The beginning of Clock plays almost like a parody as Ella Patel (Dianna Agron) is at a baby shower for a friend when all the other women are going on and on about motherhood and having babies. She hides her dislike, eye rolls and frustration from them before she is asked the one question most married women are asked, “When is she having a child?”
In 2023, a year after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, women are facing more problems now than they did 50 years ago. Who’s business is it really if wome have children or not? People are still living in the past where any woman who doesn’t get married by the time they’re 30 is an “old maid.” Ella is 37. If she doesn’t want to have children, that’s her business. And people should respect that.
She’s a successful building designer and developer. She’s married to a modelesque husband, Aidan (Jay Ali), who is a doctor. Of course, the movie’s social commentary is that while men can be successful, women have to put their lives on hold to be mothers. So, when Aidan recommends she sees a new doctor for a breast cancer screening. And the doctor talks about how her biological clock is ticking.
But Ella feels that maybe her clock isn’t working, i.e. that she’s not able to have children physically, which explains her lack of interest. The doctor recommeds Dr. Elizabeth Simmons (Melora Hardin) who is conducting new experiments on women to have children. So, under the guise of leaving town to handle a work project, she goes to visit Dr. Simmons at her facility.
Ella starts taking presciption pills from Dr. Simmons that will act as hormones. But Ella begins to start hallucinating, seeing bugs everywhere and a tall woman (Rosa Gilmore) but Dr. Simmons assures her the woman doesn’t exist. She’s also subjected to strange experiments, such as sensory deprevation, which Simmons compliments her on lasting the longest. Any bets Simmons does that to everyone? The question is what exactly is happening and more important will she get pregnant.
Just like Rosemary’s Baby, the movie deals with how society treats women. If Mia Farrow’s Rosemary was treated like a child rather than a stay-at-home wife, Ella is often guilted into feeling like she’s selfish. But, then again, aren’t women who are mothers a little selfish themselves as they get attention and gifts. Who really is benefitting from a pregnancy and birth – the mother or the child?
Her father, Joseph (Saul Rubinek) is caring but even he is pushing her into having a child. Joseph is the grandson of Holocaust survivors and that also weighs heavy on her. One of the movie’s best sequence is where Ella talks with Dr. Simmons about how she isn’t prepared to be covered in a child’s vomit and constantly smelling bowel movements. She says she doesn’t see this as a reward.
While most people Ella’s age are worried about having money to raise a money, both Ella and Aidan seem well off. But even if you’re well off, don’t you deserve to have a choice on what happens? Hardin is nice playing Dr. Simmons in a creepy role where she never raises her voice but there’s something sinister behind every word she says. I equate her to Nurse Ratched in that she thinks she’s doing the right thing for people. She has to convince other women to have children.
Agron is also great as she thinks she’s going mad as the treatment she’s under. The movie kinda plays on some tropes such as the hysteria Rosemary and others dealt with. But at least Rosemary was pregnant and her behavior could’ve been excuse on her hormones. Not to give much away, there is a certain implant Ella gets that might have some men crossing their legs later in the movie.
Not much is given to Ali as Aidan but he has a secret that is revealed and some things are pretty obvious. This is writer/director Alexis Jacknow’s first feature movie. She sets a good mood here and I’m sure she’s writing from experience at some times. However, the movie sets up some good ideas but still feels like it’s asking some questions it doesn’t later answer. There’s way too much over use of clocks here. But I think many women will find this movie very relatable.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 