The Woman Upstairs
Genre: Drama/Suspense
Director: Rose Glass
Writer: Rachel Hallett Hardcastle
Based on the novel by Claire Messud
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Sofia Boutella, Mark Ghanime, Kaylen Luke, Lizzy Caplan, Christopher McDonald
Plot: When Reza Shahid (Kaylen Duke) shows up in Nora Eldridge's (Anne Hathaway) third-grade classroom, Nora falls in love with him. She's touched by his foreignness, and then she recognizes him as the boy she had seen at the supermarket a week ago: when she had dropped some apples. Nora isn't sure how she became such a good schoolteacher. One parent calls her "the Gerber baby of school teachers." She doesn't have children of her own. Teaching is just practice, something safe to do till she can start. But, even despite her success as a teacher, she still views herself as a failure. Reza's mother, Sirena (Sofia Boutella), is an accomplished artist. Nora met Sirena when Reza was bullied by older children. Sirena comes to the school to confer with Nora and the principal. Nora assures Sirena that everything will be done to discipline the bullies. She is disarmed by her beauty and her foreignness. Nora falls in love with Sirena's skin. Nora's principal calls the older boys who bullied Reza to her office and disciplines them. Still, Sirena nevertheless calls Nora at home to ask about the incident. Nora shares her concern that the older boys will lash out again because of Reza's foreignness. Nora wonders whether she is only attracted to Sirena's foreignness. Nora wonders whether she's experiencing her "Lucy Jordan" moment, the moment when she realizes that life's passed her by. She'll never do the things she thought she'd do.
Sirena doesn't show up for back-to-school night. Still, when she meets Nora at the coffee shop, Sirena tells Nora about her husband, Skandar (Mark Ghanime). Sirena says that her husband is a historian. Sirena tells Nora that as an only child, Reza has had a difficult transition to America. Nora says that he's learning English quickly, but she changes the topic to ask Sirena about her art. Sirena tells Nora that her installations consist of "lush gardens and jungles made out of household items and refuse." Sirena has a commission to build Alice's Wonderland, and she is thinking about renting studio space. Nora's very interested in getting back to making art. The two women make plans to see the studio and possibly share it.
Nora says there comes a time in life when you have to decide whether you're going to live the life you thought you'd live or whether you're going to settle into some routine and let the years pass you by. Nora went to college in Middlebury, Vermont. She studied art and planned to live an independent life. Her mother was thirty-one when Nora was born, and Nora remembers her mother's happiness. When Nora was seven, her mother had a breakdown. She made Nora promise that she'd never get stuck in an unhappy marriage. Nora has always tried to understand how her mother resigned herself to her life. When her mother was diagnosed with ALS, Nora put her dreams of making art on hold and took care of her for four years until her death. Nora's mother never asked her to give up her life. Still, she is afraid that by becoming a 'dutiful daughter,' she gave up her opportunity to live her artistic dream.
Nora meets Sirena at the studio that Sirena found and agrees to split the rent there. She doesn't know what she'll be working on, but she's glad to be back in the studio making art. When Nora meets her friend Didi's (Lizzy Caplan) adopted baby, Nora doesn't want her art to be humored as the baby's being humored. She hasn't wanted to show people her little dioramas to fear their reactions. She simply wants to be 'gotten' or understood by people close to her. Her time in the studio makes her feel more alive. She and Sirena work there side by side. Sometimes, Nora is so engrossed in her work that she doesn't even notice that Sirena is gone. While Nora's working on a miniature replica of Emily Dickinson's room—with plans to make tiny rooms for Virginia Woolf, Alice Neel, and Edie Sedgwick. Sirena is working on her Wonderland. Nora is utterly delighted to be working on her small rooms. Still, sometimes when Sirena leaves, she realizes how alone she is in her place.
Once she gets started working at the studio, Nora starts trying to make every excuse to spend time there. She and Sirena start a real friendship as they art, drinking wine together from chipped cups. Sirena seems to be happy with the arrangement as well. The time she spends in the studio is her time to hide from her husband and child and their demands.
Two weeks before Christmas, on a night when Nora is working alone in the studio, Skandar comes to the studio looking for Sirena. Nora invites him in for tea. Skandar says that Sirena's delighted to be working with an artist who's so severe. Sirena rarely speaks about Skandar. When she goes home after the evening is over, she Googles the couple and finds they are famous in Europe. Shortly after that, she dreams that she and Skandar are naked in bed together, and he tells her that Sirena doesn't mind.
Reza attacked again in a snowball fight with a snowball packed with rocks, cutting near the eye. Nora takes him to the hospital, calls Sirena, and holds Reza while he receives stitches. This incident shakes Sirena and Skandar, making them anxious to return home. Sirena tells Nora that she's a true friend at the hospital. The boy who hurt Reza is expelled, but Nora doesn't contact Sirena or Reza.
