Maris Curran’s Five Nights in Maine has very little new to offer. At least two films in the last six months alone have dealt with a similar premise, chronicling the aftermath of the death of a loved one—Jean-Marc Valée’s Demolition and Sean Meshaw’s Tumbledown—but even with the add-ed wrinkle of a character coping with death through the help of an in-law, this film is painfully familiar. Which means the primary appeal of this film lies in watching two actors with supreme control of their gifts go toe-to-toe in emotional warfare. But even as tensions roil between these two performers tossing scathing accusations back and forth, Curran’s directorial touch is so muted she inevitably numbs her own drama.
As the film begins, Sherwin (David Oyelowo), is waiting for his wife, Fiona (The Loneliest Plan-et’s Hani Furstenberg) to return home, but receives a call informing him that she’s died in a traffic accident. In the subsequent days, Sherwin erects a chrysalis of sadness around himself, whiling away his days crying, drinking and smoking. Curran has a light touch in these initial scenes, even though her imagery threatens to tip at any moment into ponderousness. Shots like a fleeting glance at Fiona’s lipstick smudges on an unwashed glass, or a longing look at the urn that arrives at his home from an irritatingly chipper man from the crematorium are played effectively, with an understated poeticism.
Curran breaks this potential narrative stagnancy quickly, introducing Sherwin’s sister, Penelope (the consistently excellent Teyonah Parris), who offers an outside view of the extent of his depression. Reluctant to return to normalcy, he accepts an invitation to convalesce with Fiona’s mother, Lucinda (Dianne Wiest), in Maine. Still in a state of emotional decay, he hopes the trip can offer some measure of closure about Fiona’s disastrous visit to her mother’s shortly before her accident.
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