Life on the farm takes on a bitter new meaning in Things Heard and Seen. Directors
Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's latest film transports audiences to a town
in the idyllic Hudson Valley in upstate New York, where the young Clare family
relocates from the big city to start a new life on a sheltered but beautiful old farm.
But their house has a lot of secrets, and so does the family patriarch, George.
Leading the cast of this gripping thriller is Mank star Amanda Seyfried,
whose haunting portrayal of the talented but troubled Catherine anchors the unnerving
story. However, her character is just one of the several women who are impacted by George's lies.
Stranger Things' Natalia Dyer is another as Willis, George's reluctant young lover.
Though Catherine and Willis only cross paths indirectly, they have a lot more in common
than they might realize. Throughout the film, both Seyfried and Dyer shine as individual performers,
but there are a couple of scenes in particular that showcase the subtle connections between
their characters and, thus, the cyclical nature of George's duplicity.
"You want to see the rest, don't you? Come on."
"Show it to me."
One of the earliest signs that George is not who he appears to be comes along when he first
meets Willis, an unassuming local college student. Unlike Catherine and the other people in George's
life, Willis reads him like a book right away. Of course, Willis' initial reaction to George is
easily justified. The first thing he says to her is a creepy anecdote about the artist Caravaggio.
"You know he killed someone? Over a game of tennis."
"Who?"
"Caravaggio."
"Oh, well, I'm not surprised. People get away with all kinds of horrible things."
During this scene, Dyer's mannerisms and pointed facial expressions subtly convey
her disinterest in the older man. She also injects Willis with quiet attitude and wit,
particularly when it comes to shutting down George's repeated attempts to flirt.
"I'm just taking a little hiatus, riding for rich folk at Crow Hill Stables."
"Yeah, I know that place. It's right next to the tennis club. I play there sometimes."
"Oh, well, uh...I hope you're a better loser than Caravaggio."
What happens next is an even bigger testament to Dyer's talent.
Dyer imbues Willis with sweetness when she meets George's daughter Franny
and perfectly toes the line between being kind to the child and sending a harsher message to George.
"Hi there, Franny. How's that book?"
"What does this say?"
"Let's see. Okay, it says…'He should not be here. He should not be about.
He should not be here when your mother is out.' It's really nice to meet you Franny."
Underlying it all, though, is the tiniest hint of flirtation. Dyer's ability to be equal parts
playful and stern creates a character that's both relatable and enigmatic.
Later in Things Heard and Seen, Catherine confides to George's co-worker Justine
that she has a conflicted relationship with George, revealing that she lost
agency in her relationship after she became pregnant with Franny.
"I was conflicted, too, but just like that it happened. And then we got married,
which I was also conflicted about. I guess you could say I'm a conflicted Catholic girl at heart,
dutifully going through the motions. You know, the first few years of our marriage were a complete
blur because of the baby and school. We're really still trying to catch our breath up here."
Seyfried layers her lines with tinges of regret and sadness. Conversely, Catherine's mood visibly
brightens when Justine invites Catherine to join a friendly group of creative women,
and Seyfried plays the scene like a woman who can finally exhale.
It still takes a while for the full tapestry of George's lies to come to light. But this early
scene, in which Catherine is surrounded by a bunch of literal threads, tells us who this
character is, how she's found herself in these circumstances, and what she really thinks of
the man she's sharing a life with. This insight into Catherine's discomfort also paints a picture
of who Catherine and George were before the movie began, and Seyfried's performance lets
the audience know that the bones of Catherine's marriage aren't nearly as strong as they seem.
In both scenes, Dyer and Seyfried have to give their characters duality,
while also shedding light on their shared love interest, George.
It's a tricky balance. Dyer plays a person who is wise to George's game right from the start.
Although she lets her expressions speak volumes in the library scene, in a later scene she
confides to Alex Neustaedter's Eddy exactly how she saw through George from the start.
"I haven't even met the guy officially yet."
"What's he like?"
"Dishonest, deceitful."
"And how would you know that?"
"Because I found him attractive."
Meanwhile, Seyfried's scene showcases her character's quiet suffering and the
sense that she needs to reclaim her own identity.
Dyer and Seyfried paint portraits of two very different women in the orbit of the
same dangerous man. Even though they never share the screen, Catherine and Willis
storylines are hopelessly intertwined, and the actress contrasting choices in scenes
like these go a long way towards making Things Heard and Seen's dichotomy work.
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