Haley Bennett can’t seem to distinguish the difference between being happy and pretending to be happy in a new trailer for “Swallow.” The thriller sees the “Girl on the Train” star trying her damndest to be a picture-perfect housewife while she’s secretly spiraling out of control.
Dedicated to making her husband (Austin Stowell) happy at any cost, newly pregnant Hunter (Bennett) spends her days ensuring that their home, dinner, and her own physical appearance are immaculate for him. She lives in constant fear that she’ll do or say something wrong and anger him.
As her husband and his parents’ control over Hunter and expectations of her add up, she develops a dangerous habit, and a dark secret from her past is revealed in the form of a disorder known as pica — a condition that sees her compulsively swallowing inedible, and even life-threatening, objects, including marbles, tacks, pins, and nails. In her own words, Haley feels “in control” when she swallows something.
“The film was inspired by my grandmother Edith, who was a home-maker in the 1950s in an unhappy marriage, and who developed rituals of control. Like obsessive hand washing,” writer-director Carlo Mirabella-Davis revealed. “And she was institutionalized by her husband, and I always felt that she was being punished for her sensitivity, for not living up to the expectations of what society felt what a wife and mother should be. And it impacted our family a lot; I just want to make a film about that. And then I was also drawn to pica because I had seen a photograph somewhere of all the contents of someone’s stomach laid out. I have my own sort of OCD rituals and rituals of control, and so I wanted to make a film about someone who had these private rebellions against the status quo, and the patriarchy,” he explained.
When she was asked what she hopes young women take away from “Swallow,” Bennett said, “It’s okay to not be perfect, and it’s okay to screw up and mess up, and it’s okay to live your life on your terms, and it’s okay to marry the wrong person, and it’s okay to let your life get really messy. And it doesn’t matter because you will learn lessons and grow from even the most devastating interactions.”
Bennett took home the Best Actress: U.S. Narrative award at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, where “Swallow” made its world premiere. The pic hits select theaters and VOD March 6.
