Vår antagelse om at Catherine Hardwicke ^[1] – for første gang siden den slagkraftige debuten Thirteen ^[2] – ville servere noe mer kulinarisk enn sukkersøt vampyr- eller varulvromantikk med rocke-thrilleren Plush ^[3] ser ut til å ha slått feil.

Filmen har jevnt over sanket dårlig mottagelse fra pressen, og beskrives blant annet som et «modern riff on Fatal Attraction that shoots for edgy, and lands on silly» av filmnettstedet The Dissolve ^[4]. Flere kritikere beskriver filmen som en flat, overfortalt, rotete og uoriginal thriller, hvor Hardwicke desperat forsøker seg på noe kinky, men ender opp med en nærmest pinlig granskning av rocketilværelsens mørke sider med narkotika og sadomasochistisk sex.

All of this should have been more darkly funny, more knowingly campy, something. As it is, «Plush» awkwardly tries to shock and frighten us while also trying to tease and amuse us. – Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com ^[5]

Catherine Hardwicke — the same filmmaker who, exactly a decade ago, made such a promising debut with Thirteen — clearly thinks she’s bringing her signature youthful punk-energy to this lightweight thriller. But her attempts fall flat, dragged down by a vapid screenplay (Hardwicke co-scripted with Arty Nelson) and characters who wear their leather and eyeliner with flair, but seem as genuinely rock star-ish as a co-worker who shows up on Halloween in an Ace Frehley costume. – Jen Chaney, The Dissolve ^[4]

Forhåpentligvis har Drew Taylor ^[6] fra The Playlist ^[7], som ikke virker å ha annet enn lovord å si om filmen, fanget opp noe de øvrige kritikerne har oversett.

Ultimately «Plush» exceeds its very limited expectations of a youth-oriented erotic thriller. It’s arch, smart, and incredibly melodramatic. This is one of those movies that will get discovered in five years on home video and will be totally reevaluated. More than «Twilight» and «Thirteen» even, Hardwicke seems to be tapping into something genuine about young love and, more importantly, sex.

It’s the kind of messy stuff that seems to be shunned into the margins of most of these movies, hidden under artful lighting and modesty blankets. Here, the director lets it all out in the open, captured by her jittery, loose-limbed camerawork. Hardwicke even manages to goose you with some nifty suspense set pieces that you might not expect. Is «Plush» high art? No. But does it commit fully and follow through with the courage of its convictions? You bet it does.

Etter den første, saftige smakebiten ^[8] fra Plush krysset vi fingrene og håpet på en interessant og intens thriller fra Hardwicke, men med bare 29% positiv oppslutning fra kritikere og 38% fra publikum på Rotten Tomatoes ^[9] må vi nok justere ned forventningene et par hakk.