Unit­ed States of Love

Only with great irony would you name a film so starved of emo­tion Unit­ed States of Love. A the­mat­ic study of unhealthy rela­tion­ships and obses­sion prompt­ed by lone­li­ness, direc­tor Tomasz Wasilewski’s film imparts an atmos­phere thick with despair. With­out intro­duc­tion we jump right into the loose­ly con­nect­ed lives of Aga­ta (Julia Kijows­ka), Iza (Mag­dale­na Cielec­ka) Rena­ta (Doro­ta Kolak), and Marzena (Mar­ta Nieradkiewicz).

Think Love, Actu­al­ly, but even more depress­ing. Aga­ta is trapped in an unhap­py mar­riage, emp­ty of phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al inti­ma­cy to the extent that she winces and brush­es her hus­band away when he tries to touch her. Iza tries to pur­sue an affair with a man recent­ly wid­owed, endur­ing phys­i­cal aggres­sion, taunt­ing, threats, lies and betray­al to no end. Mean­while, Rena­ta obsess­es over her young fame-seek­ing neigh­bour Marzena, even feign­ing injury as an excuse to talk to her.

Dis­tanced and iso­lat­ing shots empha­sise the women’s shared lone­li­ness. Char­ac­ters deliv­er their lines with a weary dis­in­ter­est. As they strive unsuc­cess­ful­ly for hap­pi­ness, we see Glo­ria and Aga­ta set­tle for pure phys­i­cal­i­ty in an attempt to feel some­thing. A moment of cli­mac­tic poten­tial between Glo­ria and her lover’s daugh­ter is mut­ed both lit­er­al­ly, and in impact by its ambi­gu­i­ty and lack of fol­low-up, while the film’s bizarre and dis­turb­ing end leaves a bad taste. 

A film doesn’t have to be hap­py or pos­i­tive to be deemed enjoy­able, but the tone here is relent­less­ly bleak, the cold­ness pal­pa­ble. ​‘What does love give us?’ says a priest ear­ly on. The answer to that is grief, pure and sim­ple. Whether sour, com­pul­sive, or sim­ply unat­tain­able – we see love in its many forms, none of them pret­ty. Visu­al­ly stun­ning though it may be, Unit­ed States of Love makes for soul-sap­ping viewing.