Magpie — Sam Yates

Our multiplexes and home theaters desperately miss the erotic thriller. Every few years, one or two squeaky clean PG-13 studio productions will don the mask of the erotic thriller: recently, The Voyeurs, Sanctuary, and even Challengers. (The latter two at least flash a little bit of sex appeal even if they ultimately end up being rather sexless). In the effort to make everything hit as many market quadrants as possible — the great accountantization of the North American film industry — these films tend to be functionally neutered: erotic thrillers with a void right where the erotic should be. Directed by Sam Yates, Magpie is the latest boring and impotent addition to the genre shelf.

Daisy Ridley stars as Anette, a stay-at-home wife to the struggling and arrogant author Ben (Shazad Latif) and mother to their two children. The couple’s youngest is still an infant when their other child, daughter Matilda (Hiba Ahmed), scores a big acting gig as the daughter of hot stuff A-lister Alicia (Matilda Lutz) in her newest movie. Ben takes Matilda to set every day while Anette stays at home to care for their newborn, and he predictably and without inspiration swerves quickly into torrid affair mode. Anette may be mostly confined to the domestic sphere, but, as the title promises, she is no idiot. She knows everything and plays around with that information Gone Girl-style, revealing her scummy husband for what he really is.

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