Movie Review: ADALYNN

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: March 31st, 2023 / 12:26 AM

ADALYNN movie poster | ©2023 Summer Hill Films

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Sydney Carvill, Wade Baker, Rob Shuster, Janet Carter, Suzana Norberg
Writer: Jerrod Brito
Director: Jake Byrd
Distributor: Summer Hill Films
Release Date: March 28, 2023 (DVD and digital)

ADALYNN, narrated by the title character (Sydney Carvill), starts out as a movie about a woman having a very tough time with new motherhood.

After beginning with an inexact analogy about polar bears, Adalynn introduces us to her new daughter, Elizabeth. Elizabeth is born two weeks early and won’t stop crying. Adalynn sets the alarm to get up every two hours to feed her, and between sleep deprivation and incessant noise, she’s exhausted and stressed out.

Adalynn uses the word “perfect” a lot. It’s how she describes her romance with husband Bill (Wade Baker), their wedding, their new house, and their neighborhood. It is what she wants her life to be. But things are far from perfect.

OCD has been a problem for Adalynn, but she hasn’t taken her meds since becoming pregnant with Elizabeth. Adalynn is now experiencing a galloping case of postpartum depression that she won’t acknowledge. Then Bill leaves for a medical seminar (he’s a pediatrician).

Adalynn starts having nightmares and hallucinations that bleed into each other. Some of these are truly horrific. But the story reveals itself in a way that makes our involvement decrease rather than increase as it proceeds.

It’s tough to pin down ADALYNN in critical terms. On the one hand, director Jake Byrd and writer Jerrod Brito have crafted something that is genuinely disturbing. Carvill shows great versatility in Adalynn’s many phases, making each one convincing in turn.

The intention seems to put us inside Adalynn’s head, but some of her actions don’t help us identify with her (to put it mildly). There is a point at which a lot of us get fed up with her refusal to ask for help, to say nothing of Bill’s evident obliviousness. We’re cued up to expect a final twist, which we get, but by then we feel more worn down than empathetic.

There’s also an issue that can’t be discussed directly without spoiling the film. To phrase it as ambiguously as possible, in a low-budget film, there are times when it’s impossible to discern whether something is intentional or the result of lack of funds. This happens here, it’s a key point, and it’s distracting.

This aside, space is used wisely, Byrd gives us enough light to see in darkened scenes, and manages a few jump scares. ADALYNN isn’t wholly satisfying, but it is effectively disquieting.

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