Now Showing: An Anonymous Girl

 

An Anonymous Girl

Genre: Suspense/Thriller/Mystery

Director: Cate Shortland

Writer: Rosie JoLove

Based on the novel by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Nicole Kidman, Jay Ellis, Chase Stokes, Dove Cameron, Virginia Gardner, Jeff Ward, Christian Serratos, Hannah Gross

Plot: Jessica Faris (Jennifer Lawrence) is a struggling makeup artist living in New York City. A client, Taylor (Christian Serratos), mentions to Jessica that she plans to skip out on a psych study that pays $500. Jessica, who needs the money, goes instead. Jes gets a call from Ben (Jeff Ward) goes through many complex questions like what color shirt you like, routine going to work and leaving it to go home, or how many times she thinks violent, sexual or both kinds of thoughts. She tries to answer, and after a long pause, she gets an address and time.

The next day, she meets Ben & Dr. Shields (Nicole Kidman). She’s told she’s subject #52 in a study of morality and ethics. Jessica answers honestly. There are two sessions, and then she’s done. Afterward, she meets up with her family. She finds out her dad has lost his job. Jess also has a younger sister, Becky (Dove Cameron), who has significant medical bills. Becky had a traumatic brain injury when younger, and Jess feels guilt over it.

The next day is Thanksgiving, which Jessica spends at their Aunt’s house. Her cousin’s husband flirts with her. Jess goes out with her best friend Lizzie (Virginia Gardner) and meets a guy, Noah (Chase Stokes). Dr. Shields texts her, asking if Jess would be willing to continue the study. She says yes. After, Dr. Shields asks if Jess would agree to increase the scope of her participation in exchange for much more compensation. She agrees.

Before meeting Dr. Shields, she does some research. She then goes to NYU to see her and follows her to a restaurant out of curiosity. Later, Jessica tracks down Taylor and talks to Taylor’s friend who took a class from Dr. Shields.

They start meeting at Dr. Shield’s office. The sessions progress like regular therapy, except Jessica, is getting paid for it, and she gives Jess gifts. Jessica tells the story of her sister falling out the window, resulting in her injury. Jessica was supposed to be watching her but locked her in her room so she could run out and buy a magazine. Becky tried to climb out the window. Her parents still don’t know she wasn’t home when it happened.

Dr. Shields gives her a bottle of nail polish and a present of an expensive cashmere wrap that matches stuff that she owns.

Unbeknownst to Jessica, Dr. Shields was previously married but is now separated. She found out er husband Thomas (Jay Ellis) cheated on her when she got a text clearly not intended for her (“See you tonight, Gorgeous”), and he moved out a few months ago. Her name’s Lauren. He claims it was a one-time thing.

Dr. Shields sends Jessica out to a bar, where she’s told to flirt with a married man. He chats with her but rejects her, saying he’s happily married. Jess is uncomfortable, but Dr. Shields writes her a big check.

Jess tells Dr. Shields about being sexually assaulted by her boss, now a well-known theater director. He had accused her of stealing something which he knew she didn’t take and asked her to pull up her shirt so he could check. Later, she meets up with Noah and feels content after he cooks for her.

Dr. Shields meets with Thomas. They are separated but trying to reconcile. Dr. Shield feeds him a torte which sets off his mild nut allergy, and uses the opportunity to go through his phone. She asks Jessica to call a few numbers, claiming it’s for the study, to get some information. She’s trying to find out if Thomas is still cheating.

Thomas and Dr. Shields also discuss Subject 5. Subject 5 is a previous participant in the study. Subject 5’s family hired a private investigator who has been asking for Dr. Shield’s notes on Subject 5, which she has refused to provide.

Dr. Shields meets with her parents. She used to have a younger sister who died in a bad accident many years ago. She asks her father to find Jessica’s father a job. Dr. Shields uses the potential for a job to mollify Jess when she starts to get uncomfortable with the “study.” Plus, with each assignment, Jess is paid more and more.

Next, Jessica is asked to go to an art exhibition and leave 30 minutes later. When she gets there, a woman has been injured outside. Jessica calls 911 and asks another stranger to let her know if the woman is okay. She’s unsure whether this is a test, but she will be late if she stops to help.

At the exhibition, she meets a man, and they talk about art. It was meant to be a run-in with Jessica and Thomas, but she spoke to the wrong man. Jess doesn’t know about the situation with Dr. Shields and Thomas, and she doesn’t know she’s being used as a pawn to test him.

Dr. Shields then sets up an assignment for Jess to find a man in a diner and get his number. When she arrives, she finds Thomas. When the stranger texts Jess to let her know the woman from the exhibition is okay, Jess relaxes and ends up getting a drink with Thomas and sleeping with him.

After she leaves, Thomas suspects what’s going on because she had Dr. Shield’s book. He texts her to say Dr. Shields is dangerous and tells her not to say anything.

Jess meets with Dr. Shields and doesn’t tell her she slept with Thomas. Thomas surprises Dr. Shields by cooking for her and repeatedly asks Jessica to meet to discuss the situation.

