I Just Saw

I just saw Cat Person and it was good. Based on the short story of the same name by Kristen Roupenian, which went viral in 2017 for its exploration of gender dynamics as per modern dating, it’s a cleverly constructed black comedy and psychological thriller about an awkward flirtation that ends up going horribly wrong. The title refers to Robert (Nicholas Braun), who identifies himself as a cat owner when courting our main character Margot (Emilia Jones), a 20-year-old palaeontology student and cinema clerk.

Robert is… odd. He’s standoffish, passive-aggressive, and owns a framed picture of the scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Harrison Ford kisses Carrie Fisher. He’s one of those guys who absorb old Hollywood ideas of romance and try applying them to real life, constantly expecting women to read their lines in the script, then getting frustrated when they don’t seem to know them. Still, Margot is intrigued by him…

As it happens, I have read the original story. It was cited a lot by feminists online as a good text for understanding how communication between men and women can break down, and how women have to navigate a minefield when flirting with men. The film opens with the famous Margaret Atwood quote: men are afraid that women will laugh at them; women are afraid that men will kill them. The story was good but not necessarily cinematic, depending as it does on a rather anecdotal story that you might hear from your friends; weirdly it made me think of “The Last Act” by Roald Dahl, another short story about a sexual encounter that goes horribly wrong.

Directed by Susanna Fogel, the film expands the source material by adding humour and thriller tropes. Although it was very slow to pick up the pace in the beginning, it’s well-shot, has some funny jokes, and hinges on a centrepiece sex scene that’s deliberately skin-crawling. Fogel avoids easy lecturing and instead uses thought sequences to illustrate Margot’s feelings of coercion and horror at how badly things go with Robert, her misplaced sense of obligation to, and also fear of him. For example, a scene in a photographic dark room shows her imagining him attacking her. The approach is good at illustrating the constant risk management that women and girls undertake as a matter of course. Should I walk alone across town tonight? Did I make him angry when I laughed?

The “woman in peril” film is an extremely well-worn genre by now, but Fogel manages to find some new angles on it. It would have been easy to go a more straightforward chase thriller route, and I liked that Fogel takes things in a slightly different direction.

The film is inevitably less grounded in real experience than the short story, and its conclusion is pure melodrama. Robert’s character becomes kind of diffuse as the plot draws to its conclusion, as if the film isn’t sure what to make of him. The original story’s ending comes as the end of the second act in this version, which is necessary for the larger stakes that a film requires. Nonetheless, Robert grows less grounded and more confused, not really strong enough to be the antagonist that a film like this needs him to be.

And yet I enjoyed Cat Person. It plays around with its ideas in an often funny and colourful manner, the central performances are sound, and it kept me engaged enough to want to know what happens next.

Rating: 3/4