Things We Do in the Dark

After marrying Jimmy Peralta, an old-time comedian who’s making a comeback, much younger yoga-studio owner Paris is content to live in her husband’s shadow. Then his assistant sends out a press release that includes the odd couple’s wedding photo. Paris hates life in the spotlight, and it’s turned on her full glare when the police are called to the couple’s home and find Paris with a bloodied straight razor in her hand and Jimmy dead in the tub. It’s hardly a good look for someone assumed to be a gold digger, but there’s much more to Paris’s background than she reveals. The odd romantic story here is often poignant and always unexpected, and it effectively contrasts with the much worse physical and mental treatment of Paris in her younger life, an existence that promises to end in an extreme one way or the other. It doesn’t disappoint. Hillier excels in portraying more than one woman who’s been beaten down by life and how it’s possible to react to the blows in strikingly different ways. The language here maintains a tone of low expectations shot through with hope and devastation, making this perfect for noir fans.