STORY: A lonely salesgirl from a craft store grapples with thoughts and hallucinations that soon start blending with her real life. ‘Horse Girl’ is a journey into Sarah’s unstable mind that has a lot to say but there’s no one to listen.
REVIEW: Binging on her favourite sci-fi crime show ‘Purgatory’ is the high-point of Sarah’s (Alison Brie) lonely existence. She has no friends and no one to talk to, except her supportive co-worker Joan (Molly Shannon), who looks out for Sarah at work. Sarah’s flatmate Nikki (Debby Ryan) tries to set her up with her boyfriend’s roommate Darren (John Reynolds) when she finds her watching TV at home alone on her birthday. Sarah even barely gets to see her beloved horse Willow, who is now with its new owners. But her humdrum and introverted existence is starkly different from what goes on in her mind - a very busy place.
Director and co-writer Jeff Baena slowly lets us into Sarah’s mental space that gradually becomes more complex. This builds a sense of mystery around Sarah and what goes on in her mind. The juxtaposition of her simple lifestyle with her theories of human cloning and alien abductions is interesting. Although, it’s predictable how the few people in Sarah’s life react when she tries to put her deep-rooted anxieties and recurring dreams infront of them.
Allison Brie’s (also the co-writer) subdued performance makes you root for Sarah, at all times. She brings out Sarah’s vulnerability and complexity in an uninhibited manner. She never makes Sarah look weak enough to be pitied upon, but captures her fragile state of mind with restraint. It’s through her that we get a glimpse into all the layers that the film’s narrative is trying to unravel, often indulging a bit more than it should. And it happens quite slowly and repetitively such that it doesn’t always manage to hold your interest. While Sarah’s story resonates with many who battle depression all on their own, it also alienates that same reality with too many metaphorical illusions. In the end, much like Sarah’s mind it’s hard to tell what is real and what is an illusion.