“Less is more” is an often-heard tenet of good storytelling—but one that the filmmakers behind the purported dark comedy Home Sweet Hell ignored. That there are three writing credits (Carlo Allen, Ted Elrick and Tom Lavagnino) attached to a 98-minute movie is only the first of many red flags in this “satire” (we think) about marriage, murder, mental illness and/or life in suburbia. Director Anthony Burns (Skateland) presents an over-the-top, unfunny and ridiculous misogynistic mess of a movie in which the female characters are either beautiful, cold-hearted murderers or beautiful whores.
Taking a few cues from John Waters’ Serial Mom (1994), Katherine Heigl steps into the role of a psychopath in a Stepford-wife wardrobe. From the film’s opening frames, the audience knows that something’s amiss with Mona Champagne. She greets her family with fake smiles and backhanded compliments, and her seemingly pleasant countenance belies a rage just beneath the surface. Mona’s OCD manifests itself in her unhealthy affinity for scrapbooking her family’s life and goals; and her true nature surfaces during a split-second shot in which she rearranges the kitchen knives in a knife block with the force and acumen of a samurai warrior.
Although Mona is already unlikeable from the outset, the filmmakers somehow found it necessary to add another vile layer to the character: She’s a bigot to boot. She calls her gay neighbors “ladies” and spouts offhanded and offensive dialogue like “At least she’s not Mexican,” or “Daddy says to hire a Jew … all they do is make money.” There’s no need for this extra dimension to the character—we got the message in the first two minutes of the film. Burns and the screenwriting team should have channeled their efforts elsewhere, perhaps delving further into Mona’s psyche or toward crafting a more interesting or original plot. Nothing, and we mean nothing, happens in Home Sweet Hell that the audience can’t predict.
Patrick Wilson plays Mona’s better, or at least other, half. Don’s a milquetoast husband who goes along with the charade. From the outside looking in, Don has it all: a pretty wife, two kids in private school, a tidy and comfortable home and a successful furniture business, all thanks to his wife’s parents. Don’s kept on a tight leash, and Mona organizes his entire life. Every aspect of it. When he gets a little frisky at bedtime, she rebuffs him with, “We will have sex on the 9th as scheduled.”