Downloading Nancy

A self-destructive housewife takes what may be her final step into the abyss in this independent psychological drama. Nancy Stockwell (Maria Bello) is a woman edging into her forties who has fallen into a deep and prolonged state of depression, finding her only solace in self-inflicted pain. Nancy ...more

If David Cronenberg's cold and kinky Crash or Michael Haneke's nasty and brutish Funny Games were your idea of good date movies, this morgue-chilly psychosexual dirge will be the most fun you've had outside a Scandinavian funeral parlor. Downloading Nancy looks as barren and bleak as its "please kill me" plot, with occasional snatches of sadism to break up the monotony. Maria Bello is Nancy, a bitchy, sarcastic wife of 15 years. She gets on a bus one day to rendezvous with Louis (Jason ...more

Nancy only smiles when she's dreaming about death, and even then the anguish in her eyes is unmistakable. Downloading Nancy is nothing if not confrontational, yet despite our instincts to recoil in disgust from the subject matter, it's the raw emotions in Lee Ross and Pamela Cuming's smartly structured screenplay, and an absolutely fearless performance by Maria Bello, that keep us riveted to the screen as the film's tormented protagonist makes one last, desperate attempt at freeing herself from ...more