I Am Victoria (2021)

Victoria (Suranne Jones) appears to have the perfect family, job and home. But beneath the veneer of happiness, something is wrong.

I really wanted to like this film, especially with the brilliant performances of Jones as Victoria - but I sadly didn’t. This really had a great premise and Jones really did explore a character’s spiral and yet the majority of the ensemble cast’s reactions felt off. Everyone was clearly seeing that Victoria was struggling with her mental health, but no one was trying to understand why or know where this was stemming from.

Actually, we the viewers weren’t let in to what was really triggering Victoria‘s behaviour. From her mannerisms, her need for everything to be perfect and the level of anxiety she was feeling when it didn’t, I was putting this down to OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and Jones did a superb job at portraying a character who was struggling and yet terrified to admit she needs help.

Ashley Walters as Michael was a bit underwhelming. This was in part to the writing and the other to his performance. Michael’s character heavily implies that he’s not been concerned by Victoria’s behaviour by the start of the story and after a few scenes he acts quite petty over a tiny disagreement and he came to the need for therapy quite late without really getting to the root of Victoria’s stress.

One scene that showed a really interesting arc that wasn’t explored was when Victoria’s sister arrived looking for money. It is revealed through dialogue that this is a regular occurrence, which Victoria transfers money over with few questions asked. Naturally, conflict arises when her sister wants more and an argument ensues when her sister heavily implies she won’t be paying back what Victoria has asked for.

While Victoria tries repeatedly to remove herself from the situation, she is followed into whatever room she goes into to calm down. This showed Victoria’s awareness of her needing that space, but she is not given it - the continued guilt-tripping from her sister and lack of support from Michael is actually quite triggering for her.

This was one of the strongest sequences, but the fallout with Michael felt forced. With all the information he heard and saw, Walters' character reacted unusually for the situation. I also believe that there should have been more scenes between Victoria and her daughters, showing how her behaviour was impacting their relationships - is this a generational pattern? Was she acting like her own mother and projecting those traits onto her children.

The scene where Victoria spirals is when an evening she desperately wanted to go perfectly doesn’t - while her friends try to reassure her, her anxiety gets to her. Her best friend Grace actually was the most helpful - she was comforting and yet gave Victoria her space when asked - only she does have a complete breakdown once they leave.

Doninc Savage crafted an interesting story that felt claustrophobic at times and from my research, it turns out a lot of the scenes were improvised. The director Dominic Savage, told Suranne Jones a few points and then told her to go for it. This made sense because there were many scenes which were shot in one continuous take. These I thought were the best of the film.

Jones gave a strong and poignant performance in this film, but the script was a bit too ambiguous for my liking. I wanted to understand what was causing Victoria’s mental health struggles and how she came to the realisation she needed help.

This film had such potential and with superb casting, but I feel like this could have been better and delved more into the mental health themes. There really needed to be a dialogue moment which explored more of Victoria's struggles or even what had caused this breakdown. That clarity could have started some important discussions. For that reason, I’d give this a rating of ★★★½.