Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Attachment’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the motion picture, ‘Attachment’.
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When it comes to love, the vast majority of us… hope to find ourselves immersed in a storybook romance. The kind where we feel the connection the instant, we meet our soon to be significant other, and where the pull is so strong and the sparks so vibrant that we immediately become their everything and vice versa and find ourselves on cloud nine as we barrel toward a marriage that will last a lifetime. And we harbor that hope, for several reasons. For starters, because we want to be loved and we want to give it in kind. Second to that, we know deep down that love can be hard sometimes and it would be wonderful to have that kind of easy connection and perfect relationship.
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But while that is a wondrous hope and would indeed be the best-case scenario for our love life… there are a lot of problems that come with that type of love. Because… it’s a little too primal in nature and a little too rushed. In fact, it’s almost a desperate kind of love. One that ignores the work that goes into making it sustainable and one that tends to gloss over the fact that it rushes through the all-important getting to know one another phase of romance. Where we truly come to learn if a partner is compatible and if they are someone we can grow with, and that phase is critical… because to ignore it means we rush headlong into a situation that usually becomes quite toxic in nature. If anything, the more concerning side to rushing into love is top of mind today… simply because a brand-new film on Shudder, explores the dangers of it in Attachment.

A feat that this film accomplishes, by having us observe a love affair for the ages between Maja, a former television star, and Leah, a London student that just happens to cross paths with Maja one fine day… and she immediately feels that incredible romantic draw. One that is reciprocated, and it doesn’t take long for these two women… to fall head over heels in love with another. To the point where they cannot bear the thought of being apart and when Leah injures her leg when she has a seizure, that is put to the test. For Maja moves in with Leah and her mother Chana in their London home to be near her love. But it doesn’t take login for Maja to discover… this may have been a poor choice. Because it would seem that Chana, is willing to cross lines to keep her daughter under her roof… pushing Maja to dig deep into why, and what she is about to uncover, will change the nature of her relationship and her views upon the world.

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Which at first glance, appears to tilt the story toward a narrative that explores… the awkward nature of extended family when it comes to love, and how an overbearing parent/pain in the rear in-law can create strife in love. But that is the beauty of this motion picture, in that… it pulls us in different directions and uses surprises to get to the real meat and potatoes of the story. Wherein we come to learn that Chana is harboring quite the secret about Leah. One that is both dangerous and terrifying. Which in turn, leads to the commentary on toxic love in question. Because in many ways, Leah’s dark secret can be compared to say… substance abuse issues that a lover hides from their partner or the abusive nature they hide away until they feel comfortable enough to bring it to the surface. 
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The stuff that in essence, informs a person that their dream lover happens to be nothing short of a nightmare, and the love someone thought they had was nothing more than a fleeting moment of powerful desire. One that came forth from physical attraction or through a spark ignited that no one else bothered to ever put a flame to. Which can indeed lead to uncomfortable epiphanies and understandings and heartbreak and a crossroads. Where one must decide to stay or go, and that conundrum leads to the real horror in this story. Because that is where one needs to face… the reality of their love and what it will mean to stay with an individual that will never truly satisfy, or is dangerous to our mental or physical health, and that’s a scary prospect indeed for the person that has this epiphany. One that is relatable since so many have faced this nightmare and the difficult decisions that come with staying and being miserable or walking away and doing the work to heal that accompanies a messy end.

Granted, there’s some spooky stuff taking place here that sets the stage for a slam bang finale involving the truth about Leah’s ugly secret… but it is the struggle that Maja goes through that is truly the stuff of legend in this particular tale. Because the commentary present here really does stick with the viewer and gives them great pause about relationships of this caliber and how easy it is be sucked into one since the heart can be so incredibly dumb when the right strings are plucked. All of which makes this a brilliant and cautionary tale to say the least. One that finally removes the mystique surrounding love at first sight and informs us that storybook love affairs are rare, and that the ones worth fighting for are the ones we build from the ground up… since they have substance over butterflies and fluffy dreams.

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