you’ve finished it, but there are a lot of worse ways to spend your time currently.
Blush is released on Digital Platforms Monday 22nd February 2021
