I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore [Movie Review]
Starring Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood, I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore features a nursing assistant named Ruth who has depression and anxiety. After an already-stressful day, she returns home to find her home burglarized and her laptop, Grandmother's silverware, anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety medication stolen. When distraught over the trauma of the robbery and the feeling of violation, as Ruth puts it, she's dismissed, insulted, and told other people have it worse. She wants people to not be assholes, but that's sadly a steep order. However, as fate would have it, she teams up with her strange loner neighbor whose dog keeps pooping in her yard, and she sets out to find whoever broke into her home.
The film is both cynical and quirky, and would not have been out of place in the 90s. It reminds me of an inverse Kindergarten Cop; instead of the actor known as the muscular action hero taking on a less hard-edged role, the heroes of this story are not particularly skilled at the standard thriller or action fare, but the story has its fair share of tension, action, and blood, especially in the third act. There is a particular scene that hilariously plays on the viewer's expectations of a character assuming the "expert hacker" role, only for them to be shown as clueless. Ultimately, seeing two characters who care for each other be in a situation that's over their heads is interesting, though the film never really seems to "go there" quite like I thought it would.
The primary characters make the film, especially the protagonist; Lynskey's portrayal of Ruth is immediately sympathetic as a compassionate but beleaguered person who is taken advantage of and often feels like an isolated nuisance. Lynskey and Wood have effective chemistry that made me attached to them and feel for them during tenser sequences. I'd recommend this for someone intrigued by an unconventional thriller.