When optometrist Pippa (Sydney Sweeney) and musician Thomas (Justice Smith) snag a gorgeous apartment in Montreal, the successful young couple can’t believe their luck, and their excitement quickly turns to curiosity when they discover that their swanky new apartment comes with a full view of their eccentric and attractive across-the-street neighbors (Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Ben Hardy). Their curiosity begins to spiral into obsession, though, and the more Pippa finds herself engrossed in the exploits of her mysterious new neighbors, the deeper she entrenches herself into a web of mysteries in writer-director Michael Mohan’s erotic thriller, “The Voyeurs.”
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Erotic thrillers are few and far between in our modern cinematic landscape, so “The Voyeurs” feels inherently fresh and original purely when it comes to tone and concept by merit of simply being willing to harken back to an era and style of filmmaking that feels all but forgotten. As refreshing as it is to get a new original thriller of this nature, though, the novelty pretty much stops there—as a vast majority of “The Voyeurs” is a sluggish, predictable jumble that dances around intriguing ideas but never quite lands on them long enough to say anything of substance.
For starters, “The Voyeurs” sits squarely at the two-hour mark, but paces itself frustratingly poorly—the first hour spins its wheels so fruitlessly that when things finally do start to pick up, it feels as if one is watching an entirely different film. Things do pick up, though, and when they pick up, they don’t stop—the sheer number of plot twists stuffed into the last act almost, but don’t quite, make up for how little happens in the first hour and a half.
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The story itself is relatively by-the-book—nosy neighbors see something they shouldn’t have, intrigue ensues—and though it’s not entirely predictable, it’s the kind of melodrama that one might expect from a Lifetime movie, just with an R rating and a recognizable cast. The sheer chaos of the finale helps breathe life into an, ironically, stuffy film and certainly leaves quite the impression when the credits roll, but “The Voyeurs” takes far too long to get there—not in a deliberate, tension-building sort of way, but in the sense that the film could stand to lose nearly half an hour without much fuss.
The script, courtesy of director Mohan, isn’t much to write home about, either—though “The Voyeurs” explores intriguing ideas on everything from the morality of voyeurism to the interconnectedness of our digital lives to the idea of never truly having “privacy,” the script trips over itself to seem intelligent, and the product is a very transparent, shallow attempt at a thoughtful examination. Mohan’s dialogue is clunky in its attempts to be high-brow: waxing poetic about Aesop’s fables and Roman mythology and coming off frigid more than anything else.
Not helping the already inaccessible dialogue are the film’s performances, anchored by Sydney Sweeney. As eye examiner/voyeur Pippa, Sweeney is stiff as a board and, though she’s in nearly every scene, is severely lacking in presence or chemistry with her co-stars. Though she’s turned out strong performances in the past (her turns in “Nocturne” and “Euphoria” are both compelling) the combination of an already thready script and poor direction culminate in a leading lady that evokes little to no emotion from her audience—an unfortunate “must” for a film of “The Voyeurs’” nature.
Though there’s plenty of meat to the role itself, Pippa is a character who says more with her body language and eyes than she does in actual dialogue, but Sweeney’s performance, as captivating as her eyes may be, misses the mark, and as a result, the character feels half-baked and aimless in her own story. It’s not an outright bad performance so much as it is unremarkable—and one that makes the entire film feel tepid and less, well, erotic than it should, given the subject and genre.
Justice Smith is fighting an uphill battle, as well. His character Thomas (Pippa’s devoted boyfriend) has virtually no arc or depth to speak of, and the aforementioned lack of chemistry with Sweeney makes for an unenviable role that underserves another talented actor. Rounding out the cast are the neighbors in question—Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Ben Hardy as Margot and Seb, the mysterious model and photographer who live across the street— who do most of the dramatic heavy lifting, which is ironic considering the characters do much other than be watched in silence until the film’s halfway mark. When they do finally gain some agency and becoming substantial players in the film, though, they bring some much-needed electricity and passion to this otherwise lacking erotic thriller. Bordizzo has plenty of bite to her, and Hardy evokes the more grounded, emotional beats, resulting in a strong duo that outshines their protagonists despite the disparity in screentime.
From the stiff leading performances to the clunky, pretentious dialogue, “The Voyeurs” often feels like an amateur outing, but there’s also genuine wit in the film’s visual storytelling (particularly a number of clever match cuts), and an unpredictable enough payoff in the third act that it makes for a fresh, memorable viewing experience. [C+]
“The Voyeurs” arrives on Amazon Prime Video on September 10.
