The Flame Within: A messy look at bad boundaries

Should you watch this?

If you like movies where people stand around looking pained while wearing very stiff collars, you will be fine. If you need a movie to move faster than a glacier, stay away. This is strictly for people who enjoy watching a slow-motion train wreck happen in a velvet-lined room.

Ann Harding plays this doctor who is supposed to be the smartest person in the room. Naturally, she is the one who acts the most foolishly.

The whole premise is that she’s a pro. Then, suddenly, she’s not. It’s not exactly subtle.

Small things that stuck

• The way the light hits the office desk when she’s having a breakdown.
• The weird, stilted way characters address each other like they’re reading from a manual on manners.
• That one scene with the telephone where the silence is so heavy you could cut it with a knife.

It’s honestly kind of uncomfortable. Not in a 'scary' way, but in a 'please stop doing that, you’re ruining your career' kind of way. It reminded me a bit of the suffocating tension in Hat, Coat, and Glove, where the atmosphere does more work than the actual dialogue.

There is this moment where she just stares at a painting for too long. I think the director wanted it to be deep. It just felt like she forgot her lines for a second. I kind of liked that it stayed in the final cut.

The men in this movie are almost all useless. They exist to be confused or to be the object of some misplaced affection. It feels like a chore for them just to walk through the door.

There isn't much to say about the pacing because it doesn't really have any. It just drifts. Sometimes it drifts into a really sharp observation about loneliness. Other times, it just drifts into a wall.

Is it a classic? Probably not. Is it a decent way to spend a rainy afternoon when you don’t want to think too hard about logic? Sure.

Don't look for a big, explosive finish. It just kind of ends. Like a conversation that runs out of steam at 2 AM. ☕