Nora visits with her father (Christopher McDonald) for the holidays and then visits her friend Didi, who elicits the story of Nora's affection for Sirena and her son. Nora feels worse for talking about her feelings. She hopes that they'll be real friends. Didi tries to make Nora feel better by making light of the situation.
When school starts again, Nora has finished Emily Dickinson's room, and Reza has returned to her classroom. When Nora sees Sirena again, Sirena's overjoyed to see her and invites her for dinner. Nora doesn't know to trust her when she says how much she's missed her. Then, the two of them resolve to get to work. "Au travail" becomes a kind of watchword between them. Nora is afraid that Sirena only pities her when she invites her to dinner at the house, but she accepts the invitation, nonetheless. Sirena and Skandar talk about the difficulties of being foreigners in America. They don't feel that they can escape from their histories or the history of conflicts in Europe and the Middle East.
At the end of the night, Skandar walks Nora home. When she hears about this later, Didi supposes that he wants to make love with her. She remains afraid of rejection at the same time that she dreams about some kind of unprecedented intimacy.
Sirena and Skandar ask Nora to babysit. She's unsettled about serving her student's family this way, but Sirena portrays it as a kind of intimacy. Sirena offers payment, which Nora declines. When Sirena embraces her, Nora isn't sure whether she is becoming part of the family or just being taken advantage of. Nora babysits for Reza for the next few months. Nora can see the possibility that she was just being flattered, but also she knows that the Shahids loved her.
Sirena begins to build Wonderland in earnest. She shows Nora her blueprint, and Nora admires her all the more. Sirena "opens doors to possibility, to the barely imagined." Sirena is going to build her installation in the studio, and she asks for Nora's help. Again Nora feels as though she's being taken advantage of when she feels included in a creative partnership.
In a roundabout way, Nora asks Sirena whether there are people she doesn't like. Sirena says that when people become irritating, she has to reject them. This implies that Nora hasn't become annoying, so she hasn't been denied yet. Nora and Sirena keep getting closer. One night Nora is terrified by how strongly she wants Sirena for herself. When Nora tells Didi about her affection for Sirena, Didi and her friend are skeptical. They think Nora just has a crush on Sirena, and they're sure that she doesn't feel a full-fledged lesbian desire.
As Wonderland comes together, Nora finishes Emily Dickinson's room and starts on Alice Neel's and Edie Sedgwick's. She says that making the rooms is something she does for herself. One night while listening to music as Nora works and dances through the finished parts of Wonderland. She takes off her shirt and takes Polaroid photographs of herself in her bra. Nora no longer needs to sleep as she spends hours at the studio before going home.
Every time she babysits for Reza, Skandar walks her home afterward. Skandar and Nora talk about what it means to be American, and Skandar tells her what it is like to be Lebanese. Her walks with Skandar get longer as spring comes, and sometimes they just circle Nora's block while Skandar talks and talks. He tells her stories about Lebanon and his experiences in the war. He complains to Nora that Americans know only the biggest and worst facts about foreign countries. Her walks with Skandar become distinctive in her memory. One night, he tells her that Nora needs to find a way to feed herself. She describes herself as a ravenous wolf. Skandar's surprised, but he comments that Nora must ask for what's needed. Nora has always been afraid of creating her satisfaction, so it has always been easier to care for others.
After speaking with Skandar, she feels like talking to Sirena, declaring her feelings. Filled with apprehension, she heads to the studio, ready to assert herself, but Sirena isn't there. At school the next day, Nora asks Reza about his mother but gets told that she's gone away.
When Sirena comes back to the studio, she tells Nora she went to New York. Sirena finally tells Nora the date for her Paris opening. Nora's disconcerted to find that the opening's only two months away. Suddenly she's terrified of losing Sirena and their friendship. On Friday, when Nora knows that Sirena won't be coming to the studio, Nora drinks wine and takes more Polaroid photos of herself. She goes so far as to tiptoe into the Wonderland forest and masturbate, which makes her feel a brief unashamed for an unhidden time.
Energized by her creative work, Nora takes her father out to brunch. Nora's father surprises her by saying that her mother was very much in control of her life and his. Nora thought that she never had been. Nora decides not to go to the studio all weekend. When she calls Sirena, Sirena doesn't pick up. All week, Sirena doesn't return Nora's call, which leaves Nora on tenterhooks. When she goes to the studio on Thursday, Sirena's there with some other artists listening to music, drinking, and dancing. One woman's a dancer who will twirl through Wonderland while the others film her. Suddenly she feels like a teacher and not an artist, and the gulf between her and Sirena is forbidding. When she sees the Polaroids on her table again as she's leaving, Nora's filled with shame.
The next time Nora goes to the studio, Sirena's fellow artists have all left. They have sent her a video of dancing in Wonderland. Sirena tells Nora how the video will be used in the installation. Sirena says there will be different stations in the installation with headphones. Sirena shows Nora photographs of seven different women whose images will be printed on large canvases as part of the installation to represent the seven stages of life. As Nora gives Sirena her opinion about the photos, she feels both irritated and elated. Some of the pictures are of Sirena herself, and Nora's disconcerted by these images. When Sirena distinguishes herself and Nora by saying that Nora's creation doesn't have deadlines, the implication is once again that Nora isn't an artist like Sirena. In the end, Nora only feels like one among many of Sirena's admirers. She gives Sirena her admiration, but that seems to be the only thing Sirena wants from her.
Sirena goes to New York to meet with the gallery owners who are courting her. In the meantime, Nora feels to reassure herself about her work's value. One Friday night, Skandar comes to the studio looking for Sirena, but Sirena isn't there. Nora shows Skandar her work. Skandar asks her why the celebration doesn't take up more space. When he puts his hands on her, Nora no longer cares whether she is an artist like Sirena or not. Nora's just a hungry person who wants to be accepted for who she is. Nora and Skandar talk about what happened and agree that it couldn't continue. She's shocked to see Sirena again. For Sirena, nothing has changed. She is still herself, totally wrapped up in the Wonderland project. The next time Nora babysits for Reza, Skandar isn't there. Sirena is distracted before she leaves for the night, and Nora's afraid that she has upset her. Sirena says, "Of course not," but this doesn't entirely console Nora. When Sirena comes home, Skandar's in with her.
Sirena flies to Paris in advance of the installation. Nora and her students start to get excited about coming to the Wonderland installation. Sirena and Nora thought that this would be good for the children. At the same time that it would give Sirena good video footage of children enjoying the Wonderland installation. When the kids arrive, Sirena gives them instructions to make themselves comfortable and explore the installation as if they were Alice. The installation is too small for all the students, so one group makes paper-mâché masks with Nora while the other group explores. Nora sees Reza punch another student. When she yells for them to stop, she's suddenly no longer Nora, Sirena's fellow artist. She's Nora, Ms. Eldridge, a school teacher. She has to discipline Sirena's child, and any familiarity between them seems to evaporate. Nora apologizes to Sirena at the end of the afternoon. When Sirena says that soon she'll be gone to Paris, there is a new gulf between them. The next time Nora goes to the studio, she still has to clean up from the children's visit. She recalls her intimacy with Skandar. Skandar was Nora's Black Monk, "the one who could convince me of my substance, of genius, of the significance of my thoughts and efforts." When you are the Woman Upstairs, "no one thinks of you first." She goes to bed at her Aunt Baby's Rockport home, grieving for the loss of what she thought she had in the Shahid family.
Moving some time into the future, Sirena never came back to Cambridge. As the deadline approaches, Sirena tells her that she has only been playing at making the installation. Sirena takes Reza out of school, and after a short period, Sirena and Reza are gone. Nora doesn't go to the airport to see them off.
Nora sees Sirena in New York years later. They meet for drinks when Sirena comes to New York for an opening. Nora is ashamed to still be a schoolteacher. She's been following Sirena and Skandar in the news. She has felt that her life has gotten further and further away from theirs. Sitting down over drinks, Sirena remembers her year in Cambridge as a hard, dark time. However, she tells Nora that Alice's postcard in Wonderland is still on their fridge at home.
After seeing Sirena, Nora goes to the Brooklyn Museum to see the Wonderland installation. It makes her feel all of her love for Sirena again. She feels alive the way that she felt when she was working alongside Sirena. Sirena says that the Woman Upstairs is a character who isn't disappointed when she finds out that her ex-lover has visited her city without contacting her. She says this with a certain ruefulness and with resignation. She searches for signs of what she had meant to them.
In Paris, Nora has seen enough of the sights to know which ones to rave about. Still, the journey only becomes personal for her when she returns to Paris after traveling on the continent. Sirena and Skandar invite her for dinner, and she says that they make her feel welcome, warm, and part of the family again.
Nora sees the sights in Paris. After visiting the Musee d'Orsay, she visits a gallery where six videos from Wonderland are on display. The videos themselves are art objects and are for sale. In the last video, Nora looks, she recognizes herself in the Wonderland wasn't quite finished when she got drunk and masturbated in the flowers. Nora blacks out when she sees the video.
Nora is reeling from this discovery: the Woman Upstairs is revealed in her most intimate, humiliating moment. She and Sirena had set up the cameras that took this footage and wonders whether she'd have known that she was being filmed. Nevertheless, Nora's furious that Sirena is using the footage as part of her installation. Nora never got in touch with the Shahid family after that. The incident has made her so murderously furious that she no longer has a question about feeling alive. "My anger is a colossus." She pledges that she'll live in the fullest meaning of the term now.
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