With a title like The Royal Hotel, you would assume that the place would be kind of fancy. It’s the opposite. The bar is located in the middle of nowhere, deep in the dusty Australian outback, in a town chock full of coal miners. So when friends Hanna (Julie Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) find themselves having to work there to make some money, we know shit will hit the proverbial fan soon enough.
The owner Billy, played by the incomparable Hugo Weaving, who is barely recognisable here due to his chameleon talents, is a perpetual drunk who’s fond of the c-word, and the patrons of his establishment range from leery to crude. Even the nicest man we encounter, a simple-minded miner by the name of Teeth (James Frecheville), carries with him certain expectations when it comes to women. The most frightening thing about director Kitty Green’s film is how familiar it all is. As Hanna and Liv find themselves at the centre of male attention, they have to walk the precarious balance of entertaining these men, but also be wary enough to detect the potential warning signs to keep themselves out of danger.
While Liv’s more vivacious and isn’t opposed to having a good time, Hanna’s more cautious and stays sober during their shifts at the pub. And because she’s more straitlaced and serious, the men look at her as a buzzkill. She isn’t smiling when she hands them their liquor or gives them refills, she isn’t laughing at their inappropriate jokes or looking jazzed to be there. Oftentimes, Hanna is the one who has to face the full force of toxic masculinity, since Liv is either passed out, or she’s being protected by Hanna.
Garner is fantastic. A dozen micro-expressions flits across her face during interactions with these raucous men, and we are immediately able to tell what she’s feeling. As Hanna, she carries with this sense of discomfort, and we get the feeling that this scene is a familiar one for her, since she briefly mentions her drunk father at one point during the film. Garner and Henwick have stellar chemistry together, and their interactions show us so much about Liv and Hanna’s friendship.
As we watch the film, our frustrations with the characters grow. After night one, Hanna wants out, but Liv convinces her to stay, rationalising away the behaviour of these men and the inappropriate language they use as a “cultural thing”. They also stand by and watch as their predecessors, two British women, dance on the bar tops and flash the mob of leering men. Nobody puts a stop to it, or considers that these women are drunk out of their minds and should be protected from themselves. When they get into the car with Dolly (Daniel Henshall) and he drives them to wherever their next adventure is, there’s this sense of trepidation that follows behind them, with the viewer not knowing if they ever safely get to where they want to go.
Garner and Henshall’s scenes are particular unnerving. Henshall’s Dolly has this threatening air about him; even him merely standing in a corridor is enough to make the hairs on the back of your hand stand pin straight. The horror here isn’t supernatural, it’s utterly human, which makes it all the more terrifying.
Review screener provided.
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