Concussion Movie Review

 

『In the Fractures of Emotion, Rediscovering the Depth of Self and Love』

🎥 Movie Overview

🎬 Title: Concussion (2013) 
🌍 Country: 🇺🇸 USA
🎞️ Genre: Drama / Sexual Awakening / Queer Women’s Narrative
⏳ Runtime: 89 min
📢 Director: Stacie Passon
📺 Platform: Netflix / Amazon Prime

👩‍💼 Cast: Robin Weigert – Abby Ableman / Eleanor
Julie Fain Lawrence – Kate Ableman

🧩 Story Deep Dive (Spoilers)

☕ A Minor Concussion Awakens Repressed Desires

42-year-old housewife Abby suffers a minor concussion after her child’s small accident, and soon cracks begin to appear in her life and inner world. As her relationship with her wife Kate turns cold, Abby begins to crave sexual attention in her daily life. Sam Bennett, a neighbor who goes to the same gym, unexpectedly enters the picture. After Abby starts escort work under the alias “Eleanor” and meets several clients, she is shocked when Sam books Eleanor.

💦 The Collision: When Double Lives Intersect

Abby meets Sam at the coffee shop where she always holds preliminary meetings with her clients, and she feels shock and embarrassment. This marks the critical collision between Abby’s two carefully separated worlds: Abby the suburban wife and Eleanor the escort. Sam, like Abby, lives a comfortable life but feels sexual emptiness in her marriage with her husband. They discover in each other a way to escape domestic stagnation. The scene where Abby finally experiences genuine sexual satisfaction (orgasm) with Sam shows that this encounter is more than “just work” — it is a moment of personal liberation.

🌊 Deepening Relations and Emotional Exchange (The Affair)

One day, Abby sees Sam with her husband at the local supermarket. They appear to be a “perfect” happy couple. Abby tries to keep her distance but eventually approaches, introducing herself to Sam’s husband simply as “neighbor Abby”, resulting in an awkward exchange. Eventually, Kate discovers Abby’s secret, their marriage nears collapse, and Abby later runs into Sam again on the street. Their encounters serve as a reminder that their connection is not about grand meanings or fated love, but about fulfilling basic, instinctive sexual needs unmet in their marriages.

🦋 Emotional Resonance and Thematic Meaning

🎬 Sexual Stagnation and Liberation in Middle Age

This film goes beyond clichés such as “Lesbian Bed Death”, showing that sexual boredom and dissatisfaction in long-term marriages can occur not only in heterosexual but also in same-sex marriages. Abby’s escort work is not about money, but a desperate attempt to reclaim her lost sexual vitality and identity.

☕ The Symbolism of “A Cup of Coffee”

As Eleanor, Abby enforces a strict rule: she always holds a coffee shop meeting with a client before their actual encounter. This serves as her unique way of screening clients and setting boundaries, but also functions as the most important symbolic device, encapsulating the essential meaning of why she does this work.

• Seeking Authenticity: By conversing in a public setting first, Eleanor identifies the client’s true desires, vulnerabilities, and stories. This transforms the exchange from simply selling sex into a blend of psychological consultation and desire fulfillment.
• Emotional Connection: While Abby does not share her own personal life, she listens to clients, understanding their loneliness and desires. In doing so, she gains intellectual satisfaction and emotional exchange, which are absent from her indifferent relationship with Kate.

✨ Eleanor’s Assertion of Control

Abby’s transgression is a rebellion against her passive married life. Thus, every aspect of “Eleanor’s” work must remain firmly under her own control.

• Screening Process: The “coffee meeting” allows Eleanor to judge whether a potential client is safe and genuinely interesting to her. She reserves the right to choose only the clients she wants. This declares that she is the subject of her body and labor, not merely an object being used for money.

📖 The Female Gaze and Intellectual Tone

With a female director, the film portrays women’s desires and female sexual encounters not through sensationalism but with a delicate, intellectual gaze. While explicit, the scenes avoid voyeuristic framing for a male audience. Despite its provocative content, the film maintains humor and a dry tone, and has been described as a modern, lesbian reinterpretation of Luis Buñuel’s 1967 classic 《Belle de Jour》.

🎯 Personal Rating

💕 Love Scene Intensity: ♥♥♥♥♥
⭐ Rating: ★★★★