Look Away (film)

Look Away (originally titled Behind the Glass)[3] is a 2018 Canadian psychological horror drama film.[4] It tells the story of Maria, an alienated high-school student whose life is turned upside down when she switches places with her sinister mirror image.[5] The film is written and directed by Assaf Bernstein, and stars India Eisley, Mira Sorvino and Jason Isaacs.

Look Away
Film poster
Directed byAssaf Bernstein
Produced by
  • Dana Lustig
  • Giora Kaplan
  • Brad Kaplan
Written byAssaf Bernstein
Starring
Music byMario Grigorov
CinematographyPedro Luque
Edited byDanny Rafic
Distributed byVertical Entertainment
Release date
  • October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)[1]
Running time
103 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1.1 million[2]

Plot

17-year-old Maria Brennan (India Eisley) is a timid social outcast at her high school, where she is shunned by her peers and bullied by her schoolmate Mark (John C. MacDonald). Maria has only one friend, the unpleasant Lily (Penelope Mitchell); she also harbours a secret crush on Lily's boyfriend, Sean (Harrison Gilbertson). At home, Maria frequently suppresses her emotions with her parents: her distant father Dan (Jason Isaacs) is a philandering plastic surgeon and an obsessive perfectionist, and her mother Amy (Mira Sorvino), who suffers from depression and nightmares, lives in denial about her husband's affairs.

Maria accidentally discovers a sonogram of a pair of twins. Afterwards in the bathroom, her reflection begins to move on its own, terrifying Maria. Shaken, she attempts to discuss it with her parents the following morning; however, they brush her off and send her to school. After dreaming of her own birth, Maria's reflection begins talking to her, calling herself Airam, and telling Maria she can take her sadness away. Although physically identical, Airam is charismatic, assertive, and appears more beautiful than Maria. Maria asks who she is, and Airam simply says she has "always been here."

A series of tragedies then befall Maria: her father offers to give her an early birthday present; when she arrives at her father's office the next day to receive her gift as instructed, he tells her he's going to perform cosmetic surgery on her to fix her "flaws". Crushed, she begins to find solace in Airam's presence and support that make her confront her subconscious thoughts and inner feelings. Her mother Amy senses that something is wrong with Maria, but is repeatedly shut down by her husband. Lily then takes her for a skating lesson for the upcoming on-ice winter prom, but after Maria slips and is unable to get back up, Lily simply taunts her, before abandoning her on the ice. Airam again gives her comfort and encouragement. Finally, she is humiliated and physically assaulted by her bully Mark at the prom.

Devastated, Maria goes into the bathroom to find Airam. Their palms and lips touch, allowing them to switch places. Her mother Amy has a nightmare about giving birth.

Home from the prom, Maria's personality has changed totally to that of Airam's. At school, Airam is visibly more confident, standing up to Mark. She then arranges for Amy to run into her husband's mistress as a way of forcing her to acknowledge Dan's affairs and their superficial marriage. Maria, now stuck in the mirror, is appalled by Airam's behaviour, but Airam insists she is only being honest, and that Maria needs to trust her. She tells Maria that all of them must answer for their sins.

Airam then lures Mark to the shower and breaks his knee. After secretly practicing figure skating alone, Airam has another lesson with Lily, who soon becomes intimidated by Airam's sinister manner. Airam chases Lily across the ice, and Lily falls into the pavement, fatally crushing her skull. In the bathroom that evening, Maria, frantic, begs to switch again, but Airam reiterates that Lily's death was an accident; and that ultimately, Maria wanted Lily out of their lives. Maria asks again who she is, but Airam only replies, "You know me". Airam then seduces Sean, and the two begin an intense relationship. As they make love, Airam smiles as she watches Maria's enraptured reflection finally getting what she wants. Airam begins living more wildly, smoking marijuana, skipping school, and drinking hard liquor.

While at a motel together, Sean gets a phone call telling him the police want to speak to him and Maria. Airam refuses to go, and Sean becomes suspicious. He picks up his jacket to leave, and in a moment of impulse and fear, Airam hits him over the head with a vodka bottle she brought with her, killing him. Deeply upset, she sits against the mirror in the bathroom and she and Maria cry together.

Amy has another dream about giving birth. It is revealed that Maria originally had a twin sister, who was euthanised after birth by Dan due to her supposed physical deformities, against Amy's pleas.

Airam leaves the motel and confronts Dan at the clinic after hours, pretending to be heavily intoxicated. She strips naked and demands to know if he would still love her if she were deformed. Clearly perturbed by the question, he avoids it and grabs a robe to cover her with, but she insists he look at her. Finally, he answers "yes", and she slits his throat with a scalpel. As he lies dying, she begins to cry and asks, "Why couldn't you love me?"

Airam now no longer sees Maria in her reflection. Frightened and alone, Airam returns home and crawls onto the bed next to her mother. A series of mirrored burst shots depicts Maria and Airam on the bed together with their mother reunited as a family, presumably now merged into one.

Cast

Response

Box office

Look Away grossed $0 in the United States and Canada, and $1.1 million in other territories,[2] plus $7,793 with home video sales.[6]

Critical reception

The film holds a 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 12 critic reviews, with an average rating of 4.54/10.[7] Noel Murray of the Los Angeles Times said, "the pace was too slow, and the mood too somber."[8] There were some positive reviews, including Without Your Head's Michael J. Epstein, who said it was, "not only an absolutely worthy extension of its base, but a thematically driven joy, far denser and smarter than its teen-appeal look gives it credit for."[9]

References
  1. Crust, Kevin (October 7, 2018). "L.A. movie openings Oct 10-12". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  2. "Look Away (2018)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  3. Dave McNary (August 24, 2016). "India Eisley, Jason Isaacs Starring in Thriller 'Behind the Glass'". Variety. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
  4. "First trailer for mirror Image horror film 'Look Away' released". The News International. October 3, 2018. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  5. Leighton, Susan (October 1, 2018). "Look Away: Your reflection is more than what it seems". FanSided. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  6. "Look Away (2018)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  7. "Look Away (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved February 26, 2020.
  8. Murray, Noel. "Review: Psychological thriller 'Look Away' can't live up to a few creepy scenes".
  9. Epstein, Michael. "Look Away review and interviews".
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