Cinema
The Rule of Jenny Pen
James Ashcroft (director)
Shudder (studio)
15 (certificate)
104 (length)
14 March 2025 (released)
12 March 2025
While sentencing an offender Judge Stefan Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush) suffers a stroke that puts him in a nursing home for treatment and recovery. An arrogant so and so, he’s confident that he’ll soon recover and be out.
Meanwhile he’s brusque with residents and staff alike, though gleans enough to avoid the guests who have taken to hand puppets for therapy. One of these is Dave Crealy (John Lithgow) a long-time resident of the home whose named his puppet Jenny Pen.
Crealy wanders the corridors of the residence at night, with little real pushback from the staff. Making for Mortensen’s room he goes through a humiliating ritual with his roommate Tony (George Henare). When Mortensen refuses, he has his urine thrown over him.
It turns out that Crealy has turned the residence into his playground and free to do pretty much what he wants. Disrupting therapy sessions, residents’ dances; anything goes. His cruelty is both psychological and physical done out of malevolence.
Despite deteriorating as the film progresses, the Judge still manages a few minor ‘victories’ over Crealy as well as revealing something more about his background, which he hopes to use against him.
If there is a draw to this film its Lithgow and Rush who as consummate actors can pull off anything. And here they play two very unattractive characters. While Crealy is utterly repulsive, Mortensen is a curmudgeon who hasn’t much time for his fellow residents but happy enough to use them when it suits him.
Director James Ashcroft, who co-wrote with Eli Kent and Owen Marshall, strive for a very black comedy, that just comes over as grotesque. If they were looking to raise issues about the treatment of residents in nursing homes in New Zealand, then that hits harder. But what is most graphic in the film is the depiction of aging: for some it can be dignified, while for others (here Mortensen) it’s a distressing, humiliating process they can do very little about.
Rush and Lithgow are excellent in their respective roles and I’ve no doubt each could have played the other’s. With these types of characters there could have been a danger of overplaying or hamming. But there’s no indication of that playing the parts straight.
As such the film is at times deeply unpleasant both in the depiction of the treatment of the residents and the violence. The comedy element and weirdness of the story can’t buffer those elements making The Rule of Jenny Pen at times a challenging watch.
The Rule of Jenny Pen will be in UK and Irish cinemas on 14 March 2025 and on Shudder from 28 March 2025.
Meanwhile he’s brusque with residents and staff alike, though gleans enough to avoid the guests who have taken to hand puppets for therapy. One of these is Dave Crealy (John Lithgow) a long-time resident of the home whose named his puppet Jenny Pen.
Crealy wanders the corridors of the residence at night, with little real pushback from the staff. Making for Mortensen’s room he goes through a humiliating ritual with his roommate Tony (George Henare). When Mortensen refuses, he has his urine thrown over him.
It turns out that Crealy has turned the residence into his playground and free to do pretty much what he wants. Disrupting therapy sessions, residents’ dances; anything goes. His cruelty is both psychological and physical done out of malevolence.
Despite deteriorating as the film progresses, the Judge still manages a few minor ‘victories’ over Crealy as well as revealing something more about his background, which he hopes to use against him.
If there is a draw to this film its Lithgow and Rush who as consummate actors can pull off anything. And here they play two very unattractive characters. While Crealy is utterly repulsive, Mortensen is a curmudgeon who hasn’t much time for his fellow residents but happy enough to use them when it suits him.
Director James Ashcroft, who co-wrote with Eli Kent and Owen Marshall, strive for a very black comedy, that just comes over as grotesque. If they were looking to raise issues about the treatment of residents in nursing homes in New Zealand, then that hits harder. But what is most graphic in the film is the depiction of aging: for some it can be dignified, while for others (here Mortensen) it’s a distressing, humiliating process they can do very little about.
Rush and Lithgow are excellent in their respective roles and I’ve no doubt each could have played the other’s. With these types of characters there could have been a danger of overplaying or hamming. But there’s no indication of that playing the parts straight.
As such the film is at times deeply unpleasant both in the depiction of the treatment of the residents and the violence. The comedy element and weirdness of the story can’t buffer those elements making The Rule of Jenny Pen at times a challenging watch.
The Rule of Jenny Pen will be in UK and Irish cinemas on 14 March 2025 and on Shudder from 28 March 2025.
