Movie Review: 'Sanctuary' the Most Unlikely Rom-Com of 2023

Sanctuary (2023)

Directed by Zachary Wigon

Written by Micah Bloomberg

Starring Christopher Abbott, Margaret Qualley

Release Date May 19th, 2023

Published 12-13-2023

Playing some late in the year catch up with movies I missed and, what luck, Neon sent me a copy of Sanctuary. I've been looking forward to this movie since I saw YouTuber Amanda the Jedi rave about this movie coming off of its festival run. Christopher Abbott and Margaret Qualley are two of the terrific young stars on the rise, with Abbott being among the most adventurous and courageous actors working today and Qualley only just starting to come into her own as an actress. Sanctuary is a single set drama about sex, kink, and power dynamics that is darkly comic and insightful.

Hal (Christopher Abbott) is the heir to a hotel fortune who is about to ascend to the top of the family business. Hal's well respected and revered father has recently passed away and Hal is dealing with conflicting emotions about the idea of being a CEO and trying to live up to the impossible standard set by his father and the unrealistic expectations of his mother. Meanwhile, Hal is maintaining a secret that could endanger his chances of taking over the company. He likes to have a woman come to his various hotel room homes and dominate him.

Rebecca (Qualley) enters the movie as someone who appears to be a lawyer. She's well coiffed, wearing an expensive suit, and she's here to ask Hal a series of questions that are seemingly coming from the perspective of people who operate his hotel empire. Soon however, the ruse is exposed as the questions become more and more intimate and finally, Hal breaks the the growing tension by accusing Rebecca of going off the script. It turns out, Rebecca is a dominatrix. Her job is to place Hal into humiliating or subservient situations that he gets off on.

After this scenario breaks down, Rebecca removes her wig and the two bicker about her not taking his scenario seriously enough. It turns out that they both have developed a particular agenda for this visit. For Hal, this is supposed to the last time he sees Rebecca as he cannot afford to have it come out that the new CEO of a top company is into being dominated and humiliated by a woman. For Rebecca, she wants to advance their relationship and her career and is certainly not above blackmail in order to get what she wants out of Hal.

Over the course of a single night in a luxury hotel suite, Hal and Rebecca will struggle for power, have sex, and try to come to some sort of understanding that will either end their relationship or expand on it. It's a diabolical and wildly clever series of shifts in power as each side proves to have more resolve than you might expect. Hal especially, does well to hold his ground. Given that his kink is being dominated and commanded to perform tasks, the fact that he's able to stand up to his dominatrix and withstand her domineering manner is fun to watch.

That said, watching Qualley twist Abbott around her finger and watching this rich, handsome, man squirm under her imperious gaze is also quite exciting. Abbott and Qualley have an explosive chemistry and as captured by director Zachary Wigon their attractiveness is measured against the lengths that each will go to get their desired outcome and that competition of amorality and attractiveness is explosive. It borders on the kind of chemistry you might find in a romantic comedy about opposing business owners who end up falling in love while coming to understand how their approach to running a business reflects on their personal life.

That kinky notion that Sanctuary is a sneaky rom-com was something Amanda the Jedi touched on in their excellent review and, yeah, I see it as well. Director Zachary Wigon and writer Micah Bloomberg have Trojan horsed a romantic comedy into a kinky, sexy, power fantasy and damn if it doesn't work brilliantly. Sanctuary repeatedly made me laugh as it slowly revealed its twists and turns on the conventions of a romantic comedy that happens to be about a domination kink. It's hard not to root for these crazy kids to work things out and perhaps live happily ever after as dom/slave/wife/husband.

Both actors are terrific but I want to shout out Christopher Abbott especially. In his relatively young career Abbott has demonstrated a knack for exposing the male ego and getting at the heart of fragile men incapable of being emotionally honest with themselves and others while exploring the problems that causes for them. Abbott has proven to be a fearless explorer of these characters, unconcerned about looking like the coolest or toughest guy and finding true masculine ideals in fully revealing his actual feelings and accepting what comes next for better or worse. The role of Hal in Sanctuary is a thesis statement on Abbott's talent in this arena.

For a movie set in a single luxury hotel room, director Wigon makes Sanctuary feel dynamic and alive throughout. His camera work isn't showy, he and cinematographer Ludovica Isidori and production designer Jason Singleton merely take strong advantage of their limited geography. Sanctuary is a great looking movie and the camera does well to unobtrusively underscore the intimacy and excitement of the deeply fraught and fiery relationship between Qualley and Abbott.

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