A new employee at a mall boutique works her way into the witchy clique in the disjointed Forbidden Fruits, from director Meredith Alloway, based on the play by co-screenwriter Lily Houghton.
In need of a new employee in their high-end chic mall store and a fourth for their coven, Apple, Cherry, and Fig hire/recruit Pumpkin, a newly arrived woman who works at the food court. Upon entering the powerful clique, she realizes there’s a lot more going on, and Pumpkin holds secrets of her own. Forbidden Fruits has been aptly described as Mean Girls meets The Craft. It’s also one that sets too high a bar, as while the ideas are there with solid bones at the core and a set of fantastic performances to boot, Forbidden Fruits is a shallow, underwritten letdown. Directed by Meredith Alloway from the play Of the Woman Came the Beginning of Sin, and Though Her We All Die by co-writer Lily Houton, the film version is a great idea is dissapointingly underserved by a film that can’t quite decide what it wants to be, reaching for The Craft, Mean Girls or other properties like Heathers without grasping the heights of the films it clearly means to emulate, with said pulse never allowing Forbdiden Fruits to stand on its own.
Damn, did I want to like this. I’m so sad that I did not. Unfortunately, Forbidden Fruits is a mess. Not the sort of mess that one can smooth over issues with everything else getting at “hell yeah!” But a frustration of a better, more coherent, and constant film right there with some tweaking and tightening. Houghton and Allowoy stuff so much into the film, it bursts with little able to grasp onto a solid push. I get that, it has stuff to say and interesting ways to say it (it has a great look; the costuming by Sarah Millman is wonderful), but it can’t decide on what’s important. Maybe that’s the idea, trying to achieve a sort of wild camp. However, there’s a difference in the purposeful camp that pervades Forbidden Fruits and letting it slide across the film to try to fill those potholes. But that’s the issue: concepts, characters, even the tone are given lip service, leaving concepts to do the legwork, coasting on camp and concept.
It’s a shame because the idea is there. An energetic satire with plenty to say about empowerment, self-determination, friendship, girl power, and the way people control one another. But the way these ideas are presented is a scatter-shot, half-thought jumble, often shooting itself in the foot. The movie’s actions undo any sort of starting witchy girl power. It seems to hate female friendships, with little positive for any sort of connection. Maybe there’s something about being yourself, don’t let a powerful person shit on you. But it’s lost. It shifts. Who is doing what and why? What seems like a thread is nothing. Oh, this is the story. Nope. Story spins of control, but how? As we start with the power at they hold at the mall, but soon abandoned. Yes, the quartet in the Craft imploded, but there was a direct line, a clear delineation of the plot of power dynamics. For Forbidden Fruits, it just happens. Because. A reason is ultimately given, but not thought out, vaguely hinted at, but underdeveloped. And, as noted, it undermines the whole of the film. We’re told aspects, not seeing them or left at a mere mention to coast the film. For example, the opening sequence has the Fruits on a trip around the footcourt for their meals at lunch; set up as a huge power group with unseen characters whispering about them like they are the Plastics. I loved this opening, setting a tone and characters. It’s all set up, as never has this dynamic and this esteem from the mall been seen again.
Now I’m not getting negative into some other details. It’s a satire, and it works like that. A heightened reality. It doesn’t matter; this store could never float with 4 employees who always seem to be there and their unseen boss. Or that they have presently little life outside of this store. Hell, I like the claustrophobia of the small world of 90% of the movie in the store. It’s a great touch. Or the blurred timeline. The otherworldliness and the rules of the different reality work, and could bring it home if focused within those parameters. Even with all my grumbling, it’s also a very funny film; the dialogue has a quick, snappy wit. Diablo Cody produced the film, and while I don’t know if she had anything to do with the writing process, there is a feeling of her type of writing in Forbidden Fruits.
However, none of this is the actor’s fault. All four of the women are fantastic. I love Alexandra Shipp in everything I’ve seen her in (even the bad X-Men movies, she’s a good Storm). I highly recommend Tragedy Girls, a better take on similar notes. Lili Reinhart as Apple, best known as Betty on Riverdale, is commanding as the queen bee of this world. She’s delicious, biting into Apple’s deviousness. She’s giving off amazing vibes. Pumpkin is Lola Tung of The Summer of Turned Pretty in a solid lead (when the movie decides she is) role. The standout is The Haunting of Hill House’s Victoria Pedretti. She slays with every line and movement. I adored everything she did, running away with the film with each odd intonation and crazy moment. They all do wonderfully, making it work with shifting character notes, needs, desires, and more. Their committed performances are examples of heightened material that isn’t quite there.
Forbidden Fruits, directed by Meredith Alloway and produced by Diablo Cody, may work more for you. I really hope it does, as I do with anything that doesn’t work for me. Maybe it was coming in as a third film in a triple feature, maybe I’m reading it wrong. Either way, Forbidden Fruits has a good movie within it, but the uneven, underdeveloped text doesn’t allow it to reach what could really work well.