Written and directed by Dean Kapsalis
Starring Azura Skye, Bryce Pinkham, Ashley Bell and Zach Rand
Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Unrated – contains sex, violence, disturbing situations

by Audrey Callerstrom

I was happy to see that not only is Azura Skye still acting, but that she is the star of The Swerve, and she carries the film wonderfully. In 2000, Skye played a tragic young heroin addict, and Sandra Bullock’s roommate, in the rehab drama 28 Days. At the time, Skye’s natural blond hair was dyed a jet-black. Following 28 Days, Skye starred on the WB sitcom Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane, as the titular Jane, with Selma Blair as Zoe (full episodes are on YouTube if you’re curious). Recently, she had recurring roles on Riverdale and the latest iteration of Charmed, as well as a small role on Girls. To my knowledge, she has not had many starring roles. I was excited to review The Swerve, especially given the film’s synopsis – a wife, teacher and mother finds herself slowly falling apart.

Skye plays Holly, a high school English teacher and mother of two teen boys, neither of which respect her or treat her with kindness. They bark demands at her; they fight with each other. One of her boys never leaves his room. Holly’s husband, Rob (Bryce Pinkham) is a supermarket manager with little regard for Holly or her needs. He asks her for dry cleaning when she showers, demands support when he’s up for a promotion. Her family is unsupportive, especially her loose cannon sister Claudia (Ashley Bell) who likes to dig up childhood stories to tease her. It broke my heart to watch Holly put meticulous care into making a berry pie only for her family to comment about how they don’t like a particular spice in it (DO. NOT. DO. THIS). Holly suffers from insomnia, and takes sleeping meds. The only place she seems in her element is when she’s talking to her students about literature. That makes sense. For Holly, her job is the only place where she sees any reward for her hard work. The rest of her life is torturous.

When you seek treatment for depression or anxiety, a therapist will often ask you what your support network looks like. It really puts the onus on the person suffering from mental illness, as if at any given moment, someone has the ability to just go out and expand their network with good, loving people or drop people who suck. What does Holly’s network look like? She doesn’t have one. Holly starts having a recurring dream in which she is driving at night and causes someone to swerve off the road, get in an accident, and die. Was it something she did in her sleep? She mentions it to her husband, who dismisses her. She becomes obsessed with a mice problem in their house, and starts to think that after a possible (?) bite, she has contracted rabies. The only person who seems to genuinely care about Holly is one of her students, Paul (Zach Rand), which of course comes with its own complications.

The Swerve is devastating and bleak, anchored by Skye’s nuanced performance. Holly is delicate and  reserved but capable of standing her ground. I want to jump through the screen and help her. Leave your husband! Stop talking to your family! Get an apartment, or something. It doesn’t matter if it’s a studio where you roll out of bed and are face-to-face with your stove, but just please, please leave! This is the third film I’ve seen this year where a woman is undermined by a gaslighting husband (The Invisible Man and Swallow were 1 and 2). Holly’s condition and appearance grow worse as the movie continues. Her face grows dark and grey, as though her eyes are receding into her skull. She hallucinates. She makes poor decisions in moments of desperation. Even though the end turns outrageous, Skye keeps the film grounded.

I wonder how writer/director Dean Kapsalis got the idea for a film like this. Maybe I don’t want to know. Supporting characters are two-dimensional, and some of them speak canned dialogue, but maybe that’s intentional. Some of the musical queues are a little sloppy. Why do we need a crescendo of noise as Holly pulls her minivan into the school’s parking lot? Part of me feels that the film just scratches the surface of mental illness. Maybe they all do, but I wanted it to go deeper. As someone who has had insomnia, I wanted to see more of her struggle to sleep. Those desperate nights of tossing and turning, your mind awake while the rest of the world rests. A warning, if how I’ve described The Swerve piques your interest. If you are looking for a representation on how you can pull yourself out of mental illness, and maintain your strength while it feels the world is against you, you are not going to find that comfort here.

Available to watch on demand today.