by Abe Friedtanzer
Kiersey Clemons is a superb talent who has proven her ability in films like Hearts Beat Loud and Asking for It. She is once again magnetic in writer-director Tayarisha Poe’s follow-up to Selah and the Spades as a bride that no one seems to truly notice or care about being happy. The Young Wife isn’t nearly as depressing or foreboding as another miserable wedding movie, Melancholia, but there’s still a sense something could go seriously wrong at any moment, and only its title character would notice.
Onscreen text invites audiences to the party - it’s not a wedding - of Celestina (Clemons) and River (Leon Bridges). A horde of people descend on Celestina’s home, each arriving with their own energy and distinctly ignoring the vibe she’d like to have on her big day...
Unable to reach River, Celestina is inundated by people who have their own expectations, including her mother (Sheryl Lee Ralph), future mother-in-law (Michaela Watkins) and grandmother-in-law-to-be (Judith Light), one of the few people who truly sees and speaks to her.
It’s staggering to see this film’s loaded cast, which also includes Aya Cash, Brandon Micheal Hall, Lukita Maxwell, and Kelly Marie Tran. Each has a small part to play in Celestina’s unhappiness, with some sincere efforts put forth to get her back to a good place and to ensure that she’s making the right life decision. An eerie meditation video on an old television hypnotizes everyone but her, and the weather report and booming thunder indicates the arrival of something sinister, perhaps literal or maybe just metaphorical.
Clemons is fiercely committed to the role of Celestina, who frequently tries to speak her mind even though no one wants to listen, and has much to say about what her friends and family cherish and believe.
The Young Wife is hardly a conventional wedding movie, but one that grants a different kind of chilling significance to that life decision. It all feels like getting drawn in to a nightmare that hasn't yet started. But there is also a naturalness to the film that could permit it to be taken on a surface level - society imposing its own rigid ideas of what a wedding, a marriage, and a wife should be on someone who is determined to be a free thinker. It’s unsettling but mesmerizing and intriguing, all anchored by a captivating performance from Clemons. B