REVIEW: ‘I’m Your Woman’ is Tension-Filled and Slow Burning

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I’m Your Woman is a crime drama produced by Amazon Studios and stars Rachel Brosnahan. Jean is a stay at home wife. Her husband Eddie is a thief. They always wanted to have a kid, but it’s just never worked out for them. Till one night, Eddie comes home with a baby that he says is theirs. Jean’s got everything she’s ever wanted now. Till one night, shortly thereafter, her whole world comes crashing down around her.

I’m Your Woman delivers a different take on a classic cinematic story. We’ve all seen the crime movie where the criminal gets in over their head, and they soon end up on the run. Maybe they have a girlfriend or even a full family in tow. But the narrative is generally solidly focused on the criminal. Here the criminal responsible is almost completely absent, leaving his wife, and their newly adopted baby, to fend for themselves. And when I say fend for themselves, I really mean for themselves.

While Jean (Brosnahan) gets some early help escaping from the fallout of her husband’s world, there is a solid portion of this movie where she is virtually alone with her baby Harry. And even when she is with people, most of the time, there is such an air of uncertainty around who can be trusted, and who is lying that she still often feels completely alone.

This loneliness is captured with tremendous skill by Brosnahan. As she slowly breaks from the pressures and fears that are invading her life, she sells what her character is experiencing, while never going over the top with it. Her character’s pain is more subdued. While there is a scene or two where she simply breaks, even these moments never descend into the melodramatic. They just feel real. This creates a great feeling of sympathy for her character. Even though she knew her husband was a criminal, she still always feels like nothing less than a victim. And while the moments where Jean feels like she is teetering on the edge of a breakdown are powerful, building her loneliness to the point where they feel valid does force the movie to have a fairly slow stretch in the middle of its run.

I’m Your Woman picks back up in the back half of the movie, however, as those who are pursuing her, and those trying to keep her from harm finally collide. When one of her husband’s former partners in crime who has been helping Jean stay hidden goes missing, Jean and the man’s wife head out to try and find him. This leads to some extremely tense moments where the violence of the criminal world threatens to swallow Jean whole.

Just as the middle portion of I’m Your Woman filled itself with a quiet tension, the back end of the movie is just as tense, just a much louder tension now. With shoot outs and one of the most realistic looking car chases I’ve seen, the dangers the movie present its protagonist are more grounded than what many movies strive to deliver. But while the dangers may not be as over the top, in way, this only increases the threat. The suspension of disbelief is not nearly as strained as in other movies in this genre, and the threats feel fundamentally more real.

When all is said and done, I’m Your Woman delivers a tension-filled story that, while slow in a few spots, uses that slowness to deliver something worth seeing.

I’m Your Woman is available now, exclusively through Amazon Prime.