The Wasp (2024)

The Wasp (2024) Having not spoken to each other for years, former childhood friends Heather and Carla agree to get together to move on. But Heather’s true motive soon becomes clear: she wants Carla to commit murder. As the pair hatch a plan, dark secrets emerge, leading to exciting, unexpected consequences.

After more than ten years mainly directing episodes of TV series, Guillem Morales is back with a truly multifaceted psychological thriller. A first film centred on two women who each need something that the other is prepared to offer, with Heather recontacting her childhood friend Carla to ask her for a favour…

The Wasp stars Naomie Harris and Natalie Dormer, with Guillem Morales directing from a screenplay by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm that she adapted from her own 2015 play. I had no idea that Natalie Dormer was in this film when I first watched it. What a surprise and delight it was to see this actress whom I adore. She is once again excellent in her role.

The film is really very good. Naomie Harris plays an irritating character who seems weak and impulsive, with little patience. Then we watch her evolve. There’s a good plot and a really interesting twist. The direction is impeccable. The dialogue is gripping and intense. Only the ending starts to fall apart. Even if the outcome is good, the husband plays particularly badly when we see him in the last scene. The connection with the wasp and the title are ridiculous. Or maybe I didn’t understand the subtlety! It’s quite possible…

Note that, symbolically, wasps’ nests represent protection. So… something that’s absolutely unpleasant to have in your environment has a positive side. The play is in three acts. A play that has been described by Lyn Gardner as ‘pleasantly nasty’. Gardner is a British theatre critic, children’s writer and journalist who contributes reviews and articles to The Stage and Stagedoor and has written for The Guardian.

The director has kept to the codes of the original work with a tortuous psychodrama set almost behind closed doors. There are plenty of red herrings and twists and turns to keep the whole thing engaging right to the end, even if it’s not as clever as we’re led to believe. All in all, it’s a good film with two solid actresses.

The flashbacks are clever. Excellent pacing, as I didn’t see the time go by.