Jess meets with Ben, who says the study was terminated, and he no longer works for Dr. Shields. He tells her he signed a non-disclosure and can’t tell her anything, but she should try to find her file. Jess also continues seeing Noah.

Jess finally talks to Thomas, who says he wants to leave Dr. Shields, but it’s not that simple. Thomas tells Jess that the last girl, or Subject 5, she took under her wing killed herself. Jess decides she’s done. While the money is good, it’s not worth the trouble. She goes to tell Dr. Shields, but her mom calls to let her know that Dr. Shields has paid for her family to go to a resort over the holidays, and she’s ecstatic. Reluctantly, Jess agrees to continue with the “study.”

However, Jess spies on Thomas and Dr. Shields and thinks something is up. Thomas does not act like a man who wants to be rid of his wife. She believes he is deceiving her but doesn’t understand why he would.

Jess does some research and finds the name of Subject 5: Katherine April Voss, known as “April.” She was 23 when she died. She goes through April’s Instagram and sees a photo of a man asleep in her bed: it’s Thomas.

Jess tells Dr. Shields that she knows Thomas is her husband but doesn’t mention that she slept with him or Thomas told her. She says she figured it out. Dr. Shields confesses that it’s accurate and that he cheated on her, and now Jess’s testing him. She says that the woman was in her 30s. Jess knows April was 23. Dr. Shields tells Jess to plan a meeting with Thomas, and she does.

However, Jess has a pre-meeting with Thomas that Dr. Shields does not know about before that meeting. He admits to cheating, both with Lauren, who's 30-year-old, and April. Jess and Thomas then engineer their next meeting to fake a conversation if Dr. Shields is watching her; plus, they want witnesses. During the fake convo, Thomas tells her to leave him alone and that he’s happily married. Jess reports back the fake convo to Dr. Shields, and Dr. Shields feels comforted.

Next, Jess breaks into Dr. Shields house with a key Thomas gave her. Jess wants her file; Thomas wants April’s file. She finds them both. She discovers that Thomas slept with April a few days before she became a subject.

Dr. Shields gets home and notices her files are slightly off from where she left them. She wonders if Thomas moved them. Dr. Shields also wonders if Jess has been dishonest with her.

Jess tracks Lauren (Hannah Gross) down in a clothing store she works at. Lauren denied sleeping with Thomas. She says Thomas bought a bunch of clothes and returned them the next day. Jessica confronts Thomas at his office, where she withheld the last few pages of April’s file to use as leverage. Thomas says he faked it in hopes Dr. Shields would leave him. He thought she would be upset if he knew. It was a younger woman.

Thomas slept with April, and she got attached. She must have sought out Dr. Shields, though he didn’t realize that April was Dr. Shield’s subject #5 until the private investigator got involved.

Dr. Shields sees her go to his office and realizes Jess has lied to her. She gets Jess fired from her job and then convinces Noah that she’s crazy and immoral by telling lies and showing him texts from when she was told to hit on guys. However, when Jess confronts Dr. Shields, Jess denies getting her fired or getting rid of Noah. She gives Jess a Vicodin pill.

Jess knew April talked to Dr. Shields the day she died from the files, but she doesn’t know why April took the pills. Jess discovers Thomas must have been her therapist, which is why he tried so hard to conceal the affair.

Dr. Shields recalls how April admitted to sleeping with a married man. When April describes something the man said, telling her she’ll find someone who is her “true light,” Dr. Shields realized it was Thomas. Dr. Shields knew she was evasive.

Dr. Shields demands that Jess come over. Thomas is there, too. She says she has dirt on both of them and wants the truth. Before she goes, Jess tells her parents the truth about Becky. They say it’s not her fault.

For Jess, Dr. Shields has proof Jess broke into her home. Then, she claims some jewelry is missing. Dr. Shields uses her traumatic experience with her former boss, falsely accused of stealing, to demoralize her. Jess sees that Dr. Shields must have similarly tried to use April’s traumatic experiences against her to get her to commit suicide.

For Thomas, Dr. Shields reveals 1) that she knew about April and 2) has office entry logs that prove she was Thomas’s patient. Jess realizes Dr. Shields killed April partially to protect Thomas -- April could have gotten his license revoked for sleeping with a client.

Dr. Shields separates them and tells them to each tell her if they slept together. Jess says yes, which is the God's honest truth. Thomas says no, obviously lying through his teeth.

However, Dr. Shields insists on claiming Jess stole the jewelry, even though she told the truth. Thomas tells her to let Jess go, but she won’t. It leads Thomas to realize that Dr. Shields is nuts. When Jess brings up the Vicodin, he realizes Dr. Shields gave April the Vicodin.

Thomas tells Dr. Shields it’s over and that he’ll tell the police Jess is innocent. Jess leaves. When Dr. Shields realizes she has lost Thomas, it’s over for her. She commits suicide that night.

Noah accepts Jess’s explanation but is no longer interested in her.

Jess memorizes how Dr. Shields initially noted that she’s driven by money. She knows that Shields inherited his wife’s estate, including a multi-million-dollar home. Jess goes to Thomas and demands a large sum of money to compensate for the ordeal. She implies she’ll reveal that April was his client otherwise. He agrees.