Cozy crime is a subgenre by which intriguing tales of homicide boast a jaunty aesthetic that is irreverently twee. Suppose Solely Murders within the Constructing, with its foolhardy newbie sleuths alternately investigating murder and bickering over their podcast’s manufacturing. Suppose Pushing Daisies, a candy-colored thriller sequence a couple of lovelorn pie-maker who can actually elevate the lifeless to resolve their murders. Suppose Sew Torn. 

Written and directed by Freddy Macdonald, this creative indie crime comedy begins with a drug deal gone violently fallacious, earlier than stitching collectively a multi-thread story of an unlikely legal mastermind: a mild-mannered cellular seamstress performed by Eve Connolly (Vikings). 

What’s Sew Torn about?

Sew Torn is about in a picturesque village excessive within the mountains, the place a pleasing enterprise district boasts quaint outlets. One such store is owned by seamstress Barbara Duggen (Connolly), who provides customized embroideries alongside alterations. Additional out, vibrant inexperienced pastures dotted with cows stretch to a mighty concrete bridge overlooking a misty valley, reaching even farther to stately houses, the place a rich bride-to-be (a hilariously harsh Caroline Goodall) is in a snit over a fallen button. 

In a gap by which Barbara barely speaks, Macdonald swiftly units up how this younger lady has shrunken within the shadow of her late mom, the unique cellular seamstress. Trapped by her dedication to hold on her mom’s work even because the household enterprise fails, Barbara’s fingers twitch at rebel as she stitches. Her urge for self-sabotage may be ruinous, however at the least it might carry one thing new. By flicking a button right into a ground vent, she should flee the growling bride to get one other. Barbara’s pretty commute again to her village is interrupted when she comes throughout a pair of bumbling gangsters on a blood-spattered, distant highway.

A intelligent lass, Barbara takes one fast have a look at the scene and assesses from the felled bikes, hobbled goons, and scattered baggage of white powder that the briefcase skittered down the highway is stuffed with money. “An ideal crime,” she says to herself, seeing an answer to her monetary woes. She would not simply decide up the cash and run, although. As a substitute, Barbara makes use of her helpful seamstress equipment and its brightly coloured threads to create a Rube Goldberg machine that ought to neatly eliminate the messier bits of this could-be heist. Regardless of her fast considering, issues do not precisely go to plan. 

Sew Torn provides a group of prospects and quirky characters. 

In 1998, author/director Tom Tykwer awed critics together with his high-energy crime thriller Run Lola Run, which featured a flame-haired Franka Potente chasing down a number of totally different options to save lots of her scheming boyfriend from a lethal destiny. Sew Torn provides Barbara the same discount. When her good crime proves deeply flawed (and deadly), somewhat than leaving her bleeding out in a cornfield, Macdonald thrusts her again onto that highway, staring down the coveted briefcase as soon as extra. 

Armed with some hard-won data from her earlier encounter with the briefcase, Barbara tries a brand new plan; she calls the cops. Properly, really, this village is so small that she calls the cop, an aged lady who isn’t solely the sheriff but additionally the native notary and the justice of the peace. Removed from a hard-ass, Okay Callan (Poker Face, Knives Out) brings the vitality of Coen brothers comedy, as her character can suss out bullshit with ease but exudes endurance and empathy. She’ll collar all three of those crooks with the sternness of a college marm instructing a lesson. 

Right here and all through the opposite threads, Barbara’s selections knit in a reluctant gangster (Calum Worthy), a frantic thug (Thomas Douglas), a chatty embroidery fanatic (Ron Cook dinner), and a cruel kingpin (John Lynch). Every will get their second to shine through Sew Torn‘s curious narrative construction. Some imbrue menace, whereas others give off agony, and nonetheless others a boisterous heat. But all could be for naught if Connolly weren’t crushing the lead position. 

Eve Connolly proves she’s a fascinating main girl in Sew Torn. 

Whereas this crime comedy can get fairly foolish with its violent slapstick, thread-centric machinations, and kooky criminals, Barbara is the straight man surrounded by stooges. Her expression is usually drawn, her eyes spiked with calculation. Whereas different characters bloviate about their lives, Barbara is a way more inside character, her quietness making her appear all of the extra an outsider in her hometown. However Connolly makes certain Barbara by no means feels flat or passive. Voiceovers framing the start and the tip give audiences a peek into Barbara’s considering, however principally we depend on Connolly’s sharp facial features and exact physicality for perception. 

All of this interiority makes a pointy distinction within the third thread of the movie all of the extra thrilling. On this sequence, Barbara’s solely path to survival is to throw herself right into a dance quantity. It’s explosive and inexplicable. Her limbs fling about madly whereas her face is sharply targeted. This isn’t a celebration; it’s a scheme tied to strings. And of all of the unbelievable issues she pulls off with thread, it is probably the most climactic and wickedly enjoyable. 

Macdonald enhances the fantastical prospects of this crime-ridden story with colour, utilizing vivid hues however a medium distinction. There’s grays inside these tones, maybe reflecting Barbara’s boredom with these environment regardless of their magnificence. But there is no ignoring the boldness of issues just like the dazzling blue of her eyes, the cruel purple of blood, and the intense yellow thread wrapped across the big bobbin in the back of her teal Volkswagen bug (a cutesy signifier of her commerce). Notably, every colour is mirrored in literal threads that show essential to Barbara’s plans. Every burst of colour speaks to Barbara’s prospects for greater than mending. She will be able to remake the world round her or tear it to shreds. However what to do with that data?

Because of a crackling forged, a intelligent colour scheme, and a plotline that is uniquely knotty, Macdonald makes Sew Torn a sensational expertise. It has the cheeky enjoyable of a top-notch crime comedy with out shedding the sting of life-or-death stakes. With a sequence of prospects being unspooled, the film is delightfully unpredictable. Its main girl lands every beat, be it one in every of harrumphing frustration, a outrageous dance, or a harmful hope. And ultimately, it leaves its viewers dizzy however glad by its wild spins. 

Sew Torn was reviewed out of its World Premiere at SXSW 2024.