What young women must endure is the theme of Kitty Green's two features. It was the focus of her debut, "The Assistant," in which the title character (Julia Garner) was abused and harassed in her workplace by a Harvey Weinstein-like boss. And it is the theme in her intense new film, "The Royal Hotel," where two women Liv (Jessica Henwick) and Hanna (Julia Garner) are abused and harassed in the title establishment, a bar in the Australian outback.
The film is inspired by the documentary "Hotel Coolgardie," but it also feels like a distaff cousin of "Wake in Fright," the ferocious 1971 Ted Kotcheff film about a schoolteacher stranded in the outback filled with drunk and violent men.
Green wants viewers to share Liv and Hanna's discomfort. The film's opening music is a cue — a sinister instrumental version of Men at Work's hit "Down Under," that sets the uneasy mood, which gets darker and darker as the film goes on. But Green lets the tension simmer before it boils over. This is a slow burn thriller that suggests things can go very bad very fast, and it is not until late in the film before they do.
When Liv is out of cash, she and Hanna take jobs working in the Royal Hotel. It promises good money, but the catch is that it is in remote mining area. The young women are also warned that they will need to be OK with "receiving a little male attention." The carefree Liv eagerly accepts, looking for adventure. Hanna, the more thoughtful of the pair, is rightfully skeptical. When they arrive in the Outback, they discover what they have really signed up for — poor accommodations, hard working conditions, questionable pay, no wifi and trapped with dozens of sweaty, dirty, drunken, sexist men in the middle of nowhere. Moreover, Hanna is taken aback when Billy (Hugo Weaving), who manages the establishment, calls her the C-word. At least there is alcohol. (Viewers could have a drinking game every time Liv or Hanna imbibes a shot.)
It is not long before Hanna tells Liv, "This is all your fault." Liv tries to brightside it, if only to self-protect, and make the best out of what is, indeed, a bad situation. But Green thrives on making things unpleasant as Liv and Hanna encounter the various men who belly up to the bar. Matty (Toby Wallace) teases Liv with some vulgar wordplay. Teeth (James Frecheville) acts kindly towards Liv, hoping it will secure him a night out with her and gets angry when it doesn't. Then there is Dolly (Daniel Henshall), an imposing figure Hanna finds truly menacing. That Hanna rarely smiles is noted by Billy, among other men at the bar, but her situation really does not give her many reasons to smile. She repeatedly wants to leave, but Liv convinces her to stay a few weeks.
When Matty offers to take Liv and Hanna on a little road trip to go swimming — the Royal Hotel's pool is empty, another disappointment — they agree if only to get out for the day. They see a kangaroo and do get to swim in some water. There is also a kind of détente reached, as Hanna learns Matty studied meteorology, and may not be the dumb bro she assumed he was. This may be why she kisses him when they return to the Royal Hotel, but she also kicks him out when he gets frisky, because she does not want things to go further. Of course, this causes some tension between them, and makes Hanna, who is justified in her behavior, more uneasy.
"The Royal Hotel" shows how the non-nonsense Hanna manages. She is told she is "tougher than she looks," and "strong as old socks," and Green puts viewers squarely in her corner as when she defuses situations at the bar when customers get rowdy. But Hanna is also incredibly vulnerable. When a snake gets loose in her room (cue phallic metaphor), she flinches as Dolly captures it. That Dolly kills it and puts it in a jar with her name on it simply unnerves her.
"I am scared of everything and everyone in this place," Hanna tells Liv, whose name may be short for "oblivious," as she refuses to see the potential horrors around her. Late in the film, when Liv is drunk and going off with Dolly, Hanna is extremely concerned, and even picks up an axe, poised for attack.
The female solidarity is strongest at this moment, and Green could have explored either how Liv and Hanna lean on each other more because they are alone together in this Godforsaken place, or how this "adventure" drives the friends to fall out. "The Royal Hotel" splits the difference, which feels like a missed opportunity. At least Carol (Ursula Yovich), an aboriginal woman who works as a cook at the Royal Hotel, is supportive towards Hanna as she proves herself working at the bar.
Green also deliberately keeps Liv and Hanna's backstory ambiguous. Liv explains that she came to Australia because it was the furthest place she could go. Another line of dialogue reveals their trip was for them to "get away from everything back home." What "everything back home" was goes unsaid, but one can imagine, based on how Liv and Hanna behave, that it involved Liv being drunk and getting unwanted attention from men.
"The Royal Hotel" benefits from Garner's steely, flawless performance as she suffers micro- and macro-aggressions before she has had enough. Her reactions to Billy being drunk, or a man giving her a lighter with a topless woman on it, reveal how Hanna has to processes indignities large and small. As Liv, Jessica Henwick is appealing, and at times, sympathetic, but why Hanna is such good friends with Liv remains a mystery.
In support, Hugo Weaving, Toby Wallace, Daniel Henshall and James Frecheville all walk the tightrope between friendly and fiendish to an effective degree.
"The Royal Hotel" does not provide a good experience for its protagonists, but it delivers a memorable 90 minutes for viewers.
"The Royal Hotel" opens in theaters nationwide Oct. 6.
