POLITE SOCIETY - Mark Reviews Movies

Polite Society, Focus Features

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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 27, 2023

The world of Polite Society seems to exist somewhere between fantasy, in which a teenage girl imagines herself the star of her action movie-like life, and reality, in which she certainly gets into arguments and scrapes that likely aren't as intense as what we see. It's difficult to tell where the line is drawn here, and that's unfortunate, because so much about this story and these characters rings true.

By the end of writer/director Nida Manzoor's debut feature, there is no line, because the screenplay choose to embrace the more fantastical notions of this story as its actual reality. In a certain way, that decision is right, in that it allows our protagonist to prove herself decisively against all of the doubts that have surrounded her throughout the movie. On a more fundamental level, though, it doesn't feel like the correct move, on account of how much the embrace of an action-heavy final act ultimately undermines the stronger elements on display until that point.

Those strong points are the characters and especially the authenticity of their relationships. Take Ria (Priya Kansara), our protagonist, who's the younger daughter of Pakistani immigrants living in London. She has dreams of becoming a stunt performer, taking a martial arts class once a week and regularly making online videos that show off her skills. Most people doubt her ambitions, seeing them as silly and untenable, and only a few people believe in her ability to make that dream a reality.

Her biggest fan and supporter is Ria's older sister Lena (Ritu Arya), who knows a thing or two about the hopes and difficulties of following a dream. She is—or, maybe, was—an aspiring artist, but some time in art school has left her jaded. Now, Lena is back living at home with the sisters' parents, Fatima (Shobu Kapoor) and Raff (Jeff Mirza). While she spends most of her days alone and depressed in her bedroom, Lena is happy to record her younger sister's next video—even if it takes Ria literally dragging her sibling out of bed in order to get the process started.

This relationship becomes the emotional and narrative core of the movie, and even if the plot eventually loses that focus by becoming too caught up in some conspiring and action, the sisterly bond is quite believable and endearing at the start. Their individual ambitions are part of bigger dream—that these two young women will rise above the expectations of their parents, the parents' friends, and society in general to do what they want to do with their lives. It's lovely in an understated but completely comprehensible way.

That's why it is such a disaster when Lena, invited with the rest of the family to a fancy party at the lavish mansion owned by Raheela (Nimra Bucha), becomes involved with the wealthy woman's son Salim (Akshay Khanna). Something must be wrong, Ria assumes, because Lena is supposed to be an independent woman and a rebel—not one to be swept off her feet by a handsome, charming, and successful geneticist who desperately wants to save the lives of babies around the world.

The couple's relationship has to be stopped, so Ria enlists the help of best friends Clara (Serahphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) to dig up or invent some dirt on Salim. Their "missions," involving stealing the guy's laptop from a gym locker and trying to frame him for some indiscretion by sneaking into the mansion, are cleverly staged and serve as a showcase for Kansara's physical comedy chops (While in disguise at the gym, she makes a series of precisely measured and timed adjustments in order to appear more like a man, and a pretty obvious bit involving a fake mustache is only funny for the same reason).

One of the funnier and more unexpected turns of Manzoor's screenplay is how it intentionally undercuts its main character's suspicions about Raheela and Salim, challenging Ria's belief that she's actually on her older sister's side no matter what. Well, it's a pleasant turn while it lasts, at least, until the plot takes yet another, especially strange shift.

There's still the matter of the other side of this story, which revolves around Ria's belief that she is the action star of her own story. This means putting her in several fights, prompted by flourishes of large text on screen announcing the combatants and dramatic music on the soundtrack, but in the way Manzoor stages and shoots these scenes, it's never clear if they are acts of make-believe, reality, or something in between. Despite some fine stunt work, the sequences look and feel entirely routine, meaning that they never stand out within the story or as anything other than an exercise.

The underwhelming and confusing nature of the action is less of an issue when the movie is focused on Ria's determination to prove her suspicions—and, hence, her worth as a performer and a sister—correct and the relationship between the sisters. Polite Society, though, finally follows through more on the action than the characters with its last act, an extended bit of scheming and fighting and chasing at an elaborate wedding ceremony. The inherent problems with Manzoor's approach to the action is only amplified in this climax, and it also possesses the setback of overshadowing the movie's most worthwhile elements.

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