It’s another white women period romance in The World to Come, the latest from director Mona Fastvold.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that we’re getting more queer romances with larger budgets, big actors, and meaty themes, but with so many hewing to similar setups, they’re in danger of becoming rote. What does The Favourite, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and Ammonite all have in common? They’re period pieces about white women featuring lots of longing and unhappy endings. The World to Come looks like it will be much the same, this time with two women on isolated 19th-century farms finding unexpected passion that probably won’t be allowed to last.
The setup is sturdy, I suppose. That’s why we keep returning to it, but it means Fastvold will have to mine for more than just the familiar romance. There are hints of other things from the trailer, specifically the brutality of early American life and the boxes women were put in.
It’s possible, even, that the queer romance isn’t the film’s main concern. It could lean more into the two married couples ripping themselves apart. That seems to be the setup for Fastvold’s previous film, The Sleepwalker, and it would explain the presence of such high caliber actors as Christopher Abbott and Casey Affleck. Probably, though, the relationship between the two women played by Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby will be at the film’s center. Hopefully, the rest is enough to distinguish it from what’s come before.
The World to Come is directed by Mona Fastvold and stars Katherine Waterston, Vanessa Kirby, Christopher Abbott, and Casey Affleck. It will be released in the US in theaters on February 12th and on-demand March 2nd. For international release dates, click here.
Will you check this one out? Let us know in the comments!
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