Misper may not be a great movie, but it's exactly the kind of movie you're happy to see at a festival. It's a new filmmaker with talent who directs a cast of performers you likely haven't seen before in a memorable story.
The film's title comes from a slang police term for "missing person." The misper in this case is Elle (Emily Carey), an employee of the barely functional Grand Hotel in the south of England. As her story becomes a local and national sensation, her co-worker Leonard (Samuel Blenkin), slowly starts unraveling. Though they worked together for nearly two years, they never spoke too much, but had a friendly relationship bordering on flirtatious.
Leonard grows frustrated that his crush has become an object of fascination, but he never really got to know her either. It doesn't help that his nightmares are filled with ghostly visions of her and what happened after she left work that night. But the mystery itself resolves fairly quickly, and we're left to examine the psychological fallout for Leonard and his co-workers.
It's pretty heavy stuff. But believe it or not, Misper is mostly a comedy. It's rarely laugh-out-loud funny. It's more of that offbeat British sense of humor, with director Harry Sherriff letting awkward silences linger. These dual tones – cringey workplace comedy and haunting psychological thriller – is what keeps the movie from being better. On their own, both parts are fine. But it doesn't completely mesh. You don't necessarily feel tonal whiplash, but its inability to commit to one or the other dulls its potential impact.
Still, Sherriff shows real skill behind the camera, especially during some of those extended dream/nightmare sequences. He's got a great full-on horror movie in him, if he ever decides to follow that path. For now, Misper serves as a mildly impressive calling card.
