'In Her Place' Reviews: "Chile’s Oscar entry this year is this quirky, unsatisfying oddity from director Maite Alberdi"

         On October 11, 2024, Netflix released 'In Her Place', which has earned a positive reception from critics. The film's synopsis reads, "Chile, 1955. When the popular writer María Carolina Geel kills her lover, the case captivates Mercedes, the shy secretary of the judge in charge of the case. After visiting the writer's apartment, Mercedes begins to question her life, identity, and the role of women in society as she finds an oasis of freedom in that home." The ensemble cast includes Francisca Lewin, Marcial Tagle, Pablo Macaya, and Elisa Zulueta. Read the full review round-up below.

Photo by Alice Voigt on Unsplash

        Amber Wilkinson of Eye for Film says, "Although there are tensions regarding the subterfuge employed by Mercedes, the trying on of the new life is concerned with emancipation and escaping her own life rather than any suggestion that she wants to take over Geel’s. There’s a cosy, tea-time mystery feel to proceedings, as the film becomes so protective of its central character it handles her with kid gloves. It’s easy to see why Geel, played with steely resolve by Lewin, proves fascinating to Mercedes, but the screenplay doesn’t dig very much into her psychology beyond presenting the facts of the case. Instead, much of this is played for whimsical comedy, although there are some barbs where you might not expect them - not least the suggestion that women being murderous might be the only way they can achieve a better life under oppressive circumstances. In Her Place - Chile’s Oscar submission this year - is a quirky and enjoyable tale of self-discovery so long as you’re willing to take it on its own terms and see things from Mercedes’ perspective."

        Guy Lodge of Variety was less impressed, stating, "This is rich film fodder on its own, though framing it through the eyes of an imagined admirer never yields satisfying dramatic results: Mercedes functions more as a proxy for the filmmaker’s fascination than as a compelling character in her own right." Continuing, "This is a promising setup for the kind of Hitchcockian psychodrama — all doubling and troubling — that is also teased by the film’s slightly heightened visual styling, as Sergio Armstrong’s gauzy cinematography, Rodrigo Bazaes Nieto’s gleaming production design and Muriel Parra’s creaseless costumes all shoot for a kind of daylight noir aesthetic that supports Mercedes’ escapist fantasies. (The hard digital sheen of the lensing slightly undercuts the illusion, but she doesn’t know that.) There’s mordant wit, too, in the fact that this woman’s liberation is wholly enabled by a man’s rash murder."

        Peter Bradshaw of Guardian notes, "Chile’s Oscar entry this year is this quirky, unsatisfying oddity from director Maite Alberdi, co-produced by Pablo Larraín, and inspired by a stranger-than-fiction true-crime case from the 1950s. It is elegant and amusing enough at first, with some rackety humour that Alfred Hitchcock might have enjoyed. But it never really lands the punch it seems to promise; the intense psychological drama of single-white-female-meets-Ripley never materialises. A documentary might have served this material better, or a fiction feature that doesn’t have a made-up character as the lead." Adding, The inner life of Geel herself is untouched and Bombal, the first shooter (who was alive throughout this situation), is only briefly mentioned. A misfire."