Affection Review: Jessica Rothe’s Sci-Fi Mystery Can’t Live Up To Its Initial Promise

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The film’s opening is captivating but also a little confusing. It immediately throws you into the action with an injured woman in a car accident, and then presents a series of intriguing moments that raise more questions than answers. This is a very effective way to grab your attention and establishes the film’s style: a complex mystery delivered with precision and unexpected twists.

While the beginning of the film shows a lot of promise, the rest doesn’t quite deliver. The movie is most effective when it’s subtle and mysterious, but it loses that spark when it tries to become more direct and explore ideas it isn’t fully prepared for. This leads to an inconsistent and noticeable drop in quality. Though Jessica Rothe gives a strong performance that keeps you somewhat engaged even when the film slows down, it ultimately falls short of the initial excitement. Overall, despite some good moments, the film didn’t quite live up to expectations.

Jessica Rothe’s Complex Performance Gives Affection Some Real Depth

The scene begins with a shocking moment – a car appears to hit a woman, then cuts to black. When the screen comes back on, the woman is awake in bed, deeply upset and with no idea where she is or how she got there. A man claiming to be her husband follows her, but she doesn’t recognize his name for her. Confused and frightened, she hits him with a tool from the fireplace and tries to escape, but a young girl suddenly appears, calling her ‘Mommy’.

It’s heartbreaking, but my friend Bruce is dealing with something incredibly difficult with his wife, Allie. She has this condition where she doesn’t just forget their life together – she creates completely new memories, a whole different reality that feels totally real to her. It got so bad they had to move way out in the country, trying to shield her from things. She might think he’s someone else, have a different life imagined, even a different child, but Bruce believes her true memories will eventually return. Allie struggles to accept it, but what really gets to you is seeing their little girl, Alice, so certain Allie is her mom, and how much it clearly hurts her when Allie doesn’t recognize her. It’s just… devastating.

The first part of ‘Affection’ is its strongest. Actress Rothe delivers a nuanced performance, beautifully portraying Allie’s inner turmoil and conflicting feelings. The mystery deepens as more information is revealed, leaving you wondering if Bruce is telling the whole truth. While there’s proof supporting his story, something feels off – like the unexplained mark on Allie’s back and a recurring tremor in her hand. I was completely engrossed, following every clue and unexpected turn, until Allie finally discovers what’s really going on about halfway through the film.

I don’t want to give away the surprise, but the central idea is quite intriguing. The film initially explores some deep questions about memory and uses genre elements to build on them – that was the intention, anyway. However, beyond diminishing the impact of the reveal, the writer and director, BT Meza, made a few critical errors that derail the movie from there on out.

Affection Misunderstands The Kind Of Movie It Needs To Be

As a film fan, one thing that really bothered me was how the characters didn’t feel quite prepared for the big changes happening around them. I think Allie and Bruce, especially, weren’t developed enough. That’s okay early in a mystery, but it becomes a problem when you need to understand why they’re doing things. With Allie, it felt like the movie was more interested in telling us who she should be, rather than showing us who she actually is right now. We don’t get a sense of her core beliefs, or see how she’s dealing with this crazy situation. She moves the story along, but her actions don’t really add any deeper meaning or new themes – it all feels a bit surface level.

Bruce’s character feels off from the beginning, not because of the writing alone, but also due to a rather flat performance, particularly when compared to his co-star. With a stronger actor, Bruce could have been a truly impactful and disturbing figure, and a central point for the film’s themes. Unfortunately, he comes across as too simple, which prevents the movie from exploring deeper ideas in its later parts.

Beyond that initial mistake, the film’s biggest problem is harder to ignore. Once the central mystery is revealed, the movie tries to build suspense like a thriller, focusing on tracking different characters and what they know. While this approach has a few good scenes, Affection simply isn’t exciting enough to pull it off. The fact that the film spends so much time on one particularly slow character – as if their movements are fascinating – proves this point.

I wish the director had continued the strong emotional core established in the first half of the film and built the rest of it around meaningful conversations. There’s a powerful moment where two characters, Allie and Bruce, finally start honestly discussing Bruce’s secrets, and the film feels revitalized. These characters have so much unspoken between them, and even a longer, thoughtful dialogue could have deepened their personalities and added complexity to the movie’s ideas. While action sequences would have fit, the film is more focused on atmosphere and feeling than thrills. By trying to make it something it’s not, the movie unfortunately prevents us from truly connecting with the story and its characters.

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2026-05-08 21:51