Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring: Danielle Deadwyler, Okwui Okpokwasili, Peyton Jackson, Russell Hornsby, Estella Kahiha
Ramona (Deadwyler) is a recently widowed mother of two who has thrown the towel in on life. Her children are mostly neglected in a farmhouse in which the electricity was shut off. The dog and the kids are starving and to make things worse, a veiled woman in black sits in a chair in the yard giving ominous and cryptic warnings. She doesn't leave even after being asked to, instead moving incrementally closer to the house as the day wears on.
Who is the woman? Why is she there? We witness flashbacks in which Ramona and her late husband (Hornsby) argue over moving to a fixer-upper in the heartland which doesn't ease Ramona's depression. Even at eighty-five minutes of running time, The Woman in the Yard drags. The suspense is brief and then tests our patience as we just want to learn who the woman is and how this will all be resolved so we can go one with our lives. The explanation is underwhelming.
Deadwyler gives it her best shot as the grieving widow, but after a while, we just don't care much. A while is not accurate. We lose our desire to care after about fifteen minutes and there is still over an hour to go. Jaume Collet-Serra has made much stronger movies in the past which combined suspense and action. The Woman in the Yard has very little of either.
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