Fear Love and and Agoraphobia is 2018 drama about an agoraphobic man and a female Marine who become emotionally entangled as they struggle to escape from their personal prisons.
Perhaps the most astonishing thing about Alex D’Lerma‘s deeply moving Fear Love and Agoraphobia is its slight of hand. It lures you into a kind of emotional trap, having you think what you’re watching is funny when in fact, it’s anything but, though you don’t quite catch on until it’s already got you hooked. Yes, there’s a lot to laugh at yet you never actually do, instead, quite the opposite as you’re pulled into a troubling bomb shelter of pain and suffering that has you feeling the most profound sense of empathy. It’s the film’s brilliant use of transparency that make this all together something a little special.
Chet (Dustin Coffey) is a grown man, ten years out of high school yet still living at home. He’s crippled by extreme agoraphobia, paralyzed by even the thought of stepping out of the house where all kinds of harm might befall him. When his very supporting parents decide to move, it forces him to make a life on his own. Living in a van not far from him is Maggie (Linda Burzynski), a former marine with a host of her own issues, including alcoholism and a husband in prison who begs her to move on. She is a wreck and when Chet advertises a room to rent, hoping to find someone who can take care of him without them really knowing what’s wrong, she takes the room and the responsibility, in truth knowing she needs him as much as he needs her.
Chet recognizes his dilemma and struggles to manage his condition. He’s able to make a few errands on his own, though at great cost. He ventures to the bank in a hoodie and a gas mask, a look you can already see might be source of all kinds of trouble, and right away, D’Lerma, who wrote the screenplay, subverts that expectation, leading us down the path before going somewhere else entirely. That’s the whole recipe of this elixir, where comedy seems the big top event even as great drama is the tent pole holding it up.
We have two decidedly unstable people who have, by whatever cosmic interference, found themselves under the same roof, and while that’s a familiar story, D’Lerma isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, instead putting all the weight on these tortured characters. Fortunately, both Coffey and Burzynski offer deeply personal turns, both in their film debuts, delivering highly believable performances that seep into shadowed corners so few venture. These are wrecked human beings anchored to traumatizing conditions that have ultimately collapsed and buried them. Digging out is easier with help.
In this mix is Francis (Lori Petty), the owner of a bar where Maggie hangs out, a woman of great heart who tries to protect and steer the weakened woman out into the light. Petty has always had terrific presence and while she has limited screen time here, is unsurprisingly effective. It’s not her story but she has impact in it. What is the story is of course trust, something Fear Love and Agoraphobia never take advantage of when bringing these two shattered souls together, and D’Lerma is uncompromising in doing so. This is often raw, tragic and unflinching.
At one point, one of them confesses to the other, “you make me feel safe,” and while it’s not the most tender moment in the film, it is telling of what it means to be in the skins of these people. Yes, it’s flawed, it’s not polished, and is a little uneven, but in every possible way, it feels exactly right.
Fear Love and Agoraphobia releases April 13