[Film Review] Lucky (2020)

Cracks are starting to show in May’s (Brea Grant) life, both literally and figuratively in Lucky (2020). A broken plate, a cracked window and a flake of skin on May’s finger that she picks at all hint that things may not be what they seem on the surface.

May is a self-help author who seems to have a successful career, and yet is struggling to get her publishers to agree to a follow-up book. At home, in a house so perfect it’s like something out of a fairy tale, her relationship with her husband, Ted (Dhruv Uday Singh), appears strained. 

One night, May is awoken in the early hours and sees The Man (Hunter C. Smith) standing in their back garden. Confused and scared, she wakes Ted, who tells her that it's the man who comes to their house every night to kill them. Ted arms himself with a golf club and heads downstairs, leaving May to try and figure out what is going on while fearing for her life. The Man attacks May before Ted knocks him unconscious, and then his body disappears. 

The next morning, Ted and May get into an argument about The Man. It seems he has been present in May and Ted’s life for a long time, but May has only just recognised his presence. Telling May she needs to calm down, Ted leaves and May has to deal with the situation alone. 

The Man returns every night, as May refuses offers to stay at other homes in a bid to avoid the killer. Instead, she reinforces her home, and arms herself with an array of weapons, which The Man seems to mirror every time. May plans to capture The Man and discover his true identity, but his body disappears before she has the chance to process what has happened to her.

Despite calling the police every night, May is given little help apart from the empty advice that women are offered on a daily basis. Rather than trying to prevent The Man from attacking her, the police are more focussed on placing the onus on May and how she can protect herself. She’s told to purchase mace, to avoid dark parking garages, and not to worry unless it’s dark outside, but beyond that, no real help is offered. Instead, May is told how lucky she is. Lucky not to have been injured when her husband was knocked unconscious. Lucky not to have been raped when she’s attacked in her bedroom. Instead of focussing on the trauma that May has suffered, others are keen to focus on the things which didn’t happen to her and why she should be ‘grateful’ that her experience wasn’t as bad as it could have been. 

Through Lucky, director Natasha Kermani shows the daily fears and struggles that women experience. The constant threat looming over our shoulder is given a face, albeit a distorted one, in the form of The Man, and his persistent pursuit of May. No matter how much she tries to fight him, and even when it seems like she has defeated him, he returns, again and again, to make sure that May never feels safe or comfortable in the world.

Lucky shows how women are often framed through the victim-blaming lens, pushing the responsibility for a situation onto them rather than the attacker. What could May have done differently to avoid being placed in this situation night after night is the question on the lips of the police, while they make no real effort to discover the actual identity of The Man.  

Brea Grant’s portrayal of May is relatable, as we experience the frustration alongside May as she tries to get someone to believe her. Despite evidence that her house has been trashed and proof of her injuries, there’s always a hint of disbelief in those that May reaches out to. Others are keen to place the blame on May’s bad marriage and potential domestic disputes with Ted. The fact that Ted could be a threat to May is portrayed as almost normal, but the thought of an outside force threatening her is taken with a pinch of salt.

After the shock of the first night, May is quick on her feet to start defending herself and outsmart the killer. In fact, she kills him every time, no matter what he throws at her. May more than proves herself as a final girl, and yet, it’s not enough to come out on top in Lucky. Instead, Lucky is about the constant struggle that women face. When one threat is over, there is always another one lurking in the background. May is never allowed to feel safe, no matter how many times she takes out her attacker. 

May’s self-help book is all about going it alone, which is exactly what she has to do in order to save herself. The police are no help, May’s husband seems resigned to the threats she has to face, and even the other women in her life are battling problems of their own which they need to focus on. There’s no happy ending in Lucky, but rather a stark reminder of the world we live in, and the many-faced threat women constantly find themselves fighting against.